I know I complained about the weather being too hot just two short weeks ago, but the solution, Mother Nature, was not to cycle through all four seasons as quickly as my children cycle through their respective feelings of love, friendship, and loathing during the two hours between dismissal and dinner. So take a chill pill, Mother Nature and let us enjoy the transition from late summer to early fall.
So how's it going, Pixies? Are you kids still liking school? For those of you who instruct, have you found a few students who seem positively enthused in your subject? For those of you who are students, have you found a few instructors who seem positively in their subject? Dish below and shiny, fresh-picked apples await those who submit delicious whines of style, whines with elevated risk of mullets (or mallets!), and most humorous old skool whine.
Hugs and chocolate (and stronger tonics, if need be) to all those with more substantive whines.
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48 comments:
Oh tree atop my car, what do you there?
I’ve had a trying week-this is not fair.
We’ve braved a death,
Just caught our breath,
And now you’re crashing down, no part to spare.
Insurance rates are sky-high due to teens,
Soon Younger Daughter thru the streets careens,
I cannot seem
To shake this dream
That cars are pushing us beyond our means.
Perhaps I’ll lay my head down now to sleep
And in my mind through lily fields I’ll leap
No more to think
Or even drink
About my poor old car that’s in a heap
Oh no, YT!!! That's awful. To have that happen on top of everything.
Hugs.
And I'm totally impressed by the style.
miranda, that is a fabulous headline!
((( YT ))) vote for style, definitely. anyone who can write poetry after the week or so you have had [or is it a year? longer?] is my hero, too.
combo whine/antiwhine: daughter got moved into her dorm! dealt with dresser the size of a handkerchief, getting ID, etc. etc. and after a morning of move-in, a full afternoon of band camp, and seeing people in the cafeteria who actually know other people already, daughter melted into a puddle and cried and said she wanted to go home. and then she cried some more.
but all is not lost. she has a sweetheart of a roomie, and they share interests and taste. now she is liking band and meeting people there. her dorm even has approved pets: a cat and dog live with the resident director, right by the lobby. what a difference a day makes.
Can I have a tonic-filled chocolate? Heck, toss me a chocolate-filled tonic. That and a trusty Xanax and just maybe I can pull it together by tomorrow morning!
I have a "special views" mammogram scheduled at 10. Both "girls" are sore, hopefully just from my mammogram LAST FRIDAY?? But the left one is still way worse, and that's the one they are taking a closer look at.
I am SCARED. At least I don't have to bring my two year-old DD with me, my DH is staying home with her. Although he did ask me if I could make him a sandwich before I leave, since I'll be taking the car and he can't go out for lunch (he rides a motorcycle to work). I of course gasped and snottily suggested he just make HIMSELF a sandwich? To be fair, I do pack him a lunch every day. But still...how can I trust him to possible be a single parent if ANYTHING ever happens to me, if he can't make himself a fireplacing sandwich?? Now, where did I put that clue stick from last week..
I repeat, I am SCARED. What a crappy family tradition, you know? I am really not a negative person so I don't know why I feel that my goose is already cooked. Hey...wouldn't that put me at (wait for it..) an ELEVATED RISK OF PULLET??
Now, somebody toss me something intoxicating and very, very bad for me, just to shut me up.
Debangel - Oh no! I make a really good Lemon Drop, here have a pitcher today. You are in my thoughts today. Please let us know how things go.
Kathy A - How bittersweet! I am kind of teary thinking of your daughter moving out and I don't even know you guys. I hope her first year goes well for both of you.
Yankee T - ((Hugs)) It seems so insignificant after the year you have had. I am so sorry you have had to deal with so much this week.
Oh Yankee. Hugs.
Whine: it wouldn't be a haircut if there wasn't something I'm unhappy about. I look like I follow Mamie Eisenhower as a style icon. Or at least her bangs.
Anti-whine: the color, she is fabulous.
FYI- from my former hairdresser self- if your bangs are too short, brush them off your forehad and onto the side for two weeks, then they will be fine.
Whine: Spouse who it doing little to create a new life for himself. I'm tired of dropping hints - call X, do y, join g. Sooner or later I'm going to have to yell - get off your ass. And he and the 5 year old are fighting like siblings from way too much togetherness. I'm about ready to tell him to work at Starbucks.
Whines a list:
-flat tires(bike), 5 this summer
-city that doesn't street sweep, (thus resulting in piles of broken glass on the street and 5 flat tires!)
-layoffs
-planning work for the next three months at work, Hello?! managers?! we don't care to do all this planning seeing as we might not have jobs come November
-malls and traffic
-running errands
Anti-whine: my boyfriend and I bought tickets for vacation yesterday, to JAPAN. We are going to Japan and I am so freaking excited, two weeks! Japan! (I am ingoring the huge possibility of going on vacation and returning to work to be laid off.)
Hugs and votes for YT, Kathy a. and Debangel. *sigh* Thinking of all of you.
Whine: depression just sucks. Depression with daily headaches doth sucketh much. I'm just sayin...
Whine: Bridezilla of Gargantuan Proportions is being blissfully wed in our church this weekend. I'm not doing the service (she insisted that a former minister from here do the service - and that was one of her nicer requests). I hope she has a delightful day. Bitch.
Anti-whine: I have unbloggable but fantastic news that I will share once I am able. It's making all the rest of the whines bearable.
Whine: I hate my qualitative methods class. The instructor is very well-intentioned but seems puzzled at our dazed demeanor class after class. I suppose it doesn't help we are resistant to his proofs which are incomprehensible as both a pedagogical tool and as presented since nearly everyone there simply fires up the STATA or SPSS or Excel when we need to analyze data. Manually calculate our coefficients? This is grad school?
Oy.
Anti-whine: The PhD students invited me to study with them. Not sure why since I am an undergrad and one who doesn't know much as far as proofs go but I can interpret the hell out of regression results. However, we aren't there yet.
So, um, if you know of some good econometrics resources for those lost in abstract proofs, I'm all eyes and ears.
Law school looks better and better all the time. :x
Oops, its my quantitative methods class I hate. I'm not convinced economists have much in the way of qualitative methods but that is snark for another venue.
Whine: Husband leaves this weekend for a nearly-two-week trip. To Japan. Far away and in a very different time zone. So again we will go through:
1)Him: But its work! It's not like I'm going there for fun!
Me: But you're going someplace interesting and new and going to get to go sightseeing!
2) Me: You're back! We should schedule a fall weekend getaway! Wouldnt that be fun?
Him: But I just got back! I've already missed two weeks of work! I need to get some stuff done at the lab!
Me: I thought you said your trip was work, right?
So, is it work, or isn' it?
It is work when justifying trips to glamourous places that could be confused with vacation destinations (annual professional society meetins in San Diego in January, anyone?). But yet it is not work for the purposes of putting in face time with the boss!
Yay!
YT, your life sucks and it's time for a change. Let's all hold hands and sing kumbaya for YT's vibes to improve immediately!
Hugs for Debangle and the gals. Nobody wants to feel that kinda 'special'.
Whine: MIGRAINE! Will thoust please leave my head alone? Go hither and find some other young maiden to dally with. I've had enough.
Whine: My son is an idiot. He totally forgot we changed his meds a couple of weeks ago, even with the changed list RIGHT ON THE BATHROOM MIRROR. Plus he 'lost' some of his meds, which are sitting on top of the bathroom medicine cabinet at eye level right below list stuck on mirror. Thus, his behavior has sucked. We should be getting back on schedule.
Whine: Hives! From something, but I know not what. Big red welts. They itch. I am not happy.
Antiwhine: Dyed my daughter, her friend, and my hair with bright magenta streaks. Evidence can be seen on my web site. We look fabulous. Heh.
Antiwhine: Talk like a Pirate Day. Aaargh. Shiver me timbers, I think I got a car loan after all. It's from one of those 'bad credit/no credit) places with high interest but I need the freaking car.
Antiwhine: Took both kids to pediatrician today and everything is GOOD. They can hear, Girl can't see (not a surprise, she's been wearing glasses since she was 3 but refuses to wear them now because they're not cool), they got meningitis shots and she got the HPV shot and everyone acted like a normal human being. Plus I got to play with a baby in the waiting room.
Whine: Junk and more junk. I need to get my ebay ass in gear. I need help. I can't do it alone and kids just will not cooperate. Can you hire an Ebay sorter cleaner upper?
Huge Whine: Son thought it might be amusing to not show up on Rosh Hashona. Really. He was supposed to be home after school, sauntered in after 8 pm. I didn't cook because I didn't know where he was and I was frantic. Then he lied about not being able to get home, and that was refuted by friend's mom who called the next day. He is Permanently Grounded.
Have an easy fast, those of you who participate in the YK "festivities."
Margalit: Funny you should say that. Just this morning I wrote a post about how it would seem that I've had a bad year, but I still feel like I'm the luckiest woman on earth. Why is that?
(((margalit))))
Margalit - The streaks sound really cute. Hugs for you and your son.
Lisa V - I have a clue stick you can borrow for your husband.
Mychal - enjoy your trip to Japan. That sounds very delightful and necessary given the suckitude at work.
Sara - I think I have one more spousal clue stick around here for you to borrow. You deserve a change of pace, too.
No real substantive whines from me this week -- school seems to be going well, and I'm getting back into the rhythm of it all.
Votes for everyone all around! Debangel, I'm thinking of you, and sending you a warm, but very gentle hug. I know you're scared. I would be, too. But, we'll pray for good results, and then we'll rejoice with you when the scans are clear.
hugs to yankee t and debangel.
Margalit, of course you can hire an ebay sorter/poster. You name it, someone will do it.
Whine: Two trips to NYC in less than a week, one for work, one for Yom Kippur. And Amtrak stranded me for an hour outside of New Carrolton.
Anti-whine: Starting to feel recognized for my work...
Whiner's update: I went for my "special views" scan this morning (thanks Margalit, I had a good chuckle over feeling "that kind of special"), and about barfed when I saw my scan from last week. It showed an enormous white cloud on the outerleft breast. I was still sore from last week (is that even possible?), but it didn't hurt until she had to twist that breast before flattening it. I swear, it is going to be years until I can pound out a chicken breast cutlet.
No mammographer in today! Although, I did find out that an acquaintance from my old church, a fellow Sicilian, is an M.D. and former mammographer. I talked to his wife, who came to wait with me for a few minutes this morning, and he is supposedly going to call and try and get it read sooner.
The tech said that she could no longer see the white mass, so I asked to see the film...sure enough, it's not there anymore. She said maybe it was the way the tissues were lying last week. I'm not so sure, myself...what do the pixies think??
Love you guys.
Debangel, why the fireplace did they have you come in today if there was no fireplacing mammographer available???? What fireplacers!
I'm glad the cloud is gone. Hopefully the cloud was just an overexposed portion of the film last time.
hugs and tonic to debangel. my guess is that if the shadow isn't there anymore, maybe it was just one of those bad photos.
hugs also to margalit. and sue, dealing with bridezilla on top of everything else.
sounds like we have the beginnings of a clue-stick precision drill team going this week. [i'm thinking something classy, like the briefcase brigade or the marching lawn mowers, not something tacky involving polyester miniskirts and pom-poms.]
Let's see . . . what do I have to whine about this week? Oh, you had to ask.
AJ's meltdowns have been getting increasingly worse, over increasingly minor things (M&M put the wrong! lid! on the teapot! We slightly varied! the bedtime routine! Shock and horror! She already! knew! the song or math concept someone tried to teach her, and she was expecting to learn something NEW! We had to go from one place to another and didn't! give her! enough! warning! Catastrophe to end the world!).
She's also doing things like repeating what her sister says, and won't stop even with M&M crying and begging her to stop echoing her (although she is able to stop at least for a while if I tell her to). This is the child who has never really been good at eye contact or other social skills, and lines up/organizes/sorts her toys rather than actually playing with them.
I had a long talk with a pediatrician friend last night, whom I've known since college. I called her to ask if AJ's meltdowns and depression could be related at all to blood sugar issues (my friend's area of specialty).
She said that most likely the ped is going to want to evaluate AJ for things like Aspergers and autism-spectrum disorders.
If she does have something like that, it is quite mild, but I have to admit it would fit a lot of recurrent issues and behaviors we've seen pretty consistently since infancy. Even my mom wasn't surprised when I told her what my pediatrician friend said. I remember, too, that at least one of AJ's Sunday School teachers has expressed concerns about her social skills in the past.
I must admit, it would be a relief to know that there was some underlying cause for her meltdowns, tirades and depression--unrelated to anything we're doing or not doing. It might make it a bit easier to take the weeping, screaming tirades without feeling that we must be doing something wrong as parents.
M&M's leg and stomach pain has been getting worse, to the point that it's definitely curtailing her activities ("I can't play the games at AWANA because my legs hurt too much when I run, Mommy."). Last night she ended up crying and writhing in pain until the Tylenol I gave her kicked in and took the edge off.
This morning she is covered in spots. The ped's nurse says it's probably chicken pox or a viral rash. I sort of hope it's chicken pox . . . this would be a good age for the kids to get that over with. I had quite a severe case as a teenager and remember it vividly.
We were supposed to go as a family to have the elders pray over our family at church tonight, but obviously that's most likely not going to happen.
Baby E got much worse last week when I took her off fruits and sugars as per the GI specialist's instructions. The resulting mucousy watery diarrhea was much worse than anything she gets from fruit. It looks like starches and/or sulfites might also be a problem for her. Now that I've got her back on low-sucrose fruits again, and less starch, she's doing much better.
It could be a combination of issues, but at the moment the most likely thing seems to be a sucrase-isomaltase problem, which would cause issues with both sucrose and fruits. It can vary in severity, and at the moment it seems that of all the options it may be the best fit for her combination of symptoms and triggers. It's a genetic condition, BTW, so could be related to my own and the other kids' stomach issues as well (carriers of one gene tend to have milder versions of the same types of problems).
Of course, all of this is still at the don't-have-any-real-information-so-just-worrying stage. But it's looking more and more like we may have really hit the genetic jackpot, here. Somehow I have the feeling it's getting less and less likely that we'll ever try for that fourth child we always wanted. :)
Um, that should read, "a sucrase-isomaltase problem, which would cause issues with both sucrose and starch."
I spend 7 months in therapy, all by myself.
Husband spends 30 minutes in therapy and comes home to say the doctor thinks we need couple's therapy.
How in the fireplace did he manage to pull that off in 30 minutes?
Votes for YT and Debangel.
CCW, was the therapist saying in addition to individual therapy, or instead?
OOH, CCW...he's talented!
Kathy A., are you saying that my "girls" aren't photogenic?? LOL I pink puffy heart your idea of the clue-stick drill team. Right now I am thinking my uniform is going to consist of an apron and pearls! Did anyone think my DH asking me to make him his sandwich before leaving for my scan a little weird, in a '50s sort of way? Or am I just a fireplacing witch?
Debangel, I thought it was perfectly appropriate to ask him to make his own sandwich, and unusual that he would ask you to make him one.
Oh man, y'all have had a week! I'm so sorry - YT, a big hug for your, errrr, year? Debangel - can I just say that you're husband's lucky he's not married to me, because I'm mean, and he likely would be down a digit or two - I wield a mean knife! P_K - I can't fathom what you're dealing with - you really do seem to have a good handle, but it's still amazing to me that you're not babbling in the corner with a jug of red wine. CCW - ugh! Is it the same doc?
I whine today because I miss my husband. He has disappeared into the lawyer college again - those of us who've been to lawyer college ourselves know the bloody murder hell that is 2L year, but damn! It's bad when you're the wife with the kid and the bun in the oven!
But the kid - Little Miss S is just precious. And the weather's good. And I sit outside w/ my lappy in the pleasant evening air while she rides her tricycle "inna circle" and chants/sings/says her ABC's and other songs over and over. :) The bun is kickin' and it's all good.
OH, and we have now SCHEDULED our delivery date (10/26) so I can plan my absence from my job! :)
Too bad Mr. Mac is over at the Institute of Technology working on this project, before he heads back to the lawyer college to work on that one, while the other project waits on him to get home.... My poor dear husband.
Oh hugs to all y'all. :)
The whole universe is agin' me.
(((( scriv )))) come kvetch! elaborate. accept some hugs and empathy.
Aw Scriv....so sorry.
A clue stick precision drill team—I love it! I read once of a lawn chair precision drill team and have always regretted that I didn’t find a way to go see them in parade, but a clue stick team would be even better. I’m visualizing flaming batons, like the championship twirler at my high school used back when I was a student several centuries ago. Those on the receiving end need to feel the burning wrath of pixies on the march.
Ongoing job whine—another fun aspect of being 75% time is no sick leave. However, back when I was hired I foolishly agreed to a 5-day a week schedule for a multitude of reasons that seemed good at the time. (Aside—if the road to hell is paved with good intentions, what do you call the road paved with “it seemed like a good idea at the time?”) Anyway, that makes scheduling anything medical a nightmare, particularly because my hometown is so rural. I had to do all kinds of fancy finagling to see an allergist today because he only comes to my town once a week, of course on the busiest day in my schedule. I need a follow-up visit in 2 weeks, I’m due for a dental check-up, and I really need to schedule my mammogram. However, I have to admit that reading Debangel’s whine the idea of the annual boob-smash seems even less appealing than usual. Unless I do a repeat of the performance I did 4 or 5 years ago and break the machine after the first shot. (True story). They left me nude to the waist to go fetch someone to do a fix but the machine was beyond fast troubleshooting. Fortunately, I was NOT compressed at the time. But my co-workers referred to my “boobs of steel” for weeks. In the meantime, I’m tired of the appointment tap dance. I’m thinking seriously of pursuing a job I’m half certain would be a bad fit just because I’d get full-time status if I got the job.
Antiwhine—Experiencing 2 of my daughters’ sense of humor. Middle Daughter did that career meme that’s floating around the blogosphere, and learned that she’d make a good meteorologist. Her response? “And now we see a giant ‘No’ front moving in from the NE” Then Dancing Girl left Bert a message after her first science lab using ball-stick models to represent molecules, telling him that while she had survived, it was obvious that she wasn’t his child—and this was on his birthday. Bert, I might add, was a bio major in college and has worked as a chemist for the past 26 years.
Hugs to Debangel, YT, Scrivener and Margalit.
NUD
A select couple of my whines:
It took my brother exactly one week after my grueling trip to Florida to get himself in trouble with the police and involuntarily committed again.
My best friend of almost 20 years has been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer after months and months of trying to get her doctor to pay attention to the lump that she detected a long time ago. It's almost certain that her cancer's growth sped up because she was pregnant at the end of last year, after a few rounds of in vitro fertilization, but she miscarried both of her babies, one of them quite late in the pregnancy. Fireplacing biology.
My therapist is advising me to do something that sounds completely counterintuitive and at least a little bit insane. Also, it take my completely changing my fundamental responses to very stressful situations, which is hard as hell. However, I have to admit that all the strategies I have been employing, the ones that seem reasonable to me, have completely failed to improve this particular difficult situation. I'm trying to take her advice, but it has me feeling some profound existential angst.
However, as of just now I have some very big antiwhines! The smaller one first, is that I spoke with my brother's new assisted living facility and they seem to believe that my brother got shafted by the police and they have no reservations about taking him back once he gets out of the hospital. Which is good for him and it means, frankly, that I can completely stop worrying about his situation--he's in the psych ward, but he doesn't mind it there and when he gets out he won't be homeless, so I don't have to deal with his situation anymore for now.
The other antiwhine, which at least has the potential for being a ginormous one: my friend had a second opinion consultation today with a top researcher in breast cancer, who told her that it's possible that what the first doctor thought was cancer that had spread from her breast to her liver might only appear to be cancer on the PET scan even though it's actually hemangiomas, which are benign. My friend had an MRI this afternoon, and I have not yet heard the results, but if the spots on her liver are benign that would downgrade her diagnosis to stage 1 or 2! Please think hopeful, healing thoughts for her and keep your fingers crossed.
Oh, hey, and I almost forgot that this week for the very first time I get to contribute a "remembering what it's all about whine"! My nipples really hurt.
Now, it's true that I asked for it, literally, since I paid someone $80 to pierce them, but they still hurt. I'm not really sure I like the piercings either, though I am glad to have done it. It was an interesting experience and in a fireplaced up way, I feel better having done something stupid and out of character.
Chloe walked in to the bathroom yesterday as I was getting out of the shower and saw them for the first time. Her eyes got wide and she asked, "Why do you have those?" Then she ran to get Ella to show her, and Ella asked, "Why do you have earrings on your little thingies?" They both wanted to know how I could sleep with them in and whether I would take them out. Then after about 2 minutes, they were bored with that subject and went off to do something else.
Whine: I spent the evening away from MM (third night in a row)
Anti-whine: I got to witness a beautiful sunset.
Whine: I'm out of the house tomorrow night too.
Anti-whine: Last night and tonight I got home in time to read "Fantastic Mr. Fox" to MM (chapters 1-7). Yay!
Also, I'm all for joining the clue stick posse. I'm pretty uncoordinated though, so anything so difficult as synchronization is out for me. Maybe I can do counterpoint?
Style points (and hugs) to YT!
And a hand to hold (or a lunch delivery) to debangel
Kathy A--I used to sob when dropped off at college, every semester. And when I moved into my post-college apartment. I finally figured out for me, I had to drop off my stuff and then not sleep there. Go back "home" and then the next day it wasn't nearly so bad. Not always possible of course.
Hugs to PK and Lisa V. and Miranda everyone else whining today.
I am grumpy. I am not sure I can even say whiny. I think my hormones (post miscarriage by ~10 weeks) are kicking in. I am a tad irrational--right now I think I hate fall and the indecisive weather and my lack of desire to clean up and my short attention span when playing with my son. When I have a shorter attention span than a 3 year old...not good.
Last week I lamented the lack of trying on the TTC front, but now it seems a bit of self-pity might be turning into something uglier here.
Tonight I asked my husband to basically pat my hand and tell me that yes, my meager part-time teaching income is important, which he did. This is a semi-annual conversation. But this time, it was followed by a panic on his part that if I have to take time off to have a baby, we'll be sans my income, and that's BAD, BAD, BAD. Suddenly now we can't afford another child. Now he's balking at TTC. I fireplacing knew this would happen. I should have kept my fat mouth shut.
And I'm on my period right now, so everything seems worse than it really is. Oi. Please let me go to bed and wake up next week, with a calmer husband by my side.
Oy, Amy. I'm sorry.
Thanks, Liz. I just cannot even believe how crappy today has been from the get go. I'm trying to apply my old therapist's approach: "Meh, it could be worse." And she'd be right. It could be.
Big hugs out there to everybody. There are a lot of substantive whines this week. Here's to a better week, starting tomorrow.
Amy -- so sorry. I know, when you're wanting desperately to have another baby, a husband who is freaking out does NOT make things any better. Many hugs, Chica. I'm thinking of you as well today.
Purple_Kangaroo, it would be in addtion to. I would continue seeing my therapist, he would have his "huff" (her words) with his therapist, and later in the fall we would jointly see another therapist.
It seems like a lot of therapy to teach us to communicate at the same pace.
Hey, y'all! I am completely swamped this morning. I promise to post awards when my class gets out at 1:30.
I'm going to take advantage of Miranda's class to sneak in a last whine. I've decided that my sniffling and feeling blechk is actually a cold, not allergies. In part because D has it too now. He's staying home and resting, but I'm at work. And we're supposed to be driving up to NYC for the weekend and Yom Kippur tomorrow. I'm strongly tempted to cancel.
Sneaking in late, too. This morning I saw my first lit-up Halloween decorations. People! We haven't even had the equinox yet! I thought Halloween was supposed to correlate to Samhain and fall halfway between Equinox and Solstice?
Likewise quite late, but happy to join in the clue-stick brigade. I like high kicks!
(((Scrivener)))
Hugs to all the tired, annoyed, and otherwise disgruntled pixies.
YT: A tree? A TREE?? Oy. Oy.
Debangel: A firm thwack across the nose with a clue stick for your otherwise-darling husband. (Think puppy training.) That is very weird. Um, sandwiches, not so much haute cuisine. If you can use a butterknife, you can make your own damn sandwich. I hope your girls recover soon (ow).
I am too whiny to even whine, and I don't have enough work to do so I am BORED. Soooo bored. And in a continual panic about work. Bored and panicky: now with more yawning adrenaline. Waaaaah.
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