smiling through the rain, laughing at the pain...

(or, how i learned to stop worrying and love the classic rock)

last night, my weekly stitch and bitch. for those of you not in the fiber arts know, it's a night when a bunch of women (or men, we don't play gender favorites here...but my group is mostly mammas) get together and knit, or crochet, drink wine and talk about politics, our husbands, how horrible our kids are, and the what have you.
so, we're all mouthing off about this and that. thanksgiving sucks, cooking sucks, my husband never helps out around the house, my mother in law sucks, my toddler's a psycho, i wish i had a butt like yours, no i wish i had yours, and the like, etc. etc.
until near the end, one of the mammas starts telling a horrible, horrible story about how she's now up on assault and battery charges because her neighbor (who has been harassing her for over a year) claims she slammed a door in her face. it was a long story, with each detail being worse than the previous, ending with the fact that she now has to put up a ton of money to find a lawyer that would defend her in court the day after thanksgiving. the day after thanksgiving, that's right. everyone gasped, and groaned and while commiserating was secretly thankful we weren't in her shoes.
as we all stood up to leave, our hostess apologized for having to cancel as hostess for last weeks s&b...we all knew she had some sort of family thing to take care of, so we didn't really think much about it. then someone asked, almost out the door, "so, i hope everything is ok with your family?"
and then she says....
"well, not really. my mom and neice were in a car accident."
group: oh my god, what happened?
her: they were hit by a drunk driver.
group: gasp. is everyone ok?
her: well sort of, my mom is ok, but my neice is paralyzed.
group: more gasps. do they know if it's permanent?
her: no, there's swelling and they can't tell anything right now. it's really awful, because she's only 24 years old.
group: omg. gasps.
her: and she has two kids, ages 2 and 4.
group: OMG...gasps groan shaking heads hands over mouths.
her: AND her husband is going to iraq in a few weeks.
group: (in their heads, while hearts simultaneously break) WTF?! jesus barb, why didn't you mention this earlier??!!

and out the door we went, back to our little lives, knowing this could happen to any one of us on the way home.

and we all felt better about our passive aggressive mother in laws, and our insane thanksgiving menus, and our toddlers who we really adore, and our husbands who we also really adore, and our mounting bills that need to be paid, and the crappy economy and politics, and being able to sit and happily knit and drink wine with friends.

i think humans, by nature, need to complain and vent frustrations, no matter how small or large, and i honestly don't think we should feel guilty about it...even to the point of whining at times. but when all is said and done, it is good to sit back and realize that just as things can always be better, they can also always be much worse.