Okay lady, now you've crossed the line...

Wow, today.

Chris did not have to wrestle the OT guy.  OT guy took one look at my hand and said, "Wow, you've got a rash!"  He said he'd never seen an allergic reaction to that material before.  "Why didn't you come see me?" he asked.  Uh, because I thought wearing plastic was supposed to suck?  I figured it was supposed to be sweaty and itch.  Apparently I was wrong.  He supported the idea of leaving the splint off and had me leave it with him so he could dispose of it.  He said to use the fabric splint if my hand acts up and to try to avoid lots of gripping activities... like writing.  I'll bring my laptop to school to take notes (once again I am inspired to thank Tracy profusely for giving me her laptop) and Camille- it looks like more and more of my letters will be typed.  I think that sucks because I really like handwriting.  Maybe I will become ambidextrous.

Jennyway, where the hell was I?  Um.  So the OT guy told me to go see Urgent Care because the rash looked like heat rash but he wanted to make sure it was seen by a doctor.  Before I left he asked if he could show the other OT.  She was equally amazed, she had also never seen a reaction to that plastic before.  "Well, I am special," I said.  Ta-da!

In Urgent Care I was assured that it was in fact an allergic reaction.  They added notes to my chart but also warned me to remember that I have an allergy to plastics and the next time I have an IV I should ask for paper tape.  Sheesh.  Maybe I'll start carrying Benadryl with my insulin.  Lol.

I came home from VA exhausted.  It has been a really long week.  I took a quiz Wednesday and found out yesterday that I got a 95.  I don't know how many other people did that well, but the teacher said the highest grade was a 95, the lowest was 50.  Ouch.  I felt confident until she went over the quiz on Thursday and I was sure I had a C.  Then she handed them out and I felt both proud and a little guilty.

Much like the surgery, I knew this class would be intensive, I just didn't know HOW intensive.  The class starts at 8 and I'm having some trouble getting up.  After school I'm going to work and trying to read and accomplish things in a boring environment.  There isn't a lot to do, but there are lots of people and interruptions.  I come home from work feeling- and probably looking- like a zombie.

Today I came home from the VA and started to read my fun book only to start dozing.  Chris volunteered to pick up Bubba and I gratefully headed to bed.  I woke up when Chris thundered in, saying, "I'll see you tomorrow."  Huh?

He was all excited about having a weekend off, but his boss got a call from one of their regular clients talking about a show and the sound guy needing to be in Minden at 3.  I think he woke me up around 5:30.  He was out the door so fast.  It was a horrible way to wake up, especially when I found out that all the equipment he had hoped to drop off with his boss that was needed for the show was packed into the Dodge and he didn't have time to transfer it to the van.

Ant and Bubba hovered nearby as Chris grabbed a shirt and some underwear and ran out the door.  Ant politely asked if he and Bubba should play outside for a while so I could nap.  "You look sick," added Bubba.  I'm not sure if that was legitimate or an attempt to get permission to go play.  I told them to be in and done in an hour and started trying to become coherent.  I checked the kitchen and realized we would be walking to Little Caesar's for dinner.

When the boys came in I got to visit with Bubba for a little while.  He told me what had been going on with some family issues and why we were asked to take him for the weekend.  Ant was talking back and showing off in front of Bubba.  I warned him twice and finally invited him to sit on his hands in the hallway.  As we were preparing to go Ant asked if they could go look for something they'd found on their earlier adventure.  I said no, that we were walking to the pizza place.  He told me they'd be outside, told me to hurry up, and slammed the door.  I suppressed the urge to throttle him.  I gathered my purse, a zippy, and bags to carry the food.  When I opened the door I saw Bubba, but no Ant.  Jesus.  Bubba went looking for him for me while I shook my head.  When they returned Ant gave me the feeble story that he thought I said yes.  Child...

Keep in mind this is the kid who has not turned in his book reports.  He is in trouble.  We took Bubba because Bubba's dad is someone we can rely on and we like to be there for them too.  Our kids are best friends and sometimes it's hard to get them together.  I was not enthused about rewarding Ant with a weekend-long sleepover but Bubba is treated like a member of our family, not a guest.  He is responsible for his own messes and knows where the line is with me.  I am not worried about entertaining him all weekend.  He volunteered to help Ant with his book reports, because Ant WILL be working on his book reports.  Not all weekend, but this is not going to be all party time.

So we're walking and Ant is being a monkey.  I allow this to an extent because he's got energy to burn off and he's excited that Bubba's there, but of course he's taking it WAY too far.  He comes close to eating it several times and once we get to Little Caesar's he's pulling their balloons off the wall and trying to swing on a sapling outside.  KNOCK IT OFF.

The pizza takes forever and the children are practicing parkour outside.  I am hoping to be abducted by aliens.

I get the requested 3 meat pizza for the kids, cheese for me, and a 2 liter of Diet Pepsi.  "Aw, why didn't you get root beer," cries Ant.  I decide that pouring the soda over his head could be construed as child abuse.  We make it around the corner where the kids continue hauling ass across the parking curbs.  I am certain that they will plow right into some customer and corral them both.  I ask them to stop.

We make it all the way into the apartment complex where Ant decides he is not done yet.

There are two fences dividing our apartment complex from a retirement home.  On our side is a chain link fence, theirs is wood.  Their side has a big drop.  These fences are right up against one another and on our side is a curb.  Ant ran to parkour his way across the fence.  Can you imagine what happened?

Ant's foot went through the bottom of the chain link fence between the fence and the curb and continued at a downward angle underneath the bottom of the wood fence where his shoe caught.  The curb kept his leg on the diagonal while the rest of his body tried to fall to the asphalt.  He was immediately and quite comically stuck.  He panicked and started screaming at Bubba who was trying to unpin him as I set the pizzas down.  Together- and with a lot of effort- we freed him.

Inside we ate pizza and the boys watched a movie.  Afterwards Bubba wanted to play video games but Ant knew he was grounded.  He tried apologizing as he took the dogs out but I was not satisfied with the I-want-something-now apology.  I told him to think about it and come back in to talk to me.

When he came back in he was almost in tears.  He said he was upset because everyone was yelling at him today.  Of course I was one of those people, but who else?  "My teacher," he said.  She yelled at him in class over the book reports, embarrassing him in front of everyone.  Then he told me about the tie he wore to school- the one he got at a thrift store.  It's neon green and black checks, a very emo looking item.  The boys said it made him look gay, but the girls liked it so he kept it on all day.  During a math test some kid was staring at the tie and making rude gestures.  Ant waved him off and earned trash duty from the teacher.  "I guess that's why I had a bad attitude," he said.  Then he told me that the teacher said that we must not care about his school work at home so she'll have to take care of it there.  Excuse me, what?  He said the other 5th grade teacher had seen Ant and Chris laughing together while heading into the store to get shoes.  She reported back to Ant's teacher that Chris obviously didn't care about his child's education.  Oh hell no.  I think this parent teacher conference is going to involve the principal.

By the way, Ant has been working on the book reports.  He read the book while we were at the laundromat on Wednesday, when we got the call from the school counselor.  Thursday he read and began working on a rough draft.  Today he worked on the rough draft at school.  He'll be working this weekend.  I want him to turn in something he's worked hard on, I want this to be his best effort, not some rushed piece of crap.  He got all annoyed on Wednesday when I told him we would be reading new books rather than using a book he'd already read for the projects.  "But that will take forever," he whined.  Not if you spend a lot more time per day reading.  Shouldn't have put it off, huh?

We talked a lot about the consequences tonight.  He felt like the teacher was being mean, (which she totally was, but I'll be taking that up with her) but I really wanted him to associate that feeling with the choice he made to avoid and delay the problem.  We went over a lot.  He says his teacher will be at school tomorrow so he's hoping to pick up his rough draft.  I'm also hoping she's there, but for a different reason.

Reading is for emo kids too.

Today is Friday (Curse you, Rebecca Black!) and this is my day off.  Well, almost.  There are always necessary things to do.  I haven't finished my other books from Book Arts- I'd really like to get those out of the way.  My de Quervain's tenosynovitis is acting up again.  That ding dong doctor told me to take the splint off two weeks ago.  It was what I wanted to hear and it didn't hurt, so I went with it.  Wednesday it started to hurt a lot and there were a couple twinges that changed my expression, to be sure.  I already had an appointment with the OT lined up so today I'm dragging Chris along.  I want the OT to show him exactly where the problem is and how it is not being improved.  I may be in for a rough decision- to get a shot in my hand- and he is pretty objective in these circumstances.  I also want him there in case this guy wants to roll his eyes at me.  I'm doing what I was told; these two doctors need to get on the same page.  I have already explained to Chris, though I'll say it again before we leave, that I want him there in a supportive role- and further specified that I mean supportive to me, not the doctor.  You know how he behaves when we are trying to buy something large- it's him and the salesman against me.

Ant is in a bit of trouble.  He had 3 book reports due this month and he hasn't turned in two so far.  The first was due over two weeks ago, yet nobody told us.  The school counselor called Chris on Wednesday after he didn't turn in the second one.  Where's the teacher?  "She's busy," says Ant.  Um...

So Ant's got a lot of work to do.  He picked a book for the first one that he got overwhelmed by and just stopped reading.  When the first report was due he asked the teacher if he could read something else.  She agreed, he started reading another book and still hadn't finished it by the time the second report was due.  We are annoyed and learning that we both must take more time to work with him.  Yesterday I came home to find that he had washed the kitchen floor with Endust.  Now, this child has been mopping with me for the last four years and we have never used anything but Mr. Clean.  Why the change?  Well, you have to pour Mr. Clean in the sink with water.  Endust sprays!  What kills me is that he is not reading anything he looks at.  He just guesses at what things say.  My inner evil stepmother is urging me to make him read everything we pass that has words out loud.  If he gets something in the mail from the family he will look at the letter, say, "Uh-huh!" and move on to whatever they sent him.  I make him read it out loud.  When I called him on not reading the Endust can he started whining.  "I HATE reading!"  Ahhhhahhhhhgggghhrrrrssssoob sob sob.  We marched (Okay, I marched.  He slunk.) into his room where I began yanking books off his shelf.

"You hate this?"
"No."
"You hate this?"
"No."

And so on.  I asked him what he liked about each one.  He said he liked a couple of them because they had large print, so I grabbed all of his Uncle John Bathroom Readers and everything like it.  He loves anything with weird true facts.  None of those books have large print.  He is Mr. Excuse Man- every time we talked about a book his little puppy dog eyes would fill up with tears.

"Those [large print] are easier to read, but my teacher won't let me!"  Make sure the pitch goes up as the sentence ends.  This poor, poor child!

"I like Magic Pickle, but -sob- she says they're too easy for me!"

"I DO like those books (Roald Dahl) but -sob- I've already READ those ones!"

I should have brought some Kleenex to the pity party!  I swatted down his excuses as patiently as I could and tried to be kind.  We found several completely appropriate chapter books in his bookshelf.  Three book reports to go, one book read... I told him that he had to read There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom.  He pitched a FIT!  Of course, he has no idea how funny and touching this book is and how much he's going to enjoy it.  He just hates not being able to choose something himself.  Tough, I told him.  He picked out the first book and didn't read it, picked out its replacement, and will be able to pick out the last book.  I even told him we could go to the bookstore and I'd buy him any book he wanted for that last choice.

We'll be going to meet with Ant's teacher.  While we're there, I will check out the books she says are appropriate for his reading level.  And he'll read in front of me.  I'll read what he reads.  When he finds something he likes he's all into it and trying to tell me the story.  He had a really big book he loved that was sort of a loose continuation of The Wizard of Oz about a girl named Jenny.  He thought that was funny and the book was crazy.  He was really enjoying that book until his peers made fun of him.  They also told him he was a skinhead because of his red shoelaces that he really liked.  He was almost in tears yesterday when he asked us for replacement laces in another color.  Arrrrgggh.  It's hard to fit in.  Chris took him out for new shoes altogether.

We're hosting Bubba this weekend and in return, Bubba's dad promised to take Ant for a weekend.  Haaaay!  Ant will surely be disappointed to learn that he'll be working on his book report this weekend, but two reports are overdue.  I'm reminded of something Mom used to say all the time that made me insane: "You know, Jenny, choices..."


That's just what I'll say to Ant.

PSI

Tracy, I'm sorry.  We just got home from the laundromat and I just found out that my phone was on silence.  Tomorrow?  (Asked sweetly in a wittle voice?)

We came home to the smell of poop.  "ARRRGGHH!" cried Ant.  "Not again!!!"

"Again?" I asked.

Apparently there were some unhappy poops earlier today in Ant's room.  I don't know how bad the first ones were, but this one smelled terrible.

"Well, I'm off," said Chris.

"Like hell," I said.

Chris hurriedly hung the shirts up.  Ant scrubbed his floor.  He started talking to himself.

"This is fresh.  It's about... 54 minutes old."

"What is this, PSI Reno?" I called from the kitchen.  "Poop Scene Investigation?"

"Huh?" asked Ant.

Chris laughed from the bedroom.

Ant told me that he would need to ask me some questions.

"I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God." I replied.

"Round up all the animals," he said.  "They are all suspects."

He was headed outside to return the basin.

"Did you use warm water and a cleaning agent?" I asked.

"The agent is me, Jenny." he said.  "The agent is MEEEE!"

Because I forgot to post this...

Jasmine "Pillow Dog" Nixon

To keep Tracy entertained.

Four posts in one day!?!?  And two are picture blogs!!?!??!  I know, what did you do to deserve such gifts?

Well, I thought I should (procrastinate on homework and) tell you how my class went this morning.  I am suffering some serious karma because my teacher conducts class exactly the way I would: committing endless digressions.  We veered in so many directions that I got lost and confused and really wanted some coffee.  She promised she'd stop at 9:40 daily to give us a twenty minute break but she didn't seem to see the clock until 10:07.  I skipped to the cafeteria only to find that it is undergoing renovations.  NOOOOO!

We're supposedly packing two weeks into each day, but I'm pretty sure her tangents will eliminate a lot of work.  I got 7 handouts today not including the syllabus.  In an especially interesting development, I have a presentation tomorrow on Bluebeard.  I'm not sure what I'm supposed to talk about but I'm going to read the story again (I haven't read it in at least twenty years) and read through the handouts and try to wing it.  I chose Bluebeard because I remember it being an especially horrible story.

"Let's put it this way," I told Chris.  "You know how all the fairy tales have been 'modified' by Disney to have happy endings?  They haven't touched Bluebeard."

So off I go to read and try to figure out what to present.  Oh, and BTW, grades are posted.

Book Arts  A
Art History  A-
Proposal Writing  B
Literary Nonfiction  A

Pyramid Lake

On our way to Nixon, NV

The Nixons

We stopped a couple times before realizing that we needed a permit.  You can see a small sand storm across the lake...

... and a larger one at the north end.  Hmm, what are those mysterious forms?

To the right you can see a closer formation: the pyramid that gives the lake its name.

Here's a closeup of the pyramid- don't I take nice pictures?  Just kidding, I stole that off the internet.

Jasmine celebrated the scenery by eating it.

She seemed to like it though.

We kept stopping to take pictures as we got closer to the formations.  Chris took serious pictures with his camera, I can't wait to see those.

I didn't realize I was taking a picture of him just after losing his hat.

Where'd it go?

Ant, go get my hat.

Please go get my hat?

What a good kid.  The wind almost blew him right over as he climbed back up.

The closer we got to the north end, the worse the weather got.

Every single turnoff had a name and a permit requirement.

I like this one so much.

Chris took this picture of Riley covered in melting snow with my camera.  How come I can't get them to come out like this?

We reached these signs which forbade us to go any further so I took some last shots in a full circle.

Then we left.  Here's my last shot on the way home.

Easter

This is me checking out the Easter basket that Ant and Chris made for me.

You might not be able to tell but those are binder clips and lancets.  Hiding at the back are ninja bunnies.

In his excitement to reach his basket, Ant rolled over the couch and into the coffee table.  Those are frozen peas he's holding to the bump on his head.

The egg race is on.

I'm not really sure how he got up this high or what he was trying to do, but it is impressive, yes?

"MY eggs!"

"No, they're MY eggs!"

If I hadn't been busy taking pictures I might have noticed that he was stepping on the couch and I would have had a minor fit.

This one's good to show how Riley responds to any excitement.

Chris won, but a lot of the stuff in the eggs was for Ant anyway.

Can't sleep, of course.

I should build this into my schedule.

It's the night before a new semester so of course I can't sleep.  I really hope that's what the problem is, anyway.  Ant had a temperature of 102 last night and Chris and I both felt terrible.  I don't have time to get sick- I may have to curtail my work schedule so that I don't overdo it.  I'd rather miss work than school.

Yesterday we drove out to Pyramid Lake because I had never been there and Chris had only been there on towing jobs.  We were listening to Regina Spektor on the way up.  She's like a livelier Tori Amos- her songs are beautiful and interesting and oftentimes you have no idea what the hell she's talking about.  So we were listening to this particularly haunting song when we came over the last hill and saw the lake.  I just scrolled through a ton of Google pictures but none showed the crazy turquoise color we saw.  I'll get pictures up soon, I promise.  The lake was turquoise and spotted with these long stretches of darker blue from the shadows of clouds.  The water was framed by the pale tans and greens from the trails and sagebrush and the soft bluish purple of the mountains with enormous brilliant white clouds above them.  We took a ton of pictures.

I'm going to try to grab that last hour of sleep before my alarm goes off.  Big money, no whammies.