I feel like I should have something useful to report. Like... Monkey is all better now! (He's not.) All of the doctors called back, with definitive answers! (They didn't.) The answer to life, the universe and everything is 42!! (It is, but I'm having difficult figuring out how to apply it.) In the meantime, inbetween phone calls to various doctors I am making soup and doing things like buying a coat for my dog. Yes. I've become the kind of person who says "buying a coat for my dog" and it actually MEANS I spent money on canine apparel. The end times are nigh. In my defense, this here is a...
It's today. I am declaring it to be today. Right now. It's International Special Needs Kids Amnesty Day. So here's the deal: There are plenty of kids with special needs whose challenges you can easily see. You know what it means when a kid is in a wheelchair---you wouldn't expect him to get up and walk. You know what it means when a kid has the tell-tale facial features of Down Syndrome---you wouldn't expect him to do some calculus for you. But for every kid whom you recognize, there's another one---maybe more than one---who has special needs you can't easily discern, and those kids are...
Remember when I was all "I'm going to the dentist to get my TMJ taken care of finally" and I knew it was going to be expensive but I was okay with that, mostly, because I'm in so much pain? I don't like surprises. So I went ahead and did my research before I went back, yesterday, so that I could maybe get over any sticker shock beforehand. According to what I'd read, I could expect to pay $400-$500 for the custom bite splint I expected they were going to recommend for me. Not chump change, to be sure, but I was steeled and ready. This is FOR MY HEALTH, I told myself, as I walked into the...
The time has come for me to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight. Oh, wait. I already did that. (He stepped on my toes and had halitosis, by the way.) No, actually the time has come for me to spend quality time with my dentist, and by "quality time" I of course mean "all of my money." So that's what I'll be doing today, and I'm all kinds of excited. Well, "excited" may be the wrong word. I am looking forward to not being in pain anymore. Might that happen? Hope springs eternal. As long as it's not on the left side of my jaw, that is. I've know for years and years that my dentist wanted...
Hi there, and thank you for visiting Woulda Coulda Shoulda! I can't come to the blog right now, because I am either away from my desk or struggling against being rendered completely incoherent with rage. If you leave me a message, I'll get back to you just as soon as I'm done weeping for my industry and humanity as a whole. If you are experiencing an emergency, please hang up and dial 911. Otherwise, kindly get off my lawn unless you'd like to hear a story about how back in my day, people worked hard and ate real food. Hmph.
The first three days of school were better than I'd dared to hope, and when I walked Monkey over to school yesterday, I decided to stop in and chat with his teacher for a minute. She confirmed that all was well and that she was pleasantly surprised at how problem-free it had been, so far. "Oh, just WAIT," I laughed. "We're still in the honeymoon period! Don't be lulled into a false sense of security!" And we chuckled together and talked about school supplies and then I walked back home with a spring in my step, no idea exactly how prophetic I'd just been. It's probably better that way, but...
Love thy neighbor. Love thy neighbor. LOVE THY NEIGHBOR, DAMMIT, is what I keep chanting over and over to myself. Even though my neighbors have not only single-handedly infested our block with feral cats, they're the reason we spent more money than I can talk about without crying on a big guns extermination because our "rats" turned out to be feral kittens. And now, now, my darlings, I chant LOVE THY NEIGHBOR to a steady beat in my head, because now, the CAT CRAP TRIFECTA is complete: Licorice has fleas. Even though she's on a flea preventive. And they're cat fleas, OF COURSE, courtesy of...
I had a great time here in Philadelphia, and felt a small pang of regret as I headed to the airport yesterday and everyone else was headed out on a tour of the city and a group dinner to follow. "That's okay!" I thought to myself. "I am going HOME! I would much rather be home than be social with people, so that's fine." I said my goodbyes and packed up and headed to the airport around 4:00 for my 6:00 flight. They're doing construction at the Philadelphia airport. I don't know what they're doing, exactly, I just know that I feel more like a rat in a maze than usual, here, winding my way...
Today we went back to Emory for the second time, to talk about Chickadee's mystery skin condition. (Pretend that I linked back to the previous relevant posts on this subject. That will also require pretending I am not typing this in the car on my teeny tiny piece of crap netbook, and also that I'm a lot more organized than I actually am. And also that I'm in a better mood, which I'm not, which is also sort of the point here.) You may recall---and we're pretending I linked to the post about---they'd put her on a new medication and I thought it was working right up until she busted out in a...
