An update if you care

Since our van is in the shop for a new transmission (thank goodness it's under warranty), we've been using my parents' 2nd car, an old Buick. Saturday night, I think it was, it dies while J is on his way back from the grocery store. We had it towed to our trusted mechanics. (Word to the wise: do NOT let the sheriff's office call a tow truck for you. They have a deal with the company that allows the tow truck people to charge a "flat rate" - which is another word for OMG THAT'S EXPENSIVE. $110 for 3.5 miles.)

So we've been having fun driving everybody around in the last car standing - which constantly has the battery light coming on as the alternator cuts out. It's had the alternator replaced I think 3 times in its lifetime... not sure what the issue is. Maybe at some point I'll call Click & Clack about it. Mom has to be at work by 8:30, M at school by 8:15, and J at work by 9. Musical cars, anyone? Nonna has been meeting M & I in a bank parking lot so she can take M in with her (of course, that means M has to get up at 6:30 am, poor thing.) J has walking pneumonia and so didn't go to work yesterday, and today went in a little late. I wasn't looking forward to tomorrow.

Luckily, today our mechanic called. The Buick was ready to be picked up - know what was wrong with it? IT WAS OUT OF GAS. *sigh* The gas gauge is evidently kaput. I ran to J's office to get him, we went to get the Buick, and then went to school to pick up M, who is sick. Thanks to the kindness of strangers who swiped her card for me (as mine is still in the van, at the dealership) I didn't have to park a huge distance away and walk. Which is good, considering M was in one of those meltdown-carry-me moods. Did I say was?

I'm back home putting the kids down for a nap, but I'm not sure if I'll even be able to get them asleep before I have to go pick up mom.

Oh, and I'm finally coming down with whatever is going around in the house.

And tomorrow our old house gets auctioned. So tonight I have to go get the last few things out of it that I want to keep. This includes a lawn mower, a mattress, a desk, and a few other large items. (In case you wonder why we didn't get them before, it's because some of them we were originally planning on selling, and some (lawn mower) we forgot.)

I'm so tired.

Happy New Year?

Well, is it?

More on my platform

On the Iraq war:

Partially because I paid attention to history, and partially because I'm aware of certain psychological issues that make a difference to people, I knew that going in and taking out Saddam Hussein had a one in a million chance of working. Add to that our dumb-ass cowboy president and his stupid defense secretary who MADE NO PLANS FOR POST INVASION, and it was doomed from the start. I sincerely doubt I would have voted to give his sorry ass permission to invade in the first place. I'm not sure what kind of 'evidence' of WMD the people up on the Hill were shown; perhaps it would have convinced me - but I doubt it. So, if it were up to me, we probably wouldn't be there in the first damn place.

However, having said that - we're there now. I honestly have no idea how to "fix" it. Part of me thinks we should just take all our troops out immediately. Part of me thinks we should go back in the files and pull out the Marshall Plans and actually rebuild the fucking country the right way - which includes stringing war profiteers up by their thumbs, the bloodsucking cockroaches. If it's been proven that you're purposefully overcharging the army for supplies, you don't get future contracts. That should be a given, don't you think? I agree with Eisenhower - the military-industrial complex is a sneaky horror that has sucked enough money and blood from this country over the decades. I haven't read the Iraq Advisory Group's report, but from what I've heard of it, it makes sense. Personally, I think our entire foreign policy should get a major overhaul. That requires a whole lot more detail than I can go into right now. My hand already hurts from typing.

More to come when I'm feeling like it.

Can I have a vacation?

"But you don't have a job!" you say? Well, aside from my job as mommy, wife, and daughter to elderly parents, I want a vacation from reality.

Last night while putting together one of those wire mesh cube thingies that you can use to store things in, I think I broke something in my left hand. Today, J takes the van to work because the buick's gas tank was empty - and the transmission dies. So I go pick him up, take him to work (he's sick, btw), come back to the van, and call Kia. While I'm waiting for the tow truck to come get it, I'm cleaning it out and loading as much as I can fit in the buick. (The van was still full of stuff - we hadn't unloaded it because frankly there was no room in the house for it. Literally.) So at some point I'm going to have to find a place to put some of the stuff out of the buick this afternoon because I have to go pick up J from work. I may or may not have to take the kids with me, which will involve unloading even more stuff. *sigh*

But it's a gorgeous day! And I got to drive alone with my babu to his office. I'm attempting to cook something my kids will actually eat, and then it's naptime for them. Wish me luck!

Putting together my platform

Were I to run for office...

Well, to start on a totally fluffy note, I think Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down would be my theme song. Heh.

I was reading Joe Klein's Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized By People Who Think You're Stupid last night and had this thought: people today are sick and tired of politicians who say what the focus groups tell them will fly; they want someone who is genuine and yet not a freak or unstable. What would happen if a politician stepped forward and said "These are the things that the consultants and focus groups tell me I should say. I don't want to say what these people think you want to hear. I know what _I_ think is important - I want to know what YOU think is important. Here's my phone number. Here's my email address. Here's my mail address. Tell me what YOU think is important. We live in a great republic that was put together so that you could pick leaders to represent you in making decisions for our nation. I, for one, am tired of those representatives in Washington only hearing the people who pay the most."

Back to parenting and unpacking. More later.

Merry sort-of Christmas

Both the kids have been sick, and now pawpaw has come down with it - not to mention we're still living out of boxes - so we've postponed christmas (and M's birthday) this year. Until last night, we had exactly enough floorspace in our room for two twin mattresses and two sleeping bags. Now we've rearranged and moved things - granted, now most of it is piled in the living room next door, but what the hey. The kids were so excited to have open floor; they were running around in circles laughing and giggling. (They've also been cooped up in here for too long.)

So J went back to work today. Blah. It's amazing how quickly I get used to having him around. Last night he reached maximum density with my mom (& dad, to some extent), today it's my turn, I think. Between that and M having an absolute meltdown over everything, I'm rather low on my emotional fortitude.

On the bright side, there is a beautiful male cardinal in the pyrecantha bush outside the window, and for a brief moment anyway, it's not raining. We've got all the bookcases put up, so now I can start putting things away on them.

Hey Kaiser, I hope we didn't miss you entirely - and if we did, dammit! J & I were really looking forward to seeing you while you were in town. Next time, then.

Okay, I'm not fond of this family tradition

So, Moira was sick for her birthday. I say was - still is. Now C's got it too. We're taking bets on who gets it first, me or J.

Happy December Holiday!

That should cover all bases.

We finished at the old house today - even swept the ceiling fans and wiped down the baseboards. The witch that's taking care of it for our out-of-town landlord will probably never notice, and will probably find other things to complain about, but our landlord has been such a sweetheart that I wanted to do all I could.

So J sees these commercials for PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) and comes home and says "hey, you have to check this out - go to understandpmdd.com and see if they have anything useful to say." So I'm looking - their list of treatments include birth control pills and anti-depressants. Okay, doing that already, thanks. But I guess it's nice to know that it's not that we're crazy, but that there's something really wrong. Even if "something really wrong" means "you and your hormones don't get along but we have no further information at this time." At this point I'm curious about what part of my insanity is hormonal, and what part is bipolar. Or if I'm not bipolar at all, and it is borderline personality disorder. Or if the borderline personality disorder was brought on by the hormonal mood swings and slightly odd family life. Oy. I keep wishing for the Star-Trek era medicine, where they scan you and tell you that you have too much magnesium in your body and that's why you're feeling crappy, or whatever.

I've now become tired and don't feel like telling you about the christmas party the kids and I went to tonight, or the company christmas party J & I went to Saturday night. Or much of anything else, really. In case I don't write anything more before then, for the tiny population of people that read this, I hope you have a great and relaxing holiday season.

It's Monday of the last week of moving

aaaaaaand the week before my period. Let the meltdown begin.


Oh, and we decided that we needed just a bit more room in our storage unit, so this week I'm also moving all the stuff two buildings over.

Whatcha think, Bill?

I read this, and heard the quote by Arlen Specter on NPR's Justice Talking (he was bitching about signing statements) wherein he mentioned that Conyers was drafting impeachment papers - I've heard the "I-word" a lot more publicly recently, think there's a snowball's chance in hell? Talk to me of political realities, man!

Actually Spoken During the Course of My Day

"Hey, whaddaya know? Both gay AND Egyptian!"




I almost wish I was still friends with Erinn, who would get that joke.

A day in the life

So I wake up this morning at 5am; M is calling me. I go in there, she says she doesn't feel good, would I read to her? So I'm reading to her for about twenty minutes and then she starts throwing up. So I clean all that and her up, read to her some more, tuck her in, and go lie back down next to C, who is starting to stir. About half an hour later, the sound of retching jerks me out of sleep. (I swear, they should make alarm clocks that sound like your cat or child throwing up - you wake up with this surge of adrenaline, it's unreal.) So I run in there, take care of her again, clean everything up, more clean sheets, etc. Tuck her back in. This time I go lie down in the recliner, so if she starts throwing up again I won't wake up C jumping out of bed. Sure enough, around 6 something? (I've lost track at this point) poor thing starts again. I'm in there, cleaning her up, getting her hair out of her face, etc. - J wakes up, as it's about time for me to start getting M ready for school - I ask if he can get M a blanket, because C is starting to wake up, so I run in there to get him re-settled, and then I think we all go back to sleep - it's kind of fuzzy at this point. Anyway, I vaguely remember him telling me goodbye, he was going to work.

So later, after C wakes me up, I fix him & M breakfast (she says she's hungry, that's a good sign) and we're cuddling up watching a movie. My day starts to go downhill from there - here's the conversation I had with my husband.



10:49 my day has gone from bad to worse
10:49 during a fight my laptop got yanked off the table
10:49 M had a poopy diaper, and for some reason wouldn't let me look at it, I had to basically pick her up to check it
10:49 so went and put her in the bathtub
10:49 then C wanted to get in the bathtub
10:49 and said he was poopy
10:50 so he walked up to me, both of us taking his diaper off at the same time
10:50 turned out he was poopING (so he could get in the bathtub) - had to clean his poop off the bathroom floor - but no biggie, it's solid!
10:51 finished rinsing butts, got M out & dried her, was in the process of prying C out of the tub because he didn't want to come when M comes running back in and says "I pooped!"
10:51 I look down the hallway and there's this big puddle of diarrhea
10:51 so I tell her to get back in the bathtub, turn the water back on, hand them the spray handle, and close the curtain
10:52 I can't get it all out of the carpet without a carpet cleaner
10:52 my hands now smell like orange peels, vomit, and shit, so I'm not sure how I'm going to eat my grits (which I'm sure are cold by now)

10:59 I just had to go back there and check on the screaming - M had pooped in the shower, and C had closed the bathtub drain
10:59 so I empty out all the poopy water, tell M if she thinks she has to go again to try to make it to the potty
11:00 as I say "do you understand?" she poops again.
11:00 so I wash C off, take him out, and dry him off and get him dressed. M is in the shower by herself now.



This is why when I fill out forms that ask for my employment I don't put "unemployed" - I put "Stay-at-home-mother" - because this is a job, dammit, and if I were doing this for money you'd have to pay me an awful lot.

I'm going to go try to make more progress towards moving out of this house. As J put it, the kids are still alive, so it's okay. Nothing else is really all that important.

I'm making up retorts in my head

After all this stress, all this... and they don't show. No phone call, nothing. I'm already composing things to say when I do hear from the realtor. My initial reaction when I answer the phone? "Oh my god, are you okay? Are you in the hospital? Because I was expecting you at my house XXX HOURS AGO."

Grumpy does not even begin to describe me. I could have spent all this time much more productively sorting and packing, dammit. And not so stressed out that I was stressing out my husband and children, and having mini nervous breakdowns.

Ah, well. Time done and gone. I've discovered a new movie that I'd never seen before that I really enjoy. I have no idea where it came from, but Sinbad was in our group of kids' movies that I finally put in the other day. Wheeeee! Goofy, unrestrained, comedic-romantic adventure. Just my kind of thing, especially when stressed.

Stolen from Dan (a great writer)

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader   You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Fad Reader
Non-Reader

Yay for Depo!

Soon, no more periods! That'll be nice. The lack of hormonal cycling should make life a little more even for me; we'll see how it goes.

On a totally different note, I got the letter from FSU the other day. The whole "thanks for submitting your application, it's denied" letter. *sigh* Okay, I know nothing is simple, especially nothing worth getting, but goddammit I was hoping THIS at least would be simple right now! ARGH! So going back to school and finishing my 4 year degree will take a little longer to get restarted. Oh, well. When I'm done moving and trying to sell my house before it's foreclosed I'll get back on that.

Back to packing! Two weeks left! Oh, and we have to show the house this Sunday to the people who are taking it. So I wonder, if they change their minds, do we still have to be out by the 15th? I mean, why else would they want to look at it again? They've seen it before, they've seen pictures - they just want to do a walk-through. I got smart-ass with the realtor when she said they wanted to see it again; I said "tell them it looks exactly the same except the carpet is dirty."

What am I doing blabbing in here? Gotta run! Hey, if any of you would like to watch the kids for a little while in the next two weeks, any sort of babysitting would be wonderful. I love them to death, but they're killing me.

Webcomic addiction strikes again

Irregular Webcomic is one of my favorites, because of days like this one.

Where are you?

Just for fun, thought I'd go ahead and put one of these in.

Okay, I'm done with this.

I have a doctor's appt. tomorrow morning. I'm going to discuss with him the pros and cons of ceasing to menstruate, because this is sucking. J & I think we've discovered what the spike of insanity is that happens right around now in my cycle - I'm ovulating. (And my body would like to make it known that we can thank the right ovary this month. Ouch.) That spike of estrogen sends me off the deep end every time. I seem to suffer from excess estrogen (according to the list of symptoms here, anyway) - I'd love to actually have some testing over time to see what my hormone levels actually are.

Gotta get to work. No kids at the moment, yay!

Wheeeeee!

Went and saw Casino Royale tonight. Loved it. (Funnily enough, my friend Patrick evidently went to see the same flick tonight with some buddies - I have no idea if he was in the same theatre or not. heh.) This is my favorite Bond movie, and I've seen them all. I wonder if they'll do more like this? Actually going by the books, that is...

As I start to come home, I start getting a bit sad, thinking that I'm coming home to two screaming kids, and a messy house that we're packing up, etc... having just spent two hours looking at glamour (and violence, yes, but violence in very trendy, expensive places), it's a bit of a mental readjustment for me to come back to reality. And then it hits me - I'm going home to my Vesper Lynd. I married my best friend, and he's there for me when I come home - what more do I want? Bond would give a body part for that.

Not sure what to do with this... have I mentioned this already?

Every time Moira goes potty, and I ask her if she wiped (because she forgets) I get this LOOK, and she says "Don't talk to me."


Is it friday yet? Altho that's a double edged sword - fridays sort of mean I get J home more, but it also means it is that much closer to when we've got to be moved out.

I'm going to finish my champagne. Night, all.