Fortunately... Unfortunately...

There's a little game I used to play with my students when we had extra time at the end of class. It's called Fortunately/Unfortunately, and in it, each person takes a turn adding one sentence to a story I start, alternately beginning the sentence with either the word Fortunately or Unfortunately.

It goes something like this:

SO... I missed writing my gratitude blog post on Friday.
FORTUNATELY the internet happens to be open all weekend!!
UNFORTUNATELY no one will probably read it since everyone is probably busy this last weekend before Christmas
FORTUNATELY I can be grateful no matter how many people stop by!
UNFORTUNATELY there will probably be a lot of broken foot stuff mentioned here. Apologies in advance.

See? This isn't so hard.... So here I go...

SO... My mom bought us tickets for a girls' day out in PA, eating at a fantastic restaurant and seeing a play at the Sight and Sound Theater this week!!
UNFORTUNATELY the weather was COLD and WINDY and a teensy bit snowy as we traveled.
FORTUNATELY cars have heaters. And I brought gloves.
UNFORTUNATELY the parking lot was gigantic and we were directed to park about a half mile from the theater. Cold and in a cast, I was not a happy camper.
FORTUNATELY wearing a cast makes me handicapped, even if I don't have a placard, and the parking attendant told us to go ahead and park right in front, three steps from the entrance!! YAY broken foot!
UNFORTUNATELY  our tickets were for the third balcony, up three flights of stairs
FORTUNATELY the ticket taker also considered me handicapped and let us use the back elevator to get up three stories, where we had perfect seats to see the whole theater, including the angels that flew in from the catwalks. YAY broken foot!

So... a friend was diagnosed with cancer this past week. We all cried and prayed a lot.
UNFORTUNATELY her husband is due to deploy to Afghanistan this January.
FORTUNATELY they were able to get her into surgery this week
UNFORTUNATELY she spent the week before Christmas in the hospital being cut open
FORTUNATELY they cut out all the cancer and took samples of 32 lymph nodes and couldn't find anymore. On Friday they deemed her "cancer-free."  YAY!! 

So... fellow blogger Caroline Starr Rose wrote this great book called MAY B.
FORTUNATELY she found an agent!! And then the agent found a publisher! May B. was going to be published in 2011!!
UNFORTUNATELY the publisher recently went under and May B was without a home.
FORTUNATELY Caroline just found out her book has been bought by another publisher and she had a new home!! YAY!! You should go congratulate her here if you haven't already.

So.... it was predicted to snow here this week. I LOVE snow!!
UNFORTUNATELY  my daughter was sick and stayed home that day :(
FORTUNATELY we got to spend the day tucked inside by the fire watching the snow come down and watching Christmas shows on TV. Bonus!
UNFORTUNATELY the other kids went to school and got out early, which meant I needed to go get them from the bus stop.
FORTUNATELY I can drive in my walking cast, because the busstop is about a half mile from home... uphill.
UNFORTUNATELY My driveway is long and hilly, and terrible in the snow. And my van is not a 4-wheel drive. We got stuck.
FORTUNATELY I had been smart and brought my snow shovel
UNFORTUNATELY I couldn't stand on the hill in my cast and shovel... besides the shooting pain up my leg, I kept falling down because I couldn't balance myself and the snow was slick as snot.
FORTUNATELY by this time I had my son in the car.
UNFORTUNATELY he turned out not to be much help.
FORTUNATELY I had recently filled the gas tank, so when I'd cleared enough to gain the tiniest bit of traction, I gunned the car for about two minutes and burned up half that tank of gas and finally made it up the hill.
UNFORTUNATELY getting in the garage was no easier feat.
FORTUNATELY I didn't hit the Harley when the car eventually fishtailed in. Phew!! Marital discord and sure divorce avoided!

In the end... there were many more fortunately's than unfortunately's and for that, I'm so thankful!!