2.03.2006

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Blog Outline-Style

(Note: I outlined this on the posted date, but made it partially readable on 2/5)

Since the last post, things have been moderately crappy. There hasn't been anything particularly horrible--in fact there have been some wonderful moments--but by and large we have not managed to get all three kids down before 10 P.M. for many days, and that is a very bad situation for a solitude-dependent person to be in. It makes me really fucking grouchy, especially as the evening wears on.

Reminder to self of what happened in the last seven days:

-Dragged Seymour to see the house that would solve all our problems were we to simply cut and move. A second viewing made me moon over all the built ins, and how nicely we'd slip into all the round holes and solve our space problems/sleep problems. The drawbacks--living in W00dside (far), being on a road, losing our seclusion and gorgeous views and walking access to the local open space preserve, seemed tradeable to me. However I figured Seymour would need to mull and so I let him.

Two nights later we talked and realized that the logistics of moving (and showing the house, if we needed to) had saddled us both with constant nausea. We shelved the topic until after our architect design meeting.

In the meantime I spent the week mulling over how to rearrange our house for livability, so Leelo can have own space. We've decided to give him our office, wholly. For therapy and sleeping. That way we can live in our house and Iz can get more sleep, as her really loud and not very sleepy at all brother will be in a separate room. The office will relocate to a corner of our living room, and will be screened off.

Then we had a fantastic design meeting Friday, with the architects. They made a tiny model of our new home out of Taz0 boxes! I have pictures somewhere. The house is going to be unbelievable--any worries we had about size or livability were taken care of. Oh my Lord will that house be amazing if it truly does manifest in our yard. (Ms. Jane, back me up here!)

-Iz took the Big Noggin brain blaster test. I waited out in the parents' lounge with Sandia, as her son Jorge's teacher had encouraged him to apply. I also sat next to a mom whose autistic younger son was in Leelo's class this past summer school, whose older son was taking the test, and around whom I always manage to expose myself as the world's biggest asshole. Don't know why.

-Sage had me and a bunch of unbelievably cool Mama friends over to her house for homemade dinner and hanging out without the kiddlings (well, except Mali--but she was mostly charming). Lots of jokes about services, our kids not fitting in, etc. How lovely that we all fit in with each other--what a gracious, amazing group of parents. I am grateful to Sage for bringing us all together.

Also I found a bottle of cognac in our cabinet and that--coupled with Badger's donating home-grown lemons to my cause--spurred me to learn how to make sidecars for everyone. Slurp! And thanks to DoubleTrouble for actually doing the mixing when Mali made with the separation anxiety.

-Finally slapped my butt on the BlogHer Mommy and Family blogroll. Still musing about attending.

-Signed up for Grace Davis's Woolfcamp. Definitely attending (again, with Miss Mali).

-Finally joined F1ickr.

-Sacrificed half of Leelo's Monday critical morning OT session to go to awards ceremony at Iz's school (thank you Ep for helping with Leelo), and was glad that I did so as Iz got her class's academic achievement award! Her first award! She was so excited. Later that week she finally won the "Respect" award she's been desperate to get for so many months. I would be more excited myself if she was doling out more of that respect on the home side.

-Laid down new law with Iz. There will be no more disrespect, whining, or dissociating oneself from one's deeds. She is spoiled rotten and it is our fault and now we will fix it before the putridity becomes permanent. She can be a very good kid (and is so sweet and patient with Leelo), but we still need to perform an exorcism on her evil twin--that little bitch is not living in my house, not one day longer.

-Realized Iz's teacher just doesn't get how to do celebrations and in-class festivities, so I arranged with her to do Valentine's day projects before and on the day (she suggested we lump all February celebrations into one day, maybe the 21st...).

-Either Seymour or I had an event every single evening of the week. By Friday it was evident that such an arrangement is untenable, and not just because it makes me too tired to blog episodically. Marroqui helped with the Mali and Iz almost every night, because she is saintly.

-Monday evening's fest was an Iron Gate meeting about building your kids' character, etc., durrrh. Some good points, but mostly review for any thinking parent. However I picked up Anya and Carys on way there, and they reinforced our resolve and love for the neighborhood. Also, they too went through an epic horror of a house build and testified that It Will Be Worth It.

-Hooked up cool Iron Gate friends with possible gig at the Cafe and also Seymour is going to redo the husband's really crappy web site (Dude, it has frames and contains no meta tags, and it is his business site). I will link back when it gets set up, so y'all can hear what an amazing jazz pianist this friend is.

-My Dad had surgery on Tuesday. They had to removed a quarter-sized divot from his nose, and do a skin graft. My mom is pissssssed as she'd been railing at the dermatologist to biopsy the site for over a year. She also had formal portraits done of the two of them the previous week, just in case the surgeon really did have to carve my Dad's nose up.

-Wednesday saw possible preschool for Leelo. I went in thinking "Pshaw, therapeutic preschool, does he really need that?" I came out thinking that our boy would be the lowest-functioning child in the class, were he to join. Not a good feeling. Also it sucked to recognize a student who was in Leelo's infant-toddler language class two years ago and who was at the time much lower functioning than our boy, and who now not only has conversational language skills but can ride bikes like a wild man. *Sigh* We will sign Leelo up for their summer school at the very least.

-Wednesday afternoon Leelo's new therapist, Therapist C, came over for a training session with Supervisor M. Have a good feeling about her. Later that day Therapist Y asked if he could switch his Thurs. shift to Wednesday and I almost killed him. Later I explained that I had just hired Therapist C the day before, and any time before then would have been a good time to let me know he wanted to work Wednesdays. However Therapist C was cool with the switch. Whew.

-That same day I also forced myself to draw a single frame cartoon. Even though it sucked. I will really really try to do this once each week even if they all suck. I have to get my drawing brain back, somehow.

-Invested* in new nursing bras, as Mali's not going on the wagon any time soon. I am sick of wearing bras held together with safety pins and frayed threads, and that could give my mother the ex-ER nurse a stroke (one must never wear undergarments that one wouldn't want the ER staff to see after you get in an accident).
*The truly stacked can never merely purchase bras. We sell stocks and plunder money market accounts in order to fund our foundations.

-Thursday Mary Tsa0 of Mom Writes came to Bad Moms' coffee. Boy did I ever yammer! I am simply incapable of meeting new people without nervously overchattering or hiding in a corner.

-Friday Tia Izobel called, she is having surgery on her back on Monday. If it goes well, she will be out of considerable pain. If it goes badly she may not walk again. Please think good thoughts.

-That same day I completely spaced on picking up Sophie from school, even though I do so every single Friday. I didn't even realize I'd bonked until the next morning, when I checked my calendar as I do every morning because my memory is so bad, and which I had done on Friday morning. Note to anyone depending on me for anything: Call to Confirm! And deepest apologies to Jo. FUCK.

No more overscheduled weeks. No more. That is it.

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