Posts from the “Hard days” Category

Oh, the things I should do!

Posted on June 17th, 2013

My surgery is in a couple of days, at zero dark thirty (or at least my report time is); it’s followed by several days of relatively major physical restrictions and several weeks of minor but annoying restrictions. Being the slightly compulsive person I am, I was going to 1) wean myself off caffeine and 2) cook and bake many things in advance. 1) is a joke. I can’t give up Pepsi MAX or DDP. I can limit, but give it up? No. I’m going to ask if I can get caffeine in my IV, because apparently that is a thing. As for 2) we promptly ate most of what I prepared over the weekend. Today I was going to do more. Cook. Clean. Wash…

Categories: Eating, Hard days

Girl Child in Review

Posted on May 30th, 2013

Look, I didn’t expect an easy ride parenting. No one meets me and thinks, “What a nice, laid-back woman she is.” I’m a misanthropic bundle of nervous energy kept in check by organization and systems and a few OCD tricks. Oh, and the pharmaceutical industry. M? Has a personality as outsized as mine. So believe you me, I didn’t think my child would be an easy one. And to anyone who has read my archives, you know that’s been true. Here we are, though, coming up on 6. The tantrums are rare and usually consist of her being told no after she is tired and she retires to her bed wailing, “Nobody loves me!” I assure her that I love her, even at that…

Categories: General Parenting, Hard days

Ill

Posted on May 5th, 2013

I dropped my migraine pill on the carpeted hallway floor at the children’s hospital on Friday. My copay on that one pill is $11, so I picked it up and took it anyway. That’s not how I ended up sick. That came from M and Pea, who were gracious enough to share their stomach bug…but not before I smugly thought to myself how nice it was I didn’t get it. Of course. In any case, we missed a planned Cinco de Mayo gathering (although not without my Sunday morning “we won’t be making it because blerg” email not making it). Right as I learned my message didn’t make it to my hosts and I picked up the phone to call, I looked at my…

Categories: Hard days, Sick Mom

Monday fuckery, the FCC, and ID crisis

Posted on April 29th, 2013

So the HIDA scan this morning wasn’t so bad; I slept through most of it. Pro tip: make your appointment at nuclear medicine for 6:45 AM. The second part wasn’t pleasant (when they give you the drug that makes your gallbladder do its bile-dispensing thing), but despite the uncomfortable feeling, I dozed through it, too, and I managed to eat afterward. The mast drama continues. To make a long story short, M read the FCC regs and realized that the HOA board (and our landlords) were full of shit as to requiring him to take it down. He went to talk to them a few weeks ago, and one of them said, “Really, this is just about saving money?” and offered to call the…

Categories: Hard days, TMI, WTF

And I don’t know if I can do it

Posted on February 12th, 2013

The next time Pea’s teacher decides to talk to me about how I need to have the archdemon child in her class over for a playdate, I am not going to be as polite as I was today. (I was very polite. I explained why, I explained the history, and I explained that I would not violate any sort of implicit covenant with my child by bringing home her nemesis and forcing that social interaction on her.) That was twenty minutes of my life gone, twenty minutes when I was sick and tired and cold at the park, sitting on a bench because I was too exhausted to stand, because I’d promised Pea that even though I was sick, if no other parents volunteered,…

Categories: Hard days, School

School, scones, skates, and general updates

Posted on January 4th, 2013

Pea tells me how she hates school. I don’t know how to answer this. Truthfully? “So did your father and I.” “I know, but you have to go, anyway.” “This is part of growing up.” “If I had to go to your class, I’d hate school, too.” I haven’t said the last one. Yet. This morning, I said, “I know, but if you hurry you can have a pumpkin scone for breakfast.” (I made them last night. They’re only okay, but then, I couldn’t find any cranberries in the house and I can’t add walnuts on pain of death, so perhaps just the addition of golden raisins do not make a good enough pumpkin scone.) She seems to like them, anyway. I am happy…

Categories: Hard days, School, TMI, Writing

Oversick. Overwritten. Overwatched. Overjoyed.

Posted on December 18th, 2012

I feel like I’ve been sick for two months…pretty much because I have been sick for two (almost three) months, off and on. I remember this from when Pea started daycare, except that was four months, included my once-only case of laryngitis and my first case of strep, and ended with me on prednisone for a week. I was on top of things over the weekend, including baking and pre-cooking dinners, and then today, M was home sick. Pea and I went out and then a couple of hours after we got home, WHAM. Aching. Chills. Tired. Nose running. I am hoping this is short lived, because uncle. In other news? The novel I was done with has now been rewritten and edited and…

Categories: Good day, Hard days, Sick Mom, Writing

Enough

Posted on December 16th, 2012

For all that this is not my tragedy or my story, like everyone else, I’m trying to process what happened. Horror. Panic. A desire to emigrate somewhere, anywhere, as long as there’s universal health care, good education, and strong gun-control laws. I have announced to M several times that we will be leaving the country. (M, who is a federal employee with very specialized knowledge of US laws and regulations, just nods.) Friday I picked Pea up a bit early, because I just couldn’t wait any longer. It was selfish, sure, and I could…so I did. That afternoon, we saw a stage version of the Velveteen Rabbit. It was her first play, and we were in the third row. The volume of the actors…

Categories: Epiphanies, Hard days

Intermission

Posted on December 13th, 2012

Oh, December. I can’t seem to write a post that doesn’t try to devolve into a painful Christmas memory. (In my family…they were always painful and usually vicious. No, that’s not hyperbole. I keep trying to write a few of the stories up, but I can’t make them funny.) When I am at home and reasonably organized, after I vacuum and do laundry and oh, so many dishes and all the things that fell by the wayside during the successive illnesses in the AAL family (where does all the dust come from when the windows are closed, I ask you?), I will take more pictures of hats. Maybe even watch my favorite Christmas movie. My resolution for the new year is to go twelve…

Categories: Epiphanies, Hard days

Alas and Alack

Posted on December 6th, 2012

Here’s something you don’t want to hear when you’re driving your kid through a sketchy neighborhood on the way to school (also in a sketchy area): “Hey, Mama, that guy had a gun.” (Even accepting that Pea’s vision is much better than mine and she isn’t focused on driving, I’m pretty sure there were no cops around.) “Are you sure? Maybe it was a toy.” “No, it was a big gun. I’ve seen it in books and on shows.” Fantastic. I’ll add “men with automatic weapons” to the list of people to avoid when driving (along with bicyclists and suicidal pedestrians). And maybe this explains the new presence of uniformed police at the coffee shop where I wait out the morning kindergarten session. In…

Categories: Hard days, Not crazy...yet, Portlandia