Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of April 2005. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Fri, April 29, 2005 (9:00am) No HitchHikers. (sigh). This is just not gonna work out. I may knowwhere my towel is, but my brain... that's another matter entirely. But I get to play Purgatory tonight! Yay! |
| Thurs, April 28, 2005 (1:55pm) AAAAARRRRG! I didn't include the date: Friday - I meant Friday, when HHGttG Premieres. Not tonight! But Star has kindly reminded me that the Purgatory game is this Friday. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGG! I really, really wanna see the premiere. But - but - Purgatory! I wonder if I would be able to play the first couple hours of Purgatory and then take off for the movie? But really, who else would come with me at that point? Many ofthe people I'd want to hit the premiere with would still be playing Purgatory, and I'm certainly not gonna duck out early with a quarter of the player base in tow. Grrr. Dilemma! Dilemma! Must think. Ouch. think hurts. Um... updates as events warrant. But I don't think this is gonna work out as well as I'd hoped. |
| Thurs, April 28, 2005 (10:45am) Do You know where Your Towel is? Anyone interested in seeing Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 9:50pm at the Galaxy Theater in Sherwood Park? We're planning a decent sized group to hit the premiere. Bring your towel. If you need me to pick up tix for you, lemme know - I'm in Sherwood Park already, and grabbing tix isn't a problem. Note: if Sherwood Park is too inconvenient for too many people, out back-up plan is to catch the 9:55pm showing at Clareview Cineplex. |
| Sat, April 23, 2005 (9:00pm) One of Those Other Days In sharp contrast to Thursday, today's been one of those days when things go really, really well. Despite going to bed about an hour later than I'd promised myself I would, and having to get up 4 times in the night to deal with an errant daughter, I still felt relatively refreshed in the morning. I had time to shower before work, packed my lunch, and arrived at work early to discover two very competent receptionists had arrived even earlier than I had. Patients were grumpy as usual about the long wait to see a Dr. but things went pretty smoothly. No crises to deal with, no calls to 911. In fact, the most medically complicated thing we saw today was a suture removal. I even had time to do half of the evening cleaning duties so my co-worker was pleasantly surprised when she arrived at shift change. Came home to discover Shades had had a less than ideal day with the kids, but I had the energy to cope with the screaming, the shouting, the sand being tracked in by our daughter, and the dirty diapers produced by both male offspring. Cleaned. Bathed kids. Made supper. Cleaned more. Played with kids. Doled out medications as necessary, and trundled them all off to their respective beds. They've been down for an hour, and so far no signs of trouble. And the most complicated decision I'm gonna have to deal with this evening is whether to read a book or watch a DVD before going to bed. (On time, tonight.) BTW, thank you to many people who took time to email me with encouraging words, or horror stories of their own. I generally don't need that sort of thing (supreme being that I am, and able to handle all the world's troubles with a single hand, ya know) but on days when I'm feeling infanticidal, it's good to know I'm not alone. |
| Thurs, April 21, 2005 (3:30pm) Just One of Those Days (Disclaimer: You don't need to read this. It's not a cute kids story. It's not amusing nor enlightening. It's just me, venting.) I was Play School Duty Mom, today. Kinda fun, 'cuz today the class had a special visit from a clown/magician, who did tricks and made balloon animals for the kids. Kinda trying, too, because the morning and afternoon playschool classes were combined for this special event, and that meant 20 hyper kids shouting and bouncing and waving balloon animals everywhere. We got home a little late. Normally lunch is at noon(-ish). I, however, needed a coffee and some time to de-stress after dealing with all those kids, all morning long. While de-stressing, I heard screaming from Kalen's room. Kale had pushed her baby brother, and he'd fallen on his face, getting a bleeding lip. I tried to calm him, and ignored the fact that Connor seemed to be playing in the bathroom. (Connor likes filling the sink full of water, and as long as he doesn't cause any floods, I don't have a problem with it.) Kalen shouted a bit, but was generally as good as one can expect a tired and hungry 4-yr old to be. A little while later, I heard dripping from the bathroom. Yep, Connor had caused a flood. Or more accurately, a spray. He'd been turning the tap on full-blast, and then pressing his hand to the faucet to cause the water to spray everywhere. So it wasn't just a wet floor I was dealing with, but wet walls, damp door, dripping toilet, soggy towels, drenched toilet paper rolls, puddles on the counter, and soaked clothes on Connor. Grabbing handfuls of towels, I cleaned it up (mostly), stripped Connor down, and went to find him clean clothes. In the middle of this, Jasen started to scream. Understandably, 'cuz he's hungry and tired and still bleeding a bit from his lip. I start to deal with Jase, prepping him a bottle. Kalen screams from the living room. "MOM!! Connor is peeing on the carpet!" Sure enough, with his pants already off, Connor had removed his diaper and decided to relieve himself. I put Jasen down so I can deal with this new mess. Jasen screams. Kalen shouts, because Jasen is screaming, and also because Connor peed on her sock (which she'd taken off earlier and left in the living room). I shout for peace and quiet, and get neither. It registers on me that the migraine which had been cooking in my frontal lobes all morning as Play School Duty Mom has just come to the fore. My head throbs. Taking Connor by the hand, I bring him to the bathroom to get wiped down, and cleaned up. Jasen follows, screaming. Cleaning Connor up isn't too hard, but he starts crying because he's hungry and naked and confused, and because Jasen's screams are echoing offf the bathroom walls. Then Jasen decided to play in the toilet. I have Connor (now clean) in my arms, ready to take him out of the bathroom, but can't just leave Jasen to splash in the toilet, so I transfer Connor to my hip, and use my free hand to reach for Jasen. I somehow step on a patch of wet floor, missed during the post-flood clean-up. Overbalanced as I am, I slip in the water and go down. My knee gets bashed on the floor, and my hand gets smacked on the doorknob (which I guess I grabbed for support, but missed). That's not the worst, though: Connor got his face knocked on the bathroom counter as I fell, and now has a bleeding nose. Connor shrieks in pain. Jasen screams as I grab him by the arm, and pull him away from the toilet. I push both boys out of the bathroom, which has now become an echoing torture chamber of auditory peril. Holding my hands to my head, I try to force my brain back into the confines of my skull. It isn't working. Kalen comes up and starts shouting at me, because she wants something, and wants it NOW! And I snapped. I shouted at Kalen to go to her room (which instead caused her to break down and start crying). I pushed the screaming baby away (toppling him over). I tried to simultaneously comfort Connor and muffle his screams against my shirt, to make the noise stop. Connor screamed even louder (in retrospect, probably because I was pressing his injured nose against my chest). At this point, my nerves were shot. Completely gone. (It really doesn't take much screaming to push me over the edge when I've got even half of a migraine, and 3 kids screaming at once is enough to drive anyone mad). Several thoughts crossed my mind in quick succession, and all of them involved some sort of retaliation against, or injury to, my children. So I did what I promised myself I would do in this situation. Instead of beating anyone's head against the wall, or kicking my child, or shaking the baby, I grabbed the phone and called my best friend. Then I took the phone with me onto the balcony, and cried. Well, the crying wasn't really part of my original plan, but it helped. So did talking to someone sane and adult. Well, adult and not currently screaming at me... which was close enough to my definition of sane, and definitely much closer to sanity than I was at that point. She offered sensible advice like "Just leave the room, and calm down" and helped me sort out which crisis to deal with first: Give the hungry baby a bottle to make it shut up. Give the phone to Kalen so she could talk/whine to an adult who cared. Get Connor and deal with the blood. I calmed down. My headache receded to tolerable proportions. I got back in control of myself. This is good, because mere moments later I discovered that Kalen, in the midst of all her screaming and shouting, had managed to deadbolt the balcony door, locking me outside. Not a big problem. Really. The front door of the house was open, so I just went around. I'm not sure I could have handled that a few minutes earlier. I might have punched the window in my frustration, and then we'd have had glass and bleeding and all that to worry about. Luckily, all the bleeding in the house had pretty much stopped by the time I got in the front door. Once Jasen was fed & in bed, and Connor's injury dealt with, the world was a quieter place. This let me have the calm and peace of mind to deal with the aftermath of this unpleasant episode: cleaning the blood, the urine, and the puke (Kalen threw up from the stress. She gets that from me - the ability to throw up at the drop of a hat.) Then Star showed up half an hour later, and offered to take my kids off my hands, so I could take some Ibuprofen and lie down. She is a goddess, I tell you. I even have physical proof: She brought me Vanilla Chai, and a pretty bracelet, and cute shirts for the kids (it's harder to strangle kids when they're wearing cute clothes), and she took Kale and Connor away. So, the older kids are gone, and the baby is napping quietly. The world is peaceful again. I feel stupid for losing control, but at least I didn't do anyone any serious injury. Sometimes I need to remind myself of that: parenthood isn't easy, and sometimes it can cause temporary insanity... but if you can put off acting on that insanity, it will pass. Now, I'm gonna go take a nap. |
| Tues, April 19, 2005 (9:05pm) Fun fact of the day: our family spent well over $1000 on medication in the last year. Shades is processing paperwork for his medical insurance (through work) and it looks like we'll be able to get about $900 back. This is good, 'cuz I was starting to wonder if I needed an extra job just to cover medical expenses. Bah! My own fault, I guess, for producing asthmatic and autistic offspring. But they're cute little spawn, and who wants "normal" kids, anyway? |
| Mon, April 11, 2005 (4:50pm) Kale: MOM MOM MOM!!! Raven: Ouch, Kalen - Don't! Please. I have a migraine. Noise hurts. Kalen: What's a migraine, Mom? Raven: It's kinda like a headache. Mommy has a pain in her brain. Kalen: A pain in your brain? Mommy, brain rhymes with pain! Raven: That's right. Clever girl. Please calm down, now. Kalen: Thin rhymes with pin! Raven: Uh, yep. It does. Kalen: Hot rhymes with pot! Raven: Good rhyming, Kale. Kalen: And Tentacle rhymes with Pentacle! Raven: ... Oh, I am in so much trouble once you're in school. - - - Been busy playing phone games with Family Support for Children with Disabilities. After my intake appointment, Connor's worker went on Maternity Leave a little sooner than expected (by Dr's orders) and no one got back to me. I phoned the office several times attempting to find out who was covering my workers' cases, and left multiple messages on the supervisor's voice mail, and was summarily ignored for over 2 weeks. Today I finally got my new case worker's name & number, via the teachers at Connor's school, and managed to talk to her. She's new to the job and has been doing orientation for the past week. We talked, however, and she gave me an idea of how far along the application was (she has a lot of stuff to deal with, and is only just learning the ropes). It's gonna be a while, but at least I know we haven't been lost to the void. I hope to post a Connor monthly report sometime soon, which I am yet again late with. Bah - I've been having fun playing with him and working with him. If my weblogging suffers, so be it. - - - And a very quick summary of: The Interpid Shapiro vs. The Allergist, Round Two Took Kid Attitude for her allergy testing. The Allergist said he was not expecting to see me again so soon with my other son, but he was a cute little sport. "I'm not a boy!" Kid Attitude fired off at our arch-nemesis, indignantly. "So don't call me Sport!" Taken aback, the Allergist attempted to sooth her ire with offers of a Lollipop. She accepted this appeasement, and we moved on to the testing. Again, there was struggling. Unlike Autistic lad, Kid Attitude did not remain silent under the Allergist's assault, but rather let loose with her Sonic Scream - a power which has been perfected by Banshee Babe, but is still a potent weapon in his siblings. The testing was completed only with promises of further lollipop treats. When The Allergist returned to review the results, I was ready. Peanut were lethal, he declared, but I was armed with the knowledge of how to work an Epi-Pen 'Junior', and the Allergist's prescription for that item was taken in stride. I fended off warning about environmental allergens with the information that we were stripping the carpets in the bedrooms to lay down hardwood. The couch is being re-upholstered. We are equipped with a nebulizer and we administer pulmicort and ventolin as required for respiratory difficulties. The Allergist seemed surprised that his previous warnings had been heeded (as if, perhaps, he is used to his advice falling on deaf ears, or perhap on non-compliant allergy sufferers?) and he completely forgot to issue any warning that all visitors must be dressed in air-tight haz-mat suits in order to not leave their pets' dander in our dwelling place. We prepared to depart, my mind reeling with the heady feeling of victory, when Kid Attitude let out another shreik of indignation. She had been promised a second lollipop following the procedure, and that lollipop had not been provided! The Allergist and his assistant fled to protect their ears, and the latterreturned quite quickly with the object of desire. Kid attitude ceased her display of outrage, and we left in peace. Final Score Allergist: 1 Intrepid Shapiro: 1 Kid Attitude: 2 |
| Wed, April 6, 2005 (9:55am) Hrm. Haven't posted for a week, have I? Okay, then... let's do A Week In Review! Friday, April 1st: Bought Sims2 University Expansion And, yeah, that pretty much brings us up to today. Or were there some intervening days that I missed? - - - BTW: On Friday (before installing the game, thankfully) I checked out a link which a friend sent me. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I think that anyone who has done overseas teaching would appreciate it, too: I am a Japanese High School Teacher (Thanks for the link, A!) |