Merry Mayhem

Well, the cold sore is gone, it lasted about six days but it was never visible like usual, only I could feel it. I'll just keep using the cream if I get another one, without risking the dizziness and mood swings of that other drug.

Molly still needs her lampshade, and Puff is no longer in heat, so she is being very cute and friendly (to me)and making me feel bad about having to take her in for her spay surgery. I have to make that appointment next week, when Molly goes for her bath. Hopefully she can stay out of heat long enough to get it done the first week in January.

So I just came out of a three day work stint, after three days of the swim meet up at Rutgers. The weather was questionable, so we split the weekend between home and a hotel, which was a good thing. Megan swam pretty well, she got a best time every time she swam, if even by .01. Then she had to come back for finals in a few events. So that was exciting.

For some reason, her high school coach was unaware of a meet they were supposed to have on Tuesday. So they ended up rescheduling it for Wednesday, which meant that I had to reschedule her confirmation make-up (for what she missed for the other meet) for Thursday, which means she has to miss her Y practice, which she also has to miss on Friday for another high school meet!!! It's major mayhem and I can't even stand it. So she won't swim with her real team for nearly a week by the time she gets back in for Saturday practice.

Of course, right after that, the Y takes her away for the four day training trip to another state, in the middle of our family holiday.

And on top of this, we still have not resolved the issue of the 30 hour fast. I googled some other area churches and other churches' requirements for confirmation. Most will give a selection and require that most be met. Others will include a choice of several retreats, and some do just one class. Most seem to mention community service, of which our church does none. They added on a quick day at the soup kitchen, to which I plan to send Megan before the county swim meet.

If the church is going to deny her confirmation because we don't want her to fast for 30 hours two weeks before her Y state championship, at which she is trying to make national cuts, then we have to seriously consider whether or not we belong in that church at all. I'll offer for her to do the sleepover and skip breakfast and lunch on Saturday, which is a lot for her anyway. Plus the soup kitchen, which is half of the other day, the one she can't make.

In the end, she is putting forth the greatest effort possible, and we are trying to be flexible. Since I feel that is the church staff that has set these requirements, and not actually God per se, if they do insist that she must do this fast without any compromise, I'm afraid I will have such a bad feeling that I will have to consider searching for another church. They are offering no "home schooling" type of makeup for the fast, no alternative other than these two dates, one of which conflicts with the country meet.

I've been getting emails from them begging the congregation to please return their pledge cards, and apparently finances are tight. Although I can never repay the kindness of the pastor when Brian had his brain surgery, I'm afraid that this just isn't the kind of church I would want to be a part of, and wonder if that is perhaps some of the reason behind the difficulty in getting pledges back. Strength in pastoral services doesn't always balance out the atmosphere within the church; and that's what you have to deal with day to day.

So now I am off to try to tie up loose ends of shopping today and loose ends of cleaning tomorrow before the onlsaught of our holiday guests (at which time we may not see Puff again for days). A particularly strenuous litterbox changing activity has left me feeling a little shaky, so I sat down to let that wear off before I shower and hit the mobs. I hope the mobs are still asleep.

Oh, and maybe I'll put up some Christmas lights outside. Or maybe not. It is almost time to take them down already.

Sipping Wine Through a Straw

I hate those mornings when I get out of bed and my lip stings. Then I feel that little lump, almost barely there, but for sure it won't be going away anytime soon. My emergency treament protocol of peroxide and campho-phenique, when implemented immediately, seems to help and has even aborted attacks. But today? No. Today, I had to go have a filling replaced.

The good thing about that would be that dentists can prescribe drugs to treat cold sores, and mine was glad to do so. However, I picked it up and the pharmacist said that the side effects are dizziness and drowsiness! I can't drive around with those side effects! Then I see there are many more "highly unlikely" side effects. And I also read that you should only take this medication for one day when taking it for a cold sore. My bottle says take it for five! And I opened it and looked at the pill. It's the size of a ... of a ... I'll think of something. It's BIG.

So I have decided not to take it. The thing is that at least he also gave me a topical cream, and that seems to be maybe helping a little. Except that my lower lip is all ripped up from the dental abuse it took during the procedure. God, I hate the dentist.

After that ordeal, I ran around for hours trying to get shopping done just in case I work for the rest of the holiday season. Who in the world can stand Hollister? Why is that store so popular? You can't see a thing, the music is deafening, and I think there surely must be a MAXIMUM requirement on the IQ's of the workers. Add to that that all the clothing implies that you either live in, or frequently visit, Southern California. My children don't know what Malibu is. They have never seen the Pacific Ocean. I ended up saving $30 at American Eagle though! Of course, I had to spend $200 to do that. But at least the clothes look like they belong on the east coast.

And I have been spared my driving shift tonight for swim team. Megan is sniffling, she seems like she will never get better; probably needs to have it treated with something, but I don't want to put her on anything before this big meet. Surely she can't be at peak performance when she can't breathe, but she's done it before. Sigh. At least she has officially backed herself out of all high school swimming for this week. Her next high school meet will be December 21.

In other news, Molly is chewing on her foot and has to wear her lampshade. But the biggest of all: Puff is being spayed on Wednesday!! I'll drop her off on my way to work, and pick her up in the evening. The girl tried to tell me she has to be out of heat for six weeks or she can' be spayed. I felt like saying, "excuse me? Have you ever MET a cat who has not been spayed?" It's like Puff is in heat more than she's out, and she's only just six months old.

But...I don't have a headache today!!!

Whine Whine...Wine?

So I guess the thing is that my head is always going to hurt. I went out and bought some sudafed yesterday and had to show my drivers license. I couldn't even remember if it's that I can make bombs or street drugs, and I had to fill out all my information on a spiral notebook of forms. Now I see it's crystal meth. If nothing else, maybe when the sudafed doesn't cure my congestion, I can make that; and then I won't really care if my head hurts or not. And then I found I actually had some sudafed from years ago, actually bought without the federal government knowing about it.

So I spent the entire night sleeping with a wet washcloth on my head or neck, and then I awoke in a daze. It was already after 8, and I had to get up to be a greeter at church. So, they have five ushers and three greeters. It's a wonder people don't just turn and run in a panic to one of the other churches down the street. And you have five people all trying to give you bulletins, whose do you take? Although I may have been mistaken in trying to hand them out. Perhaps it is not the job of the greeter to give out the bulletins. I wouldn't know, because I never received the packet with the information.

Today I have been abandoned. Everyone has left me, either for the NY Jets or for the mall. On my home I picked up the makings of meatballs and sauce, and an $80 Christmas tree. I remember when we spent $40 and dragged the thing up the stairs in Queens. That was a lot to spend. Now, $80 without a second thought. At least I had the sense not to buy the Noble Fir at $110. Not that I didn't consider it. That tree had a beautiful shape.

Since I am abandoned, I had to get the tree in the house by myself. I had to get it off the roof of the Explorer, and then haul it up the five or so steps. This might sound not so bad, but each time I tried to put weight on the bad knee, it threatened to render me immobile again. I had to do this in plain view of anyone who might be passing by. There was a young guy in army fatigues across the street. Vanity stopped me from going across the street and saying, you look like a good citizen. Wanna carry a Christmas tree?

But I got the tree in the house, and in the stand! I even had to cut about 8 inches off the tip to keep it from bending over. In our old house we had a cathedral ceiling. I forget that in this new, giant house, I am limited in my choice of tree.

So, here I sit, with bags of meats and pasta waiting to be cooked. The sudafed is helping, but I am waiting for the advil to kick in. It's already 2:23 and I need several hours to simmer the sauce. Megan should be home soon, but then she will complain that there is no food. This being the week before Holiday Classic, she will have to be well fed and rested, and I will have to be nice to her. I am still awaiting a return email from her high school coach. I finally just emailed him and explained her quandary, that she thought a time warp would occur and the conflicts between high school and club swimming would resolve themselves. This week will show how that plays out.

Finally, there is Puff. She seems to be peeing around the house. I locked her in the bathroom with a litterbox until she finally dumped her little pearls in there. The vet called and it's all clear. As soon as she stops flirting with the uninterested hermaphrodite boys in our house, she's in for her surgery. I really wanted to wait until after Christmas, but this is just ridiculous. I don't know how cats stand it. Six months old and in her third heat cycle already? People who don't spay their cats must be out of their minds.

Well, that about winds it up for me. The whines and the other whines. The problem is, I am absolutely terrified to have my wine while I'm on the sudafed! I mean, I really don't know, but what if that is the other ingredient for the methampethamine? It could be. Or maybe that would not be so bad. I'm off to the kitchen.

Lingering Headaches

I guess the stresses are surpassing my power to ignore them, because I was unable to contain the headache to one day. I turned down a sub call and tried to stay in bed.

I just have daily gripes that I chose to blog.

1. Molly is leaking. She leaks mainly in her dog bed (I think) but weeks ago, I remember she was leaking by her water dish. A major expense and a step down the road to demise, I don't want to rush into the vet; particularly because of Gripe #2.

2. Puff peed on the dog bed. I was able to wash it with Molly's dribble but I saw Puff showing interest in it, and folded it in half. A few minutes later, in the midst of a hot debate on Divorce Court on whether or not a woman should be paid $400 a month by her husband for doing housework, I heard scratching. Puff had peed on the back side! So, I threw it out.

I consider it unsalvageable once a cat empties a full load onto there. Minorly in her defense, she is in heat AGAIN. I am finally able to take a stool sample to be rechecked for worms. Once she is rid of them, she can be spayed. They don't do it until she is six months old, which seems a little rough, since she seems to be in heat every 2-3 weeks. This will be her third time. It's very irritating, even without the peeing around. But she is now, at last, at the magic age of six months. I was trying to hold off until after the holidays ... but after that -- don't think so.

3. Swimming conflicts. That gripe just speaks for itself.

4. Groups that you belong to who feel like they should choose adopt-a-families after you have already adopted children for the season. The church group is adopting a large family, and they are not rationing out the gifts in an organized manner. I can hardly wait to see how this turns out. It may extend my time in purgatory, at the very least.

Anyway, those are about all the gripes I have time for. Since I spent the day nursing my headache, I feel very gripey. Now I am off to try to breach security at the army base, so I can commit the heinous act of watching my very first high school swim meet.

My Head Hurts

No sub calls today. I had the day off.

I decided to start it off with a swim. That actually went pretty well, I had a lane all to myself for the whole 25 minutes that it takes me to swim a measly 40 laps these days. On the way out, I noticed that they had a "giving tree" set up at the Y. I studied the remaining tags and chose two little girls. One only wanted Bratz dolls, but the other was very specific: a monopoly game, a hooded sweatshirt, and Nike sneakers. Woah! Anyway, my credit card was reset to $0 as of today, so why not.

(Sure, it's only ONE credit card that's at $0, the others are probably considerably more, but I hope to have them all paid down by the time I stop getting paychecks again in June!)

But by now my head was really hurting. Some online Bratz shopping hadn't helped what the 40 laps had somehow started. Maybe it was the leaky goggles. I had to take some advil and lie down for an hour. I watched How Clean is Your House and You Are What You Eat. Who in the world signs up for those shows? All I would need would be for my mold and dust to be filmed for national television. And then to have to keep the house clean until the "surprise visit" from the British ladies who helped clean it in the first place.

Eventually I managed to drag myself up and shower. I went out into the snow and searched high and low for Nike sneakers and a hoodie sweatshirt, which I finally did find. The little girls should be very happy.

Afterwards, I faced the true source of my headache: church. They are requiring that Megan must satisfy one requirement for her confirmation in April. She must either attend a retreat on the day of her high school regional championship meet, or she must fast for 30 hours over President's weekend. This is in addition to the four hour meetings once a month + homework. I can feel the holy spirit fading from her person as I type this. If you may not worship any God but the true God, then I am afraid we will have to count her out. Her god? Her swim team coach.

Although, that is not entirelly true, because she will not even be swimming for him on the day of the retreat. Will God really close her out of heaven because she went to the conference meet? That doesn't really seem fair, when she is usually very nice to everyone, and she even serves at church when she can be there. Does her very salvation ride on her refusing herself food during the peak training period for her championship swim season? How scary is that?! Whatever happened to "God is Good! All the Time!"

And did God say she had to do these things? Was it through His wishes that the schedules were made up for these events? Don't the homeless people have to be fed every day? Why, then, is it that she must be there on February 9th?

In fact, she is at swimming now. She should be back soon, but one never knows. It's her day off from swimming, so she was able to go to the high school practice. The first meet is tomorrow, but the parents can't attend. They're holding it under top security. Ah, the folly.

I Don't Like Monday

I don't like this Monday. I thought I had the day free; I was trying to finish up a nice dream in the early morning, when the shriek of the phone came through the fog. Of course there was no phone in its cradle, so I had to stagger around the house in search of one. Luckily, my knees, ankles, and plantar fascia all were in agreement this morning, and I was able to walk.

I missed the call and tried to return it, but dialed the wrong exchange. I should have known when I had to unblock my private number to call the sub caller that something was wrong, but it wasn't until the groggy voice of some poor woman came on the other end that I fully realized the error of my ways. But in the end, I got the job.

I showed up to find that the teacher didn't know she was going to be out. She left a lot of busy work, and there were many breaks - the first day of library, their art class, lunch, and an assembly. It seemed like a really easy day. Note to self: never believe that.

On the way to library, we got in trouble from the Principal for talking in the halls. The nurse took kids two at a time to screen them. Everyone acted like they didn't know what they were supposed to do for the assignment that was written as if they'd all know exactly what to do. But the morning was fairly ok.

After lunch we had to do a Scholastic News (formerly known as Weekly Reader) on the new seven wonders of the world. People voted on them, and I had never heard of most of them. The Great Wall of China is one, and the Taj Mahal is another. During this time, the students began their rebellion. ADHD reared its head, and one girl put her head down and went to sleep on her desk. Thankfully it was time for the assembly. Which was an experience.

The man running the show was exactly like John Belushi. His show involved a lot of dry ice steam demonstrations and a lot of screaming and running around the room. He was definitely the right man for the job, but part of the allure was the amazement of watching him. He was sweating bullets within minutes. He had the kids up and screaming half the time, and then they had to calm back down, and come back to do math.

Because of this, I am not getting up from the couch, hence this update. Tomorrow I am working in the morning. I'll float for the child study team meetings, so I can't have this class again. It's funny how on the days when I feel like I have screwed up the most, the kids ask me if I will be back tomorrow, and write "You rock!" on the board.

First Snow!

It snowed today! We have a winter wonderland. It's a little hindered in appearance by the piles of leaves that have yet to be picked up, but it is a white world nonetheless, very serene looking. I think tonight is probably the town tree lighting, since we're going to the church spaghetti dinner; and they always coincide.

I've been avoiding going back outside since I am developing the terrible fear of the holiday shoppers. I must go get cat food and some other things, and my heart speeds up at the thought of the parking lot at Target. Yesterday I drove about 100 miles on the highway with trucks and psychopaths. By the time I got home, I really needed a shot of valium or perhaps even morphine.

I was reading a post on one of the message board where a guy tells how he was harassed by an aggressive motorist. the guy came up behind him, flashing his lights and honking. So the narrator chose to slow down, to be annoying. The pursuer then went to the right lane to pass, at which point our "victim" sped up again!! As is the case so often these days, the end result was physical. The two cars pulled over, and the pursuer slugged our victim.

The message board is one for chiari sufferers, so this guy had chiari. He got the guy's license plate number, and filed a police report. The tone of his post is such that he was wronged on the highway. As in the case of the agitated seventh grader who took a cheap swing at the wiseguy - the aggressive driver was obviously not a model citizen. However - not one person has posted in reply - "what the hell were you thinking? Did you not expect that this might be a likely outcome of toying with an obviously deranged driver?!" I have reread that thread many times and can't believe nobody has said one word of reprimand to the victim.

And I'm not going to be the first one to do it!! But now I must escape because I hear that Brian is not doing well with his learning of the lessons - maybe I'll just find a back road to Target right now.