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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Late Closing


My computer's quirks reached a new high this morning, when the exotic "copy and paste" function caused repeated crashes. It is just one of those weeks, I guess. Many thanks for the good pixie wishes after the dog bite incident; dog and master are fine now.


Close Encounters of the Presidential Kind Award to Liz, who reports, "SQUEEEE!"


Happy Family Reunion Award to Redzils, who saved a dog from traffic and reunited it with its family!


Old Skool Award also to Dr. Redzils, who shall be sporting bandaids and a banged up knee to the ceremony honoring her doctorate. As Amy noted, "At the very least, you'll always have the best graduation story to tell at all the faculty cocktail parties. That's worth something, right?"


Elevated Risk of Mullet Award to Esperanza, who concluded her fertility treatment whine by observing that "Waiting till Monday was out of the question, unless I wanted to be the next octuplet mom."


The Everlasting Irony of Mother’s Day Award to Madeleine, for her classic: "Whine: the three pots from the wonderful mother's day breakfast are still on the stove dirty. I was ignoring them on principle but will need to scrub at least one for dinner making."


Joys of Parenting Award to Miranda, whose son earned a justifiable suspension from school.


Heartbreaking Limbo Award to Elizabeth, whose mother turned down a liver because the donor had track marks, fresh and old. Many warm pixie thoughts that she will get her transplant soon.


You Do Not Suck Award to Sue, who is wrangling institutional rules and unreasonable people right and left, about her partial disability. As Liz said so eloquently, "Sue, YOU are not everyone's problem. That their souls are shriveled and shivering in the cold of their frozen compassion is the problem." Esperanza adds harmony: "And a big cluestick for all the meanies. And an I-don't-know-what for the headaches. They can go on a vacation to Antarctica and never come back. Bah!"


The "Is that a Hallmark Event?" Award to Margalit, whose list of whines begins with "First Crack Whore Comes to House."


Great Balls of Ice Award to Madeleine, who followed up on the festivities by calling insurance over the dented car. Madeleine also wins the coveted Sheriff of the Bus Stop Award, for breaking up a fist-fight between two so-called adult men who were dropping off their children. Way to set an example for the kids, dudes!


Baby Blues Awards to Amy, whose baby boy cries himself to sleep at the babysitters, and Sarah at ratatat, whose baby girl refuses to nurse except in a darkened room. Many sympathies.


Sue wins the Full Circle Award with "amy and sarah - hang in there. This too shall pass (omg - the transformation is now complete - that is exactly what my now-deceased mother used to tell me when my boys were babies)." Thanks to Amy for the nomination!


Students! Incoming! Award to Amy, who is relieved to have a new crowd after having to flunk so many plagiarists last semester.


Yikes, Moving Awards to Dr. Redzils, as she prepares to move just about as far as one can get from her current place, and to Esperanza, who says goodbye to her congregation this weekend.

Passing the donuts. Hope everyone finds moments this week that make us laugh ourselves silly!


13 comments:

amy said...

I love my "Students! Incoming!" Award. Thank you so much. You know, it kind of reminds me of an old South Park episode, where Jimbo and Ned go hunting. To justify shooting a bunch of animals they ought not to be hunting, they shout, "They're headed right for us! Quick! Thin out their numbers!" That's kind of how I feel, honestly. We'll see how it pans out.

Madeleine said...

Laughing myself silly sounds like a really good option. Luckily the plan for tomorrow includes seeing the new Star Trek movie.

Sue said...

Many thanks for the Full Circle award!

We'll be thinking of you this weekend esperanza - those closing sermons are tough ones.

I love the "Is this a Hallmark Moment?" award. A pixie classic for sure. No fun for margalit, of course, but a great award.

kathy a. said...

hallmark is appallingly deficient in its categories. where are the fluids? where are the cluesticks, teh mullets, the fireplaces, the old skool? i just want to point out that if your kid gets busted, your co-workers act like they are possessed, your house is infested, hormones are raging, strangers wander into your life and wreak havoc, and/or your car gets dented by hail in may, hallmark is not going to be there for you.

esperanza said...

A mullet!! I will cherish it, thank you so much, though I have a confession: it would only have been the sextuplet mom--I exaggerated by two. I hope that didn't invalidate the award.

Liz Miller said...

The best part is getting this great award!

SQUEEE!!!

Can'tTell said...

Ack! I missed the whining again. But it was a great game, folks. And awards ceremony.

I have a huge antiwhine. The eminent child psychiatrist who was booked out until the end of September (and now, the secretary told me, is booked until the end of October) had a cancellation. The scheduling person called today and asked if we could be there tomorrow afternoon.

Of course I said yes!

Child is very excited about the idea of going to a doctor who helps kids and their parents figure out how their brains work, and how to manage emotions and actions better and meet needs more effectively.

Madeleine said...

Can'tTell, that is exactly the good news I was hoping for. Wishing you great insight and the beginning of progress.

kathy a. said...

great news, can't tell! crossing fingers.

Can'tTell said...

So . . . does "not on the autism spectrum, but on the OCD spectrum" mean diagnosis of OCD, or not? I thought it did, spouse thought it didn't.

Psychiatrist did not think child was actually suicidal, just did not have appropriate words to express the emotions.

kathy a. said...

can't tell -- i think that isn't really a diagnosis, yet. and maybe you don't want a diagnosis until more is sorted out. this was a first visit. and "spectrum" means, the doc is trying to figure out where your child's problems fit, more or less -- which is better than a snap diagnosis.

are you going back for followup? does the doc have questions or concerns that you can think about in the meantime?

very good about that last part. xoxo

Can'tTell said...

Doc said child was "a good candidate for medication"--both for OCD-type issues and for the other issues like difficulty managing when things don't go as expected/desired, emotional outbursts, etc. And said that this was stuff she was likely to continue to struggle with long-term. But that time, therapy and possibly medication would help.

He also fully supported our desire to try therapy without medication first, and said that was what he would do with his own child in a similar situation.

So we're getting hooked up with a therapist who will be working with us from here on out, and he will consult with the therapist and then can manage the medication part if we decide to go that route. I think.

I came away from the appointment feeling like I didn't quite know what exactly had been said or what it meant, but I often come out of Dr. appointments feeling that way.

kathy a. said...

that sounds like a very reasonable approach, trying the therapy first and seeing how it's going.

it makes sense to be cautious about medications, and start slow if you decide to try that route in addition to the therapy. but i have heard that for some people with OCD, the meds can be a tremendous relief -- unshackling them enough from the symptoms that they can function much better.

best of luck! don't be shy about keeping track of questions and asking them.

p.s. -- it must seem a little unsettling to not have a definite diagnosis. so, you might want to ask. but that seems really appropriate, to me. it's not like strep, where a lab test can immediately determine yes or no.

also, children are constantly growing and changing -- it could be that the doctor does not want to saddle your child with a heavy diagnosis at the outset that may not fit in a while. there is still a lot of stigma around mental health issues, even though they affect all of us from time to time.