It's not looking good.

We are back in New York and I have been neglecting pretty much every responsibility I have. I thought that maybe if I ignored things then they would just go away. It didn't work out for me. So here is the breakdown of my life. I mean it; my life is breaking down.

1. Last Saturday, when we arrived in Ithaca, we finished unloading the moving truck and then drove to our friends' apartment where we left a lot of miscellaneous things for the summer. They let us borrow their children's wagon to help carry the boxes. We came back to our apartment, unloaded the boxes, swept out the truck, put their wagon in the back, and drove to drop off the wagon and turn in the truck. We got caught up with filling up the truck with gas and hurrying to drop it off before the deadline that we forgot to return the wagon to our friends. We went back when the moving truck company opened on Sunday morning and the wagon was gone. I have been in a daze about it for a week because I can't believe someone would steal a child's wagon.

2. Sam has been coughing for a few weeks. Before we left Ithaca, they told him that he had a dormant tuberculosis infection, which he seems to have collected for himself while in Hong Kong. They said he has a 10% chance it will become active in about 30 years but they wanted him to come back in for a chest x-ray. We got busy and moved away. When we got back to Ithaca, he went into the student health center and they started freaking out and made him put on a mask and said something about him not being able to go to school this year. Turns out he just had pneumonia. A few prescriptions later and he is feeling much better. He did finally get that chest x-ray though. We'll see how that turns out.

3. I mentioned that Alex had thrush. He thought it would be fun to share. So kind of him. Now I am nursing through a breast infection and it is painful. I have an appointment on Tuesday although it has been two weeks now and it is almost gone.

4. Sam's car lost power steering. We took it back into the shop that fixed the power steering after he drove into a tree because they warranty their work. Turns out it "wasn't what was fixed before" (go figure) so we took it out of their shop and drove to a place that we trusted more. When we pulled into the other shop, we started talking about whether we should leave his car or mine. That leads us to #5...

5. My car has been making loud noises and I knew the brakes needed replaced on the rear driver's side. We didn't want to ruin Sam's rack and pinion by driving around without power steering so we left his car at the shop. Today we drove mine to an activity on campus. We pulled into a parking lot and suddenly the car jolted like we had hit something. I got out of the car and immediately went to look at that back tire. It won't spin. I couldn't believe it. We broke my car. I feel so foolish for driving on it even though I knew it was breaking. I just hope it doesn't cost too much to fix. It cost $88 to get it towed into the shop. Now my car and Sam's car are friends at the shop and who knows how long we will be without a car. I am glad it happened in a parking lot instead of as we were driving across a gorge or something.

6. Alex is getting into everything. We decided to install the toilet clamp I bought in Columbus in April. Turns out it doesn't work. This isn't a very big deal as much as it is just another thing that makes me think, "Of course not. Why would anything go right?"

7. I chipped a tooth. While eating a gummy worm. It doesn't hurt it is just frustrating. I feel like I take care of my teeth and yet I have at least five cavities every time I go to the dentist (usually more like ten). And now I have a broken tooth. One more expense.

8. We are trying to find a way to manage the $7000 tuition and $7000 health insurance. The only positive side is that Sam got the job he applied for on campus.

As hard as things have been, I am learning to accept service. Usually I look at our lives and wonder how we got so lucky. The last week has been exactly the opposite. I can't come up with a solution to solve our problems. I pray for things to get better or to know what to do, and then the next day something else goes wrong. We are finally having the "poor college student" experience. It's hard when I can't hide in a closet and have my parents fix everything. So this is my self-pity. Now it is time to be an adult and deal with it.