Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Archive | November, 2010

Achey breaky eyeballs

by Mir on November 30, 2010 in Health is overrated, Offspring: ecstasy and agony

I spoke too soon about the idyllic vacation week and uneventful return to school. Truthfully, my breath was held waiting to hear that Monkey celebrated his first day back by shattering into a million angry little pieces, but his day was perfectly fine.

No, I answered the phone yesterday afternoon when the caller ID said it was the school system (all the schools come up the same), steeling myself for a Tale Of Monkey Woe, but instead a little voice said, “Hi. I’m miserable.”

“Chickadee? What’s wrong??”

“My throat hurts. And my head hurts. And I am miserable.” In case you missed it, she was miserable. TWICE. Please make a note of it.

Of course, my girl has been known to exaggerate on occasion (I have NO idea where she gets that…), so I did grill her a little bit just to make sure this wasn’t a case of don’t-feel-like-doing-my-work-itis. But she convinced me she was truly sick, so off I went to pick her up. (more…)

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Back to normal, whatever that is

by Mir on November 29, 2010 in Oh look! Something furry!!, What do I do all day?

After nearly a week with everyone at home, it was with many yawns and heavy hearts that most of the family headed back to work and school today.

I was sorry to see them go; this was, for me, one of our best holiday breaks ever. We didn’t do anything. Seriously, it was a festival of sloth and all-day pajamas, most of the time. I was working through it, but that was fine. The kids relaxed. Monkey unwound a little. Chickadee worked on various school projects and slept late and chatted with her friends online. There was pie for breakfast, several times. For a few days I forgot that I was supposed to be stressed out and worried, because here in our little cocoon, everything was fine.

Today they’re all gone, again, and I miss them. The dog, however, watched everyone go and then immediately collapsed in a heap of relief here on my office floor. I’m pretty sure I heard her sigh as she descended into what was probably her first decent nap in a week.

Then the UPS guy showed up, and she leaped up to give him what for (I am not sure what “what for” is, but I suspect it sounds like a LOT of barking), and just like that, everything is back to normal.

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Anne Frank is turning in her grave

by Mir on November 27, 2010 in Haven't been hit by lightning yet!, Offspring: ecstasy and agony, Ottomatic For the People

Monkey is doing a Big Project on the Holocaust for school. He’s been “working on it in class” which means, of course, that this weekend we’ve discovered he’s done… next to nothing. Monkey is many fine and wonderful things, but one of his dubious “talents” is the ability to appear extremely productive when, in fact, he is simply working on spitball origami or dreaming up the five hundred latest characters in the pseudo-Pokemon world of his own creation.

Needless to say, we’ve been a bit busy with other concerns about Monkey, so I’ll be the first to admit we haven’t been as on top of his schoolwork as we probably should. When we got his last report card—the one with perfectly mediocre grades and an apologetic note from his teacher about how she doesn’t feel he’s “working up to potential”—I’d merely sighed and set it aside. Because shortly after I’d written about how hope is dangerous, we’d begun the slow slide, again, into more bad days than good. And as we struggled with that, then we had the possibly-a-seizure, and yeah, it’s hard to care about homework when you’re just grateful for any day that seems halfway normal and calm.

But we’ve had a few good vacation days, so we decided to dive into getting him caught up. (more…)

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Sublimating worry for fun and profit

by Mir on November 26, 2010 in Job? Huh?, Retail Therapy

You are all nice. So nice! Ponies for everyone. Except now we have to go back to pretending everything is fine, because I can only think about the Not Fine stuff in short bursts, lest my brain melt.

Today, for example, I am busy making Black Friday my bitch, and to celebrate that, I am also giving away an iPod Touch over on Want Not. So feel free to come over and enter that. And possibly do some shopping.

P.S. We had a lovely Thanksgiving, with much for which to be thankful. I hope it was the same for you. With extra gravy.

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Love is grateful, day 7

by Mir on November 24, 2010 in Offspring: ecstasy and agony

Today I am grateful for the resilience of my youngest child; my baby, my heart, my sweet, sweet boy with the misfiring brain.

I’m grateful he endured this without too much complaint:

And then—because that wasn’t enough excitement—we followed it up with an MRI. Just for kicks. (more…)

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Love is grateful, day 6

by Mir on November 23, 2010 in Friends

Otto and I have a running joke about how the mugs in this house all get busy in the cupboards when no one’s looking, and then, BAM, before we know it, our humble family of four is trying to get by with only forty or so mugs to see us through. Hee.

These four are currently my favorites:

With the exception of the Chickadee/Monkey mug—which I bought my own damn self as part of a personal celebration of sorts—the rest of the mugs shown here (and all of the “extras” in the house) were gifts. Each mug reminds me of both an important message and the friend who was sweet enough to think of me. And then I get a dose of grateful with my morning coffee or my afternoon tea.

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Love is grateful, day 5

by Mir on November 22, 2010 in Job? Huh?, What do I do all day?

Today I’m grateful for writing, even on days like today, when I don’t want to, I’m not “feeling” it, and I would rather be in bed with the covers over my head. And I’m grateful for all of the people who encouraged me along the way.

This is the (very worn) back cover of my 6th grade yearbook. (Thank you, Mrs. Simons—it took me a while to get around to it, but you can rest easy knowing you were right after all.) And thank you to every single one of you who stops by my little corner of the ‘net, too.

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Love is grateful, day 4

by Mir on November 21, 2010 in Retail Therapy

We finally have a local Trader Joe’s, and I am probably more grateful for it than is reasonable.

Go ahead and scoff, but I’ll take my convenient, low-price, delicious opportunities to be elevated to hero status where I can find them, thanks.

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Love is grateful, day 3

by Mir on November 20, 2010 in Ottomatic For the People

Today I’m grateful for hubcaps. Particularly, this hubcap:

I took Monkey to a doctor’s appointment this week and when we were done, my left rear hubcap was missing. I called Otto in an indignant rage; who the hell steals ONE HUBCAP in the middle of the day in the middle of town?

Otto said, “I’ll take care of it.” And he did. Like magic. A new hubcap showed up in the mail, and then on my car.

I could’ve lived with a missing hubcap. But Otto took care of it. Because that’s just how he is. That there hubcap? IT’S MY VERY FAVORITE. (This is not really about my hubcap. Just in case you couldn’t tell.)

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