Rising From the Ashes...

WOW! That's about all I can say about this past week. It started out crappy... got extremely worse, then rocketed up to totally incredible... all in 6 days!!! Let me see if I can recount it all...

The week began with me feeling down and out with a nasty cold that wouldn't let go. I could barely breathe, was coughing all the time, and my head was fit to burst. With the help of cold meds, I was able to get to work each and every day, but was usually a bit late and couldn't stay late to "pad the paycheck" so to speak. As I mentioned in a previous post, this was my last week at this particular job, so was working as hard as I could to help ensure that if the work picks up, they'll call me back! I was exhausted all the time and wasn't sure if I was going to make it to the end of the week. Then it happened...

Wednesday night, at about midnight, my time, I was just starting to think about wrapping it up for the night. I was chatting with a few people online, and had PLANNED on being in bed long before then. I was trying to figure out why I was still online when I had wanted to go to bed early when a very close friend came online. She was almost incoherent in her typing, and I knew instantly that something was wrong. It took a bit of effort, but I finally found out that she was on the edge of committing suicide over her relationship with her fiance. I spent the entire rest of the night at first chatting online, then as things started to get really scary, talking to her on the phone. At about 5:00 am she finally put the pills back in the bottle and began to come back from the edge. At 6:30, (3:30 her time) she finally told me she wouldn't go ahead with it, and told ME to try to get some sleep... I still had to go to work. That was the most terrifying night of my life! To realize that someone's life (someone you have come to care about) is resting in your hands, that if you said the wrong thing, or didn't respond in time, they could be gone forever is a very scary thing! The good news is, she's going to be ok. She's strong, and resilient and she has some very good friends who have supported her.

That was Wednesday night and Thursday... the low point of the week... then......... came Friday...

Friday started off early... with 3 of my business teammates arriving around 7:30 am to load up the mini-van and start on our road trip. We met up with 7 other vehicles at the first rendezvous point and at about 10:00 am... off we went! It took a bit of doing, but we finally got everyone in line, using hand-held two-way radios and some pretty funny hand signals for those two vehicles that didn't have radios and we drove down the highway towards the Canada-U.S. border at Niagara Falls. Crossing the border was fun, but not too eventful. Our van was the 3rd vehicle in line and the customs agent was wondering what was going on when he found out where we were going... "Are you with those other guys who just went through?" he asked. "Yes" we answered "and the next 4 vehicles as well!!!" He just shook his head and laughed and proceeded to ask us all the questions he had to anyway. Once we all got through the border, we drove for 6 more hours, stopping for "potty breaks" twice and quizzed each other on movie trivia over the radios. It was a pretty good trip... until we got to Columbus and found ourselves in a traffic jam that beat even the worst that Toronto can dish out, and Toronto's traffic is just awful!! We arrived at the hotel to find we were just minutes from being late for the first seminars! We ran straight to the convention centre and found our seats just as the opening ceremonies started! We felt a little out of place as we were some of only a few who weren't in business attire! Luckily I had anticipated such an occurrance and had dressed in a black polo shirt and tan casual pants for traveling. At least I wasn't wearing ripped jeans and a grubby t-shirt like some of my teammates!

I won't go into detail about the weekends events, except to say that the seminars I attended were fantastic and I learned a HUGE amount, and that, as I had anticipated, I didn't get a whole lot of sleep! Oh well.. at least I can sleep in for the first few days this week! One other thing to mention... we survived the trip home, but, not without some scary moments! Needless to say, our driver WON'T be asked to drive EVER AGAIN!!! On a road trip like that, you DON'T need aggressive drivers like him! I have a bruise on my knee and a sore foot because I kept bracing for impact against the dashboard and trying to stamp my foot through the floorboards in a vain attempt to slow us down! Yikes! It's only a miracle that we didn't collide with any of the vehicles in front of us!

So, here I sit, back home in Ontario, exhausted, emotionally drained, refilled and drained again! I have never experienced such an emotionally trying time as this past week, but... I don't think I would trade it for anything! I have saved the life of a friend, had my own life turned upside down and examined, and lost more sleep than I thought possible! Yet I feel more at peace than I have in a while and am excited to see what this week will bring! BRING IT ON!!!!