Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life, that you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting, while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries podcast.

Today I'm going to give you a few quick updates on things, because it's been a well a hectic week, and I'm going to talk about how you deal with things when life is overwhelming. It's kind of overwhelming right now, but it's just one of those things that ebbs and flows right Now. I might have told you, or I might not have, that our washer broke. First world problems, right, our washing machine broke and it's a long process, but when I was doing my event it broke and I kind of left it just to the side of something to take care of. Later Took our laundry to the laundromat, which is something I don't like doing. I equate doing laundry to being in hell, basically, but it's something that I end up doing anyway, and so going to a laundromat is just not as much fun as it might be. The two times I went it was hot and the laundromat with all those machines was also hot, but it's something that you have to do. I got it done. Finally, I had some time to wait for a repairman, so I called out the repairman and, surprise, our old machine, our old Maytag which is a good brand, solid brand is too old to fix. The motor is conked out and they can't find a new one or a used one to replace it. So it's time to let that one go Now.

You would think that the size of a washer is the size of a washer, but once we started looking online at other washers to buy, we realized that our washer and our dryer are the size that they are, and new washers are a different size, and the space that the washer and dryer are both in is very limited and very tight. I seem to remember that at some point we did get a new dryer, perhaps, or maybe a new washer when I was young and we had to redo the cabinet that's in the laundry room to make it smaller. There's probably just a half inch of space that remains, and the new washers are a full inch and three quarters wider than ours is, so we don't have an inch and three quarters. It's a good thing that we found this out. We discovered this, because if we had ordered it and then it came and it wouldn't fit, then we'd really be in a big debacle, right? So that's one thing. So that puts us back. I'll still be going to the laundromat.

On top of that, there's everything that is happening and continues to happen here in Los Angeles and throughout the country, and those are the ICE raids and, while it doesn't impact me directly, my husband directly. We're just concerned. We don't like seeing the raids on TV and in our community on social media. It's upsetting to us and I personally don't agree with the way that they're doing it. Again, I recognize that criminals are criminals, but it doesn't seem that they're doing this in the most humane way possible and that is very hurtful to my empathic self.

Now, on top of that, well, some of you have heard me talk about my friend who passed away from glioblastoma in 2018. Her mom and her sister are like family to me. I knew Gina for 32 years. She was like my sister that I never had. So last week, her mom, well, she wasn't feeling well and she went to the ER and I decided to go over because the hospital that she went is very close to where we live it's in the next town over and I decided to go over there and be with her and she was, you know, as clear headed as she could be for 88 and a half, but she was talking and she knew who I was and she was communicating, but she was jaundiced to an extent Her eyes were yellow, the whites of her eyes were yellow and she was having some other troubles. Turned out, her liver numbers were very high on the labs and she was having trouble with peeing. When she finally did, her urine was very dark, which would make sense if she was dehydrated or whatnot. But it wasn't just that, it was her liver numbers. So I haven't seen her since in three days but her liver numbers have gotten worse and things have gone downhill and they're not sure if she's going to pull out of it. So that's upsetting to me and to everybody that knows her and everybody that loved Gina.

She was kind of adopted, I guess, by a lot of different people who loved Gina, and when you have sort of an adversarial relationship with your own mother, gina and her sisters maybe didn't get along that closely with their own mother, and I get that. But losing a parent, no matter what the situation is, is always a difficult thing. It's a life-changing event, it's a tough thing and so it brings up for me, it's a trigger, it brings up thoughts about all that and I'll just leave it there. I was also reminded this week about Dallas, my boy Dallas, and losing him and just loss in general, which is a tough thing to face and deal with and overcome. So I'm a little bit sad I've mainlined chocolate a little bit more than I should have this week, which maybe didn't make me feel so good one day. But just a reminder that when things do get overwhelming, it's still important to get your sleep and it's still important to eat well and hydrate. Just because things are falling apart around you doesn't mean that you should stop taking care of yourself and your needs and the things that you have to take care of in your own house. So there's that Now, a piece of good news. I'll end on.

A good point is that I had my first guest appearance interview on another podcast this last week. I'm very excited about that and that episode is going to be coming out, I believe, in August. So I'll give you more details as it gets closer. But I'm really excited about that because somebody wanted to actually hear about me and ask me questions about my things around leadership and emotional intelligence and it was quite the pleasure. And it turns out that the host is also yes, yes, it's true an only child, so I'd like to have her on as a guest on my podcast, on this podcast. So we'll talk about that more, but in the meantime I want to remind everybody to take care of yourselves. Next week we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me.

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