I’ve decided to start a new content series on my usually very serious, sad sack blog page that attempts to look at the things MS has brought into my life that I kind of appreciate.

There aren’t many, I’m not gonna lie. There are a few. A little. A very little. But still. It counts! I’m trying to be positive up in here.

Item the first…

I used to go to happy hour on Friday’s after work pretty much religiously. My friends and I looked forward to HH all week. We started calling happy hour Hilton Head when one of my best friend’s kid saw a text from me on her phone and she asked him to read it to her. He said, “The Widow wants to know when you’re arriving at Hilton Head.” Kids! They say the darnedest things.

Hilton Head morphed into Happy Time morphed into sad sack stay at home stone cold sober time – and, well, that’s not as fun as meeting at Hilton Head every Friday at 4pm with your besties.

So now there is no happy time even when I do make it to the office on a Friday (like I did today) because I’m bad enough on my feet without introducing intoxicants into the mix. I also have no use for random bartenders with goatees showing up at my house after last call or the wicked hang overs that made me feel like I had MS before I actually did but we won’t get into all that dirty laundry, will we?

I just came home on a Friday night and it was just like any other work day. How sad, right? Well it might have been but then I decided to make it Happy Manicure Time.

It was serene. It was delightful. I am getting really fucking good at doing my own nails and I ain’t afraid to say it. That’s a damn nice gel manicure.

And, yes. That is yet another salt shaker shaped like a cat (if you don’t follow me on Instagram, I often take pics of my DIY manis holding salt shakers. Shaped like things. Ok. Shaped like cats). So shoot me.

After I was done doing the world’s most profesh DIY gel mani, I was terribly thirsty. And it made me remember another thing that MS has done for me that doesn’t entirely suck.

Thing the second…

I drink a shit ton of water every day. Like 6-7 liter bottles of water every day. The water in my ‘hood isn’t tasty. So I’ve always had a water cooler in my house. I refill my liter bottle all day long (if I’m home) which means I go through a ton of 5 gallon water cooler bottles.

This used to be a pain for a couple of reasons. First, I have a cat (Fred, he’s the real cat you see pictured above with the fake ceramic cat). Fred used to like pushing down on the water spout until all 5 gallons of water ran out all over my kitchen floor. I know. He’s totally an evil genius but being the super independent McGyver Gal that I am, I concocted a door system for my water cooler. Out of duct tape. It was brilliant if a tad unsightly but truly genius but it looked a little crazy. Like I’m sure they had a water cooler covered in duct tape inside of Grey Gardens somewhere. I see where my life is heading. Make no mistake.

What duct tape couldn’t solve was the issue of how to get the damn giant bottle of water on top of the water cooler once a week or so when I’d inevitably run out. I made due pre-MS. It sucked but I took pride, again, because I could do it myself no matter how big of a pain it was.

Fast forward. I get a chronic degenerative disease. My haven of independent single girl living transforms into the evil place where things need doing that I have a hard time doing now. Like lifting heavy things.

That’s just one example of many, many things that were suddenly so freaking hard. But it haunted me.

Trying to work up the strength to hoist that giant bottle on top of the water cooler sometimes put me right over the edge. I’d lay on my very hard ceramic tile kitchen floor, exhausted, wondering the whole time how the hell I was gonna get up again (and hoping nobody would come to my front door and see me laying on my kitchen floor exhausted by the tiniest of tasks).

I’ve gotten a whole lot better at asking for and accepting help to do every goddamn little thing that needs doing in my house. But I still want to be able to do some things myself, ya know?

Voila.

Not only does this sleek, sexy goddess of a water cooler brilliantly house the giant ass heavy water bottle underneath the cooler at the bottom (I can do it myself!! Woot woot!) but it also has hidden water spouts. Fred can’t even figure it out and he’s an evil genius!

There’s so much winning happening every time I refill my liter bottle it’s hard for me not to get giddy about the whole thing. Seriously. How did I live without this for almost 20 years that I’ve lived (mostly) alone?!?

I have no idea.

So there you have it. What Have You Done For Me Lately: MS edition Episode 1 is in the bag. I have to go now and don my very favorite Jammies and admire my own nails by the light of Netflix glowing from my giant TV. And it will be good.

I can only hope the water runs out later so my weekend can be complete.

Holy shit. I really need to get out more, huh?