Weekend Update

Thank goodness this weekend is over. The pressure on Megan, and then on all of us, leading into the meet on Saturday was just too much. In the end, she swam fine. The only thing was that others swam better. But she did great. Apparently some teams take this meet more seriously than her club team does, and they taper their swimmers. Not her team.

The boys and the girls meets both had a common thread: swimmers from one particular area team all did exceptionally well. Which means they were tapered for the meet. Megan got third in one event, and second in another. It's still respectable for a freshman, and she beat her time in the 500, and swam right on it in the 200.

We had to go to another long but unimportant meet yesterday, so that was just tiring. That same tapered team was there, all shaved and in their fastskins, while everyone else had hairy legs and 'slow' team suits on :-) ... but sometimes it's nice to have a meet with low pressure.

The bonehead's newspaper coverage of Saturday's meet started with a paragraph on how two senior swimmers had a "friendly conversation" and agreed to win their events and take the meet back for seniors. One was the one Megan had to race twice, and the other was the one who had hoped for the MVP award at the county meet. Obviously, the latter is still harboring sour grapes, because neither of the two has lost their events yet, so they had nothing to take back, except for the one wanting to see Megan get beaten. In a nice twist of justice, Megan's club coach had seen the article, and made fun of the girl for actually giving that kind of information to the paparazzi.

And who still has that MVP plaque, anyway?

Brian started with his new travel baseball team last week, and they had an indoor practice yesterday. Apparently it went reasonably well but he got tired at the end. Tonight he is supposed to have a basketball practice at 9pm! I am not sure if he's going, because it's so late, it's freezing cold and windy, and he has the neurology appointment tomorrow, where they check his reflexes and muscle tone. I might send him, though, because I noticed one of the other kids wasn't passing the ball to him at all last weekend. I didn't like this, but can't really complain if he skips practices (which he hasn't done yet, but I don't like him to either)

Well, I must wrap up my wrap-up, because the other night, when I was flossing my new back filling, two small pieces of it came off on the floss. I am terrified. This filling hurt me for days, then was sensitive for weeks. It finally stopped hurting, and now it has broken. I hope they can patch it, but I am not optimistic. I am off to find out now.

Boredom

Well, I'm bored. This will probably be a boring post, in turn. I'll just ramble a bit because I don't feel like starting dinner and I don't think eating more conversation hearts or chips in five day old onion dip is really the right way to go.

This morning I did my duties - got kids off to school, even door-to-door service for both of them. I was just surfing the net, waiting for numbskull to update his swimming blog page, when the phone rang at 8:40 am. I hate phones when I use the laptop, because I usually have to get up out of the recliner, destiffen my joints, put the laptop down, and stagger across the room by the fourth ring. And check the Caller ID, which, invariably, says, "Mtn Schl" =:-O

As it did today. I have finally figured out that the number that starts in the particular exchange I saw today is the woman from personnel who calls for subs once the day is underway. Yesterday I turned her down, so today I picked up. Turns out I was supposed to be in for the morning, not the afternoon, as I had been told. My morning bliss was shattered and I had to fly into the shower, and rush off to school. Imagine my relief when I zoomed around the corner at 10 mph above the speed limit and almost crashed into a police car who ALREADY HAD SOMEONE PULLED OVER. whew. I checked to see if I knew the unfortunate perpetrator (I didn't) and tried to keep my eye on the speedometer.

But all in all, it was a good day. Easy assignments. They put me in a kindergarten class with another sub for the first hour, and she didn't really know how to run circle time, so the inmates were in charge. I didn't want to step up and challenge her authority, so I minded my business and went on butt-crack patrol. (Two incidences successfully corrected) And the best of all, I was done by noon.

Of course, would I use the afternoon wisely? No. I picked up some items and came home and whittled away the time. Which is why I am bored.

So, in other news: an email from Brian's math teacher, saying he talks excessively in class these past two weeks. His excuse? She put him near "this kid" and X and Y, who talk all the time. I explained to him that this does not mean HE needs to talk all the time, and he went away to play X-Box. Speaking of the inmates running the asylum.

Tomorrow I have a full day in special ed. I hope no fights will break out over who likes the number 1 better than whom, or why this one said that to the other one. But really they are a good group, and I like them. One of the best things about special ed classes is that they have paras, who can always answer any questions, and help to keep the worst situations under control. And then: Friday night! And then: the big meet! And then: another meet. Sigh.

So there it is, if you made it this far. The most boring, and perhaps most aptly named, post of my blogging career.

Perhaps.

Ashes to Ashes

Funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie ...

no seriously. It's Ash Wednesday, or that's what the calendar says. It feels more like Memorial Day. The gulls are crying (ok, so maybe they're really Canada Geese), the air is warm, and there's a smell of spring everywhere. Of course, the flu bug is loving it as much as everyone else, which is still keeping me busy with work, as there are teachers calling out every day.

So, the Giants won the Big One. They had their ticker tape parade and their fans trashed downtown New York while Hillary cleaned up. Now the trophy will go to Giants Stadium, so the Jets can pretend it's theirs every other week.

Brian hasn't mentioned any more headaches, but he's been too busy trying to be out of the house as much as possible, and when he is home he's trying to scam time on X-Box Live. His appointment with the neurologist is scheduled for next Tuesday, I always love those and the time leading up to them. His walking and running gait has been looking pretty good, though, so ::knock wood::...I hope no surprises. Although, not that anything would ever surprise me after three years ago. I like to try to go to church right before for that extra last request, but this weekend I have to take Megan to a swim meet in Trenton, of all places. At least we are going to the service tonight, for ashes. That one is so gloomy.

Speaking of swimming, her last big meet of the season is Saturday. The local so-called reporter who covers girls' swimming is once again asleep at the helm. He hasn't posted a blog in over two weeks, although they released the state tournament brackets on Monday and the psych sheets for the meet yesterday. His last blog post was rudely entitled 'leftovers' from the article where he failed to give any press to the girl who won MVP at the meet, and instead droned on and on about the teams he seems to fancy. He tried to make up for it in a pathetic blog with a lame title, (oh yeah, and he got one last dig in at Megan, saying he didn't agree with her having gotten the MVP award because she's a freshman) and he hasn't been heard from since.

I can hardly wait to see his review of the psych sheets, as the girl who lost to Megan at the last meet has mysteriously resurfaced seeded .01 faster than Megan - bumping Megan to third seed. I'm suspicious, as I have been watching all the time in the paper and never saw anyone swim faster than that time. Even the rankings in the paper two days earlier had the girl in with her slower time.

Ah, here come the gulls again!!! I'd better go make myself an umbrella drink and enjoy the 70 degree weather in February. :-)

Stupid Bowl Sunday

So, here it is. The Giants are in the Stupid Bowl. Mass hysteria prevails. Everyone is on the bandwagon. If the Giants win, there will be a tickertape parade down the Canyon of Heroes on - what - Super Tuesday?!? That ought to be interesting. As luck would have it, Tuesday is a school holiday. Maybe we can take the ferry over and watch them throw paper out of the windows. I saw them do it for Nelson Mandela once. That was cool. I don't think anyone even knew it was going to happen, and suddenly, there he was.

I woke up Tuesday morning thinking I had no work for the week. At just before 7am, the phone rang. One of the teachers was sick. I went in for her, and ended up going back again the next day. I never thought they would call me again, but they did, the next day. A second grade teacher was sick and had requested me, I guess because I so meticulously cleaned out her science kits when I had some down time as a floating sub. So, exhausted, I came home that day and went straight to Megan's rescheduled swim meet, starting at 8pm. During that meet, I got another call! I worked four days in a row. The life of a sub. I will enjoy the paycheck.

Megan had her big meet against the 200/500 free champ from the other county. The girl swam different events! We will have to wait until the conference champs next weekend for that race. Megan had an undefeated season, but she had two races in which she had to actually fight for the win. (not counting the two she won at counties, obviously the best races of the whole season so far). Yesterday she had to go swim the 1000 free. That's so grueling. I know she can make the National time in that, but I hope she doesn't. To have to go down there and swim that would just take all the fun out of the whole trip.

Meanwhile, Brian is going to play on a different travel baseball team this year. That should open up a whole new spectrum of challenges for me. With all of Megan's swimming, I am running around all the time. Now I will also have to worry about where he is going to be. I think this team even goes to Cooperstown for a tournament!

And so begins the month of February. I really do hate football, but I can't wait to see if the Giants have a chance.

The Gifts That Keep Giving

Well, I have only worked one day this pay period, and I am lucky that it turned out to be a full day. I was scheduled for a half, and one of the teachers asked me to fill in for her instead. Meanwhile, the bills are coming in. I think each of the three credit cards will be about $500 more than I would like to pay. This means about $1500. That should take me until summer to pay off at the rate I am going. With all this talk of lower interest rates ... why aren't MINE any lower???

And so we survived the swim meet this week. Megan went in exhausted, but the other girl was in the same boat, having just come from practice herself, so the two of them dueled it out to the end. Luckily, it was a meter pool, so they cut the 500 down to a 400, and they only had to do 16 laps. They were pretty much neck and neck, but Megan pulled it off at the end. There's one meet tomorrow, but that team doesn't really have anyone. The Big One comes next Friday. At least it should be exciting, win or lose. Too bad there is no official timing at that meet. No Y National times there. Although she has one chance this weekend, on Sunday, at a meet at our own Y, in the 200. I don't know, though, the conditions are not quite right, and I have a feeling she will be the top seed. It's always better to have someone to chase when you're trying to make a time.

Brian pulled the old headache thing again. I hate when he does this so close to the neurologist appointment. He called me yesterday from school at 1:30 and said his ear and head hurt. The nurse said she looked in his ear and thought there was pressure on the eardrum, but no infection. I gave him some triaminic last night but it made no difference, so we went to the doctor today. Now he has rynatan, hopefully that will help. I also bought some liquid motrin so he can take that in the nurse's office and not get sent home all the time with headaches, since he still won't swallow even the smallest of miniature pills.

I took advantage of being at the pediatrician to ask if the neurologist has sent her a letter since our summer appointment. I am still anxious because the radiologist read the chiari area as crowded, so I wanted to see if he said anything to the pediatrician in his letter. Unfortunately, he has not sent a letter, either about Brian's summer visit or, she says, many of her other patients who see him. However, I did read the letter from August 2006, where he said that the brain tonsils, which used to be 8-10mm below the foramen magnum ("big hole") they are now just slightly below. He was happy about this in 2006, and last year I asked if there had been a change since 2006, and he said no, there had not.

My own headache has prevailed since before my birthday. Today, for the first time, I felt some lasting relief. I took advil this morning, but I am beginning to feel like an advil-addict. After lunch I noticed it didn't hurt at all anymore. I hope it lasts. We are going to a funeral for one of the swim girls' dads today, after Megan's practice. He died somewhat unexpectedly when he went for surgery for what has been an ongoing cancer battle for him. It's very sad, unimagineably so. I remember him going in for one of his biggest surgeries, and perhaps one of his first, just one week after Brian's chiari decompression.

Meanwhile, Brian is winding down his piano lesson. I must go without a creative afterthought.

New Car!!

I got it! I got the new car! I don't really know how I managed, but I convinced Kevin to let me get the Accord and keep the Explorer. Although I hate having to spend every third or fourth day at the gas station, filling up for $50 or so a pop, I am also not ready to give up the luxury/convenience/feel of having a big road-hogging V8 SUV either. So in a year that one will be paid off, and we will have it for virtually no additional cost.

The new car is a Honda Accord, and, so far, I love it! It's different in many ways, obviously, but it is so comfortable, cute, and fun to drive. I have driven about 70 miles in it already, and have used 1/4 tank of gas. The thing is that the pin may stay on the 1/4 tank for many more miles, as it seems to do. I will see the benefits when I first go to fill it up. I am so excited!

I took the Explorer yesterday and washed and vacuumed it, had it inspected, then pulled it into the garage and sealed it up there. I will still need it for times of bad weather, when I need to shuttle multiple kids, or if I am going to park it somewhere where I don't want people looking into the car. (Such as last night, when I was lost in Asbury Park! Would not want to be in that situation in a little Accord with the new car tags still all over it.)

And Puff is doing amazingly well. We went and had her stitches out yesterday, and she's happy as can be. All it took to get her over the trauma was a bit of sliced turkey. She stays out a lot more, she plays, she purrs - she is like a new kitten, and she is so beautiful. I tell her that every day. When the tech saw her dumped out onto the table, she even exclaimed, "hello, Beautiful!" Puff obviously knew that meant her, because I call her that every day :-)

So tonight we are going to Bahr's again, for my birthday. That is the best part of January, I get to go to Bahr's twice. But, alas, since we have to drive the Doll, we have to go there to get her - it's such a pain. Then we all cram into one car, which usually means SHE gets the front seat. I am hateful, I know. But it makes the trip twice as long for all of us, being packed in there and having to weave through the streets of the retirement Village to where she lives, nestled amongst the biddies.

Megan had another successful week at swimming, but she had to fight for first place in the 200 IM yesterday! The girl was ahead for the first 100 yards of the 200. When Megan ended up beating her, the girl was so mad she wouldn't even look at Megan, let alone shake her hand. Not good sportsmanship - my theory is that this girl would have been put in the 200 free, but they probably thought Megan would swim it, so they took her out, and she ended up losing the IM instead. I have been noticing no schools have been giving Megan any competition since counties. Her name is in the paper today as having the fastest 200 free time in the conference.

However, if you read a little deeper, you will see that she is no longer in possession of that title. One of the girls in the other county beat Megan's best time at their championship meet last night, by a full second. So Megan is relegated to second, which is also where she is with the 500. Two of the remaining three meets could potentially serve her up her first defeat of the season - either in the 500 at the meet this Tuesday, or in both the 200 and 500 next Friday, when she races the other county's champ. The conference meet on February 9 should be a challenge. If all things line up well, she could get her National times at that meet, with that competition, and probably a 3rd place seed in both events.

Brian continues to be difficult, with his homework retaliation and general belligerence. I have decided to remain hands-off for the rest of the marking period, which I think is only a week or two. If he can handle it, his grades will be unchanged or improved from last time. I already told him if I see anything below a B on there, he is out of luck, and will have to do it my way for the rest of the year. He agreed to that, but we'll see.

So it is not surprising that I am on the fourth day of a headache. And I don't expect my birthday dinner to make that much better. Sometimes, it's barely worth going.

My God, What Have I Done?

Thanks to the Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime, this has become my catch phrase for everything and anything blundersome. For me, today, it is my hair.

I am now 42. It was my birthday yesterday. As is standard around my birthdays, I feel the need to change. I am campaigning for a new car, something more fuel efficient and 'green', but I also decided it was finally time for a haircut. I went to my regular guy and told him I was considering bangs. He said he would angle them so I could still pull the hair back if I wanted to. This sounded good.

Partway through my appointment, a woman came and began to talk to him, which I found to be rather rude. I listened to everything they said, and they included me to a degree, but they were discussing people and places with whom and which I am not familiar. Afterwards, my hair looked ok at first glance.

When I got home and took a better look, this was no longer the case. The angled bangs are only angled on my right side - on the left, I have just a very short piece of hair, angled into nothing. Then I have very long layers and very, very little change in the length. Which, to me, is a little long to have at age 42. Or 41. Or 40!

The next day I let it curl and the results were just not good. The small piece was ok, it curled to look more like a little curl. The 'angled' side was a wild runaway experiment.

Yesterday I tried to straighten it, but was so discouraged with the unevenness that I just gave up. So today I say to myself, "My God, What Have I Done?" I want to call and request a fix, but I am generally non-confrontational. I feel like they will resent this and I always feel I will be expected to tip again, and I don't want to. Plus, I hate going there, and now I have to go back again - and I don't even know if I can get an appointment.

But in other news - I am working on the car purchase(or waiting to see if I will get permission to get it!) Puff is recovering well and seems thrilled to be spayed! No more heats, no more peeing. I take her into the bathroom and close the door, and she hops right into her box and pees. She is so good. Swimming is still in full swing, and now Brian has started basketball, with baseball just around the corner. One of his teachers sent back her questionnaire and I think it is pretty clear that he will not end up being diagnosed with any learning issues, if we're going on those responses. So I guess that is good news.

Megan is still undefeated in the 200 and the 500 free, but for some reason no teams ever put their better swimmers up against her. There are two meets coming up where that may not be the case, but I expected her to have a good race last night, and she did not.

I've read a few chiari pages and many of the kids are having problems. Some are having unexplained pain and issues, others are developing reherniated tonsils. It is so upsetting that this is something that should be so simple, and yet it just isn't. It makes me so grateful that Brian has done so well, and yet so anxious for the future at the same time. I ""knock wood"" every time I talk about this. It is a monster.

And so, as I do the loads of laundry and suck down advil today, I work up the nerve to look in the mirror. Then, I ask myself, "Where does this highway go?"