feeling better

Okay--I just had my pre-op appointment, so now I'm feeling a lot better about my upcoming septum repair surgery this Thursday. My main concern was about the packing (and its subsequent, rumored to be quite uncomfortable, removal), but it turns out that my doctor uses some sort of dissolvable packing material, so I won't even have to have it pulled.

Can I get an amen?

Amen!!!

internet horror stories

After hearing from two independent sources that having post-surgical nose packing removed was "the worst experience of my life!", I decided to do a little internet research on the surgery I'll be having this Thursday. First there was the guy whose face was so bandaged up, he only had little slits for his eyes and mouth. Of course, upon seeing this, I'm like, Holy crap! What am I in for??? And then I read his comments. Several people called his doctor a retard and said their own experiences with the surgery were no big deal. Another guy said of one such Pollyanna, Yo! That dudz full of $h!t!!! Day aftz my op wuz fu¢kd!!! To be fair, the bandaged guy did comment back saying medical care in Serbia isn't the same as in other parts of the world, but still.

So who should I believe? The American guy with the post-surgical video blog who said he kind of liked the painkillers his doctor prescribed and then went on to talk about the balloons his sister got him (with accompanying zoomed in shot) for five minutes, or the ENT who uses text-messagish abbreviations but then is careful to capitalize and punctuate them correctly, who says he rarely uses packing for septum repair jobs?

Believe me, I'm praying.

local rant

So last night, I took my oldest son out for dinner to celebrate his 13th birthday. He brought a couple of friends along, both shiny new 8th graders, as well, so of course the chatter in the car was goofy-sweet and animated. Add on top of that enough Axe body spray fumes to power a jet, and let's just say I might have been a tad distracted. Anyway, I tried to focus hard on driving safely but expediently, since one of the friends had an early swim meet this morning and needed to get up at an unholy hour. But...on the way home...I drove right into a trap. A new-no-right-on-red-sign-multiple-car police trap, more specifically. The officer waved me over as I made the right, and I thought for sure I was going to experience my first sobriety checkpoint stop. Totally smug, since I had refrained from ordering a glass of wine with dinner, I happily complied.

Stupid me.

Anyway, not sure if I should try to fight this one or not. Red light violations are usually way pricier than speeding tickets, and traffic school is pure torture (picture sitting in a "comedy" traffic school where the only attempt at humor is, literally, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" and then the teacher tries to sell you insurance for six hours--kid you not--I guess the real joke was on us!), but the hubby and I plan to revisit the location tonight and take a few photos.

All to say beware: the trap is set on the corner of La Jolla Village Drive and Torrey Pines Road. It's for folks who have been driving the winding Torrey Pines Road north, up from La Jolla proper (think Prospect, where all the restaurants are), then taking a right to get to the I-5 north.

I knew I should have gone straight on La Jolla Parkway/Ardath Road to the 52, then taken the 805! But like I said--stupid me.

bleary-eyed and headachy

I can't believe I stayed up so late watching Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett news specials. It is what it is, though, right?

wow...sad...

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, within a day of each other. How odd for two pop culture icons to go with such close timing.

Make all the jokes you want, but I'll miss smiling at their respective "news" in the supermarket checkout lines. : (

three words i love

Dot with butter.

---------------------------------

So things are going a little better today. I got to the gym, finally scheduled my nose surgery for next week (to clean up the remnants of an old break), and made dinner for the fourth night in a row. Yeah, I realize cooking dinner shouldn't earn me a medal, especially since I'm a stay-at-home mom, but I'm talking a REAL dinner. Not the kind that involves jalapeño poppers and mozzarella cheese sticks or frozen burritos (although those bean-rice-cheese ones you buy at Costco are pretty tasty!). Plus, I've been treating my family to homemade desserts (apple pie tonight, in case you hadn't guessed). Anyway, I'm not expecting big things of myself this week. I've got some reading I'd like to catch up on, and that's as ambitious as I want to get.

please don't let the whole summer be like this

So yeah, I've basically been going crazy. We were on vacation last week, which was nice, but this week has pretty much sucked. I guess I like my little routines, and so far, we haven't settled into a new one that allows me any sanity. Hopefully things will calm down soon and life will feel more "normal." In the mean time, though, anyone else feel like running away?

this week has been kicking my butt

And next week will be even busier in its own unique way. If I can just make through healthy (and without gaining weight), I'll be content.

Anyway, I just got some more friend-reader feedback. Good stuff, but she gave me lots to work on. As in, yeah you have tension on every page, but it's still not enough. And, yeah, the stakes are essentially life vs. death, but you need to kick them up a notch.

Have I mentioned that I often feel like that muppet who bangs his head upon the keys of his piano? Because I know she's probably right, and I have tons more work to do.

so???

I loved RULES by Cynthia Lord. I read it yesterday, because I didn't give it to my son's friend. I'm glad I didn't, too. While the story is deftly told, it doesn't make any apologies (or attempt euphemisms) for being about autism. The main character hits you with her brother's label pretty much from the get-go. So would it have come off wrong if I had gifted the book? Most definitely. Great read, though--I'm glad I kept it for myself!

reading through. again.

Yep, it's that time. I think I've finished my revision. It's up 15,000 words since the end of April. Not sure how that's possible, but I guess I must have found some time to write somewhere. I just hope the story's good enough now. That is, complete. I really want this to work, but it's so scary stepping back and letting go. Anyway, this Friday's my self-imposed deadline--I want to have any necessary corrections and/or additions done by the time school gets out and the insanity begins.

heavy handed or of no consequence?

Okay. So I may or may not have blogged about this before. Maybe over on MySpace at one point. Anyway, I have an autistic son. Great kid, but he's kind of a loner, so he doesn't get invited to too many birthday parties. Pretty much only to the ones where they invite the whole class. Like this weekend's party.

So I just went shopping for this girl's birthday gift. On principle (and also because it's what I enjoyed at that age--and still do!), I usually buy books as presents. I tuck the gift receipts into them, just in case the recipient's not a reader or is and has already read the titles I chose. Today, when I was in Barnes & Noble, there was a great big middle grade display with RULES by Cynthia Lord featured front and center, so I picked it up (in addition to a couple other paperback titles). My question is this: Even though the book's won numerous awards and features a Newbery medal on its cover, is it preachy to gift an issue book (specifically, my son's issue) to a classmate? I mean, in some ways, I hope it helps her understand why my son does so many offbeat things, but in another way, I don't want to draw attention to his label. I just don't know. Maybe she'll read the book and not even make the connection, so I'm stressing over nothing. Anyone want to weigh in on this one?

really feeling it

So I've been working on this chapter I haven't wanted to work on, and it's been stressing me out. Actually, it's been stressing me out for weeks now. So bad I've had trouble sleeping, I keep gnawing on the inside of my lip (gross, I know), and everywhere I go, I feel guilty for something I can't quite place or even identify. I wrote the darn thing yesterday, but I still have to go back and revisit it, to make sure I didn't skip ahead and leave anything out.

All I can say is, I sure hope it works.

end of the school year

It's that time again--in less than two weeks, our kids will be home all day, every day, for the whole summer. Seems there was some budgeting deal that deleted minutes, so our districts (both the elementary and the high school) have elected to keep the school-day schedule the same but cut a week of instruction. Hence the eleven-week break instead of the usual ten-week hiatus.

Now I love my kids, don't get me wrong, but by the end of August, I'm ready for them to go back to class. Ready for that return to the routine. Because I wonder...will I get anything done with them home? Probably not a whole lot. Already, I'm scrambling to get stuff done I'd rather not drag them along to while accomplishing. Like today's fasting blood draw. You can bet I wasn't in a huge hurry to take care of that errand. Especially not with my small veins and the memories of being jabbed multiple times by rookie phlebotomists at student health. Not my best moments in college, let me tell you. But at least I didn't pass out this time.

Anyway, it'll be all jammin' and scramblin' till June 12. After that, I can't promise anything, but hopefully it won't take us too long to settle into a new routine. Because the kids are a year older now, which should make things easier, right? Right???

A mom can only hope.