Archive | August, 2009

Through the fire

by Mir on August 31, 2009 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience", Ottomatic For the People

Last week chewed me up and spit me out and then sneered at me and told me my mother dresses me funny. Then it stole my lunch money and stomped on my fingers.

The sad part is that I really didn’t get the worst of the week; I’d say the men of our household had a significantly worse week than I did, even. In fact, some might say the only person who had a great week was Chickadee, except for the tiny detail of some of her choices having resulted in a few extra chores this past weekend. And although it cheered ME up immensely to watch her mop the kitchen floor, I’m guessing that wasn’t her favorite thing. (I’m still trying to decide if it was mine. I mean, of all the joys of parenthood, slave labor is one of the finest.)

We four sat around the dinner table last night, making a grand mess with taco fixings, talking about how much better this week will be, and how we’re all going to pull together as a family and support each other and be kind and respectful and diligent and BETTER. I think we were all trying to convince ourselves. I find guacamole is an excellent confidence booster in these situations. (more…)

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Spring cleaning in the fall

by Mir on August 29, 2009 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience", Offspring: ecstasy and agony

Today was a giant work day for all of us; the kids and I dug out their rooms and their closets, while Otto did manly things like replace a faucet and put holes in the walls where we’ve had things just propped against the wall “to be hung” for months on end. Monkey made up a little “Spring cleaning in the FAAAAAALLLLLL!” song that he kept singing at me to make me laugh, and Chickadee did a lot of complaining about how it wasn’t her fault her room was a mess and she didn’t realize that I meant the WHOLE closet and such, and the end result was lots of stuff got done and rooms ended up clean and it was a small comfort to me to have a few things set in order after a few days of what felt like utter chaos.

“I don’t know about you, buddy,” I said to Monkey as he set the last of his bins back on the shelves with a satisfied look on his face, “but sometimes once I get everything all organized, I actually feel better. Like life is more manageable.”

He nodded in agreement. “Me too!” he said. “I like knowing where to find everything.” (more…)

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Love needs a little smile

by Mir on August 27, 2009 in Offspring: ecstasy and agony

Lord, this has been a long week. I was sick, Otto’s been sick, yesterday Monkey was sick, and thanks to all of that, we’re all behind on work and meals have been cobbled together a la “Well, I found… a green pepper that doesn’t look too old. And a slice of cheese. And I think we have some rice. What could I make with that?” I like order and routine and this week has had precious little of that.

To top it off, Chickadee (having gotten sick last week, instead) has been trucking along as the sole healthy member of the family, but with her skin having taken another turn for the worse. She so dreads the steroids and other interventions that at this point she just dons long sleeves and long pants and hopes I just don’t notice. I do notice, of course, and yesterday I was finally well enough to play Spend The Entire Day On The Phone Trying To Make Headway. It’s my least favorite game, but it was time.

So the good news is that despite her issues with the spacing of kids in our family, the nice dermatologist called me right back and said the magic words I’ve been wanting to hear: “I think it’s time for the big guns. I’d like to send you to a specialist at Emory.” (more…)

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Problem solver

by Mir on August 25, 2009 in Offspring: ecstasy and agony

At about 11 this morning, my phone rang. Conveniently, I had just fallen asleep again, so I was super-excited to be woken up as you might imagine.

Me: Hello?
Chickadee: Hiya.
Me: What’s the matter? Are you okay?
Her: I’m fine. Well, I got something in my eye, and my contact fell out.
Me: It FELL OUT? Okay…?
Her: Yeah. So. Um. I’m wearing one contact.
Me: Take it out and wear your glasses, instead.
Her: Oh. Um. I don’t have my glasses.
Me: You don’t?
Her: Nope.
Me: So you need to put your contact back in.
Her: Right.
Me: And let me guess. You don’t have your glasses, and I bet you don’t have any saline, either?
Her: Nope. (more…)

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A story for another day

by Mir on August 24, 2009 in Health is overrated

I had this grand plan to tell you all about where we are in our dog search, but last night my cold morphed into something I was sure was the flu, but after going to the doctor this morning and being swabbed I have been assured that I do not have the flu.

I was sort of disappointed, frankly. When you lay down on the floor and cry because you haven’t slept all night and your head feels like it’s going to explode and you have a fever and you can say, “I HAVE THE FLU!”, well, people are understanding.

If you do all of those things but you have to say, “It’s just a VIRUS!”, you kind of feel like an ass. Or at least I do, what with my husband probably in the process of dying and whatnot, at the same time. I mean, he has MRSA. I just have a lot of snot. And, apparently, a very low tolerance for feeling like crap.

Comments { 35 }

Extra special bonus

by Mir on August 23, 2009 in Health is overrated, Ottomatic For the People

So you know how I mentioned Otto having a bad case of poison ivy?

Several of you suggested various remedies (thank you!), and Otto dutifully went and bought the Mystical Scrub and prepared for relief. Except that it kept getting worse. And worse. So I made him go to Urgent Care today, and GUESS WHAT!

In addition to confirming that his poison ivy has gone systemic, the doctor also suspects he has a patch of MRSA. Awesome.

And how is YOUR weekend going?

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Two different legacies

by Mir on August 21, 2009 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience"

Two weeks ago today, Otto and I brought home the big black dog with the pretty eyes who proceeded to slip out of our yard hours later. He hung around our neighborhood, evading capture, for about a week.

It has now been another week since I’ve seen him, and about five days since anyone else told me they saw him, either. The live trap we borrowed from Animal Control is languishing outside, full of every possible goody a normal dog could want—dry food, wet food, rib bones, pork cutlets, and chicken breast. (Technically we rotated through most of those. It’s not like there’s just a giant cage of MEAT out there, or anything.)

The rescue where we got him has ignored my messages and I have contacted every animal expert in the area, most of whom agree that he’s probably not going to be caught at this point. And so tomorrow we will take the trap back to Animal Control and admit defeat.

But you see, Super is gone but not forgotten. He’s still very much with us. (more…)

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Love isn’t about what you want

by Mir on August 20, 2009 in Offspring: ecstasy and agony

Last week the kids and I read a charming little book for our Scholastic review, and the upshot of the story is that—much like the old song—you don’t always get what you want, but you do get what you need.

Both children found my distillation of the book down to this message somewhat annoying. For Chickadee, it was a case of, “Mooooom, why does it always have to be some kind of LESSON?” And for Monkey, well, he actually had an interesting bit of circular logic wherein he had convinced himself that in the end, something different had happened than what had actually happened. (Sorry, it’s kind of hard to explain if you haven’t read the book.) We talked about it for a while and I realized that he was just completely loathe to believe that what the protagonist DIDN’T WANT turned out to be what he NEEDED.

Okay; he’s nine, and he also tends to be a very rigid thinker, so this wasn’t surprising, I suppose. What surprised me is how much this has been on my mind for the last week. (more…)

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Braggity

by Mir on August 19, 2009 in Job? Huh?, Woohoo!

Excuse me for a moment, but I feel the need to share this because I’m just so darn excited about it.

With all of the moaning and groaning in the blogosphere about ethics and integrity and “blogola,” I feel like it’s an old refrain that everyone is in charge of their own choices and knowing what allows them to sleep at night, etc. I get offered a lot of stuff I don’t take. Last time I checked, there was no law stating you were obligated to accept everything offered to you.

On the other hand, sometimes amazing opportunities come along. And I just finished up doing some (paid, yes—and fully disclosed as such) work that resulted in me winning a big donation for my local library. I’m pretty jazzed about it. No; I’m ECSTATIC about it. Don’t tell me the blogworld is selfish and corrupt. There’s power here that gets harnessed for awesome things.

Know your boundaries. Be clear on what matters to you. Conduct yourself professionally. And then do a little dance when the Good Stuff happens.

It works for me.

Comments { 35 }

Meeeeeemories

by Mir on August 18, 2009 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience"

I grew up in a pretty small town, and the good thing about small towns is that you pretty much know everyone.

Of course, the bad thing about small towns is that… you pretty much know everyone.

I was not what you might refer to as a well-adjusted child. I mean, it wasn’t anything that ten or twenty years and thousands of dollars of therapy couldn’t fix, but still. Most of my childhood memories are not happy ones. Most of my school day memories are filled with cringe-worthy recollections of not being pretty enough, cool enough, confident enough, ENOUGH enough. I ended up graduating early and heading off to college because I figured a fresh start with people who’d never known me in my no-name jeans and rainbow suspenders was the way to go.

It presents an interesting conundrum when it comes to high school reunions, though, because the class I graduated with is not the class I went all through school with. (more…)

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