188.4 What Was I Thinking?

As many of you know, I have had to work to overcome a lot of back issues for the past seven years, and have done pretty well, as a result of surgeries and being able to exercise. And, being able to lose a lot of weight has really made a difference. My back's been so good lately that sometimes I forget that I still need to take care of it.

Yesterday, I was in a hurry to leave to go shopping with Karen, my friend who is visiting from Virginia, and picked up my super relaxed dog to take her outside to pee. Big mistake. I didn't hurt immediately, but by the time I had driven a half hour to get to a special needlework shop, I could hardly get out of the car.

So today I sent everyone off to shop, to go to a museum and enjoy lunch out while I iced my back, walked and "hung" in our pool. I felt really guilty not participating and almost decided I had to go, that I should in order to be a good hostess. I'm so glad I was honest and just said that I couldn't join them. My back feels better, thank goodness, because tomorrow night there will be seven of us here for dinner. Things happen to get in the way of living exactly as we want, but taking care and trying to understand that you can't always do everything you want to do is pretty important. Having gracious house guests who didn't insist on staying home with me was very helpful, too. And, you know, they had a great time without me.