Wah.

Today I feel like running away with the circus.

Classic parenting moment of the day

I just got back from the grocery store. Both girls were really good while we were there, but on the trip home Carmen started to get hungry and fussy. As I unloaded the girls, Olivia observed, "Carmen's crying." I said, "Yes, can you help her feel better while I unload the groceries?"

As I was putting perishables in the fridge, I could hear Olivia using her usual comforting techniques: offering Carmen toys and saying, "That's okay, Carmen." Carmen, uncomforted, continued to fuss.

When I had finally finished and was walking over to get Carmen out, I could tell that Olivia had reached the end of her rope with Carmen's fussing.

"Hey," she snapped at her. "That's not appropriate."

Bad Dreams

Carmen and I had a hard night last night, and when I finally did get some sleep just now I had a very disturbing dream where the whole world seemed like it was going crazy, myself especially. I somehow undid my high school graduation, physically attacked my landlady and roommate, somehow joined a friend's family (the Blakes, btw), stalked my neighbors, was walking around naked, and all sorts of other things.

My worst dreams are always the ones where I can see myself acting erratically. I'm sure that says a lot about me. Man, it was nice to wake up.

Facebook gone

Hooray!

My New Year's Resolution to reduce my internet footprint by deleting all extraneous accounts is complete.

Happy tax day, everyone.

1000 Words

Thanks

to everyone for your support and concern. I had my surgery last night, and I guess it went well…for a surgery. I won’t say I’m feeling great – I’m sore and tired and a little bit traumatized – but it’s nice to have it over. My biggest worry was for my little girls, especially Carmen.



But she’s doing okay. She has to have formula for a couple of days while I detox, but she’s been doing well with it. Altogether, I’m grateful that things turned out so well. It wasn’t anything really life-threatening (no cancer), but it was something that needed fixing, and I’m glad to be fixed (not in the cat kind of way).



Here are my newfound pearls of wisdom from this experience:

• DON’T have surgery.
• If you must have surgery, DO have someone there with you (otherwise, it is really scary).
• If you can’t have someone there with you (because, for example, you have two little girls who your husband has to take care of), DON’T stay overnight.
• If you must stay overnight, DO make sure your husband doesn’t have to work the next day.
• If your husband has mandatory meetings the next morning, DON’T stay in the hospital all day (especially when your doctor says you can leave that morning).
• BUT, if lackadaisical or neglectful nurses force you to stay there until 2:00, in addition to providing the poorest care imaginable, DO at least make sure that you have a wonderful sister-in-law to help take care of your two little girls. Because if you do, chances are one will end up looking like this:

And that's never a bad thing.

Nervous

So, I wasn't going to post anything about this because it violates the Almighty Rule of Conversation Taboos (health, wealth and politics), but it's the biggest thing going on with me right now, and writing it, even in appropriate vagueness, helps me feel a little bit better. I am no good at being private.

For the past week, I've had a problem in my guts. This morning I had an X-ray done (that was kind of exciting - my first one, teeth excluded). The results were the opposite of what I'd hoped, and it looks like I may need surgery. This scares me for a lot of reasons.

A Taxing Ordeal

I know, I know...how many people have used that lame pun? Well, one more, evidently.

Today was a big day for pushing money around. This morning Carmen brought Olivia and me along with her to the furniture store so that we could finally buy Mommy and Daddy some bedroom furniture. This purchase had been put off for some time because we couldn't find something we both liked the look of that was also good quality, and for a good price.

We finally found something we agreed on as far as look and quality, and I went to the store prepared to haggle, but the salespeople were unbending. So, the question was whether we should look around some more (ugh), or just bite the bullet and spend more than we wanted to. The bullet was bitten. When she handed me the receipt, the saleswoman said, "There, that was easy, right? Painless?" Hardly. My only comfort was that at least the price had included entertainment for Olivia in the form of multiple rides up and down the escalators. (Seriously, about 20 times.)

Yes, the escalator rides WERE my only source of comfort...until nap time, when I finished doing our taxes! Thanks mostly to our massive itemized deduction, Uncle Sam is giving us a nice big chunk of money back. (We do have to pay $8 to Brother Brigham, however.) Ah, money.