I had to do a significant amount of “real life” chores today to prepare Traverse City trip, from getting my dry cleaning in to Parkside Cleaners to calling Norm’s Total Automotive to find out when I may bring my 17-year-old Chrysler Pacifica in for oil change, steering and brake problems (oh joy!), to buying extra chewing gum at Walgreens and setting up an Amazon cart so that I have essential office supplies and hotel room stuff…
And we squeezed in a 45-minute telehealth appointment for Aunt Annie, whose ulcerative colitis is acting up. After a rambling meeting with her nurse practitioner, we decided to tweak her supplements and cross our fingers regarding a couple of medications that she’s already taking as she’s really in an uncomfortable place right now.
I’ve got some prescriptions to pick up for her before we leave, but we’ve already double-checked to make sure that there’s a Walgreens near our hotel as that’s her pharmacy; we’ve talked with a medical monitoring company regarding some rental equipment that allows us to weigh her and take her pulse every day so that her congestive heart failure doesn’t become a problem; and we’ve done the research to make sure that she’s got options to listen to the two NPR stations available in Traverse City for her radio listening (I’ll be bringing her headphones with us).
The reality of getting ready for attending the prospect tournament and training camp in Traverse City is never easy, and it often includes a significant amount of busywork, but this year is different. I’m trying to integrate giving care to my 81-year-old aunt into the equation.
I’m a person with an anxiety disorder, so I’m always worried about how things are going to turn out, but this year in particular, I’m crossing my fingers doubly so regarding balancing my jobs as a blogger and a full-time caregiver.
This is really going to be an adventure for both Aunt Annie and I, and we don’t know how the stress of sharing a hotel room for two full weeks is going to affect us as we try to respect each other’s space and allow each other to do our respective jobs, with Aunt Annie’s health being the ever-changing, ever-unpredictable wild card of the equation.
Mostly, right now, I’m worried about how ancillary expenses are adding up ahead of the before-the-big-trip shopping trip, and whether we’re going to be able to afford fixing the Pacifica. I certainly can’t drive her up as-is, because she’s kind of a rolling deathtrap, but it’s just…Tense, because we don’t know how badly she’s banged-up.
Long story long, I can’t say this enough: I don’t make any real money from this trip. The goal of fundraising here is to break even by the time I come home. It’s a day-to-day existence, and I’m not going to lie in saying that fundraising has been bloody tough thus far.
I’m hoping that when I’m up there, and producing content, there will be more interest, because right now, I’m leaning on a couple of generous benefactors really hard.
Our GoFundMe is getting toward the point where we’ll be able to pay the hotel bill, but we’re not there yet, never mind anywhere near breaking even on the entire trip. We’ll see how it goes, but if you’re able to assist, as I usually say at this time of year, those “smaller donations” of $5, $10, $25, $50, etc. pave the road up.
If you can lend a hand with our overall expenses, we have an old-fashioned GoFundMe here https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-george-annie-attend-prospect-tournament, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”
Thanks as always for your readership and your time.
