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Life update...
Mar. 27th, 2010 07:14 amLife's going pretty well, I'm just in a low-energy mode. The weather's been going all over the place, which always messes with me, and a good deal of the past week has revolved around sleep and more sleep. We did get our weekly hang-out with Casey and Bill, which is always fun, although a bit odd when combined with a plumbing emergency.
Thursday I was finally back at patient-instructing after months and months, which was a good feeling, although a touch nerve-wracking in the usual "do I remember how to ride a bike" sort of way. It was a great session, though. 3rd-years, who already have some experience, and are basically getting evaluated and fine-tuned, most of the time. It was a good first night back, and a good reminder of how much teaching changes my mood.
Then I got a chance to see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
serpentseye and calialleykat and we played Ticket to Ride with Grafton, which was a nice, mellow evening. Oh, and Mom almost ended up coming up for a brief, poorly timed, potentially stress-inducing visit, and there were lots of calls back and forth sorting all that out. I really do empathize with her frustrations about the limitations her psychiatric unpredictability puts on her life, especially given how much functionality she's regained in recent years. But she still scares all of us behind the wheel, and even the most moderate travel plans often end in her getting overstressed and having additional issues for a while, so it blows to have to gang up on her and say "no, driving six hours to Mississippi solo and spending four days there alone while Dad goes to IN for the hockey games with James is not a good idea". I think she's still pretty pissed at me for having to say it to her and explicitly back up Dad on the point. Mom and I connect really well in general, which does mean that I'm the one most likely to be able to say hard stuff to her without a major blowup occluding the original point. So that's all been a bit exhausting, and just generally sad, because I do so wish for her to be able to have that level of functionality back, and it's unlikely to happen again in her life, I suspect.
Also, the short-term scraping for change brokeness of the household was at its peak this week, adding a lot of stress. Thankfully, that's been mostly eliminated by a combination of household members kicking in in various ways, friends being awesome and generous, and as of last night, the replacement SSI check we covered for J showing up. Huge relief, and should get us through ok 'til the refund gets here and we can handle all the big stuff that's been waiting.
It's also been a Coco week, and that continues to go well, although we've hit a plateau in terms of progress with her, at least for the moment. She still acts like the floor inside is Hot Lava, and just freezes when she's set down on it, although she'll comfortably run around in the yard with Tarma and Leroy now, and she's fine with having them on the couch with her. It's just going to take time; we're a radically different environment than her home next door, and it's a lot of new stuff to adjust to. I'm happy she's already this happy and comfortable hanging out with us, even if she insists on staying on the couch the entire visit. LovelyNeighbor continues to be lovely, though. This week, along with the pet-sitting cash, and the cash she insists on paying us for use of our wireless, she dropped off a box of tasty european chocolates, and helped us out with water when we had the plumbing issues Wednesday.
Caleb and Grafton have been getting hugely motivated on the house, and all of the rest of us have been getting a bit more energetic about things too, as a result (me least of all, probably -- I spent a lot of time sleeping while they were working this week). It has resulted in a lot of minor and major improvements in the house, which makes it progressively more enjoyable to be here, so that's awesome. The basement lounge project is moving fast, and the kitchen is finally not scary for the first time in months. On the downside, we got a citation delivered, by bailiff even, for having put our trash out wrong back in October. So I apparently have to go down to the court about that, and I assume there's a fine involved. That's when we were stripping out the back apartment, though, and the problem was with how things were and weren't properly bundled. I don't doubt they're in the right. I'm just baffled at the delay.
So, anyway, that's what's up in life. Oh, and as we all figured would eventually happen, Netflix streaming no longer works from work. Ah well. I've moved the rest of Farscape into my mail queue, and it'll be along shortly. OK, I think that's actually all. Back to sleep now, it's the middle of my night.
Thursday I was finally back at patient-instructing after months and months, which was a good feeling, although a touch nerve-wracking in the usual "do I remember how to ride a bike" sort of way. It was a great session, though. 3rd-years, who already have some experience, and are basically getting evaluated and fine-tuned, most of the time. It was a good first night back, and a good reminder of how much teaching changes my mood.
Then I got a chance to see
serpentseye and calialleykat and we played Ticket to Ride with Grafton, which was a nice, mellow evening. Oh, and Mom almost ended up coming up for a brief, poorly timed, potentially stress-inducing visit, and there were lots of calls back and forth sorting all that out. I really do empathize with her frustrations about the limitations her psychiatric unpredictability puts on her life, especially given how much functionality she's regained in recent years. But she still scares all of us behind the wheel, and even the most moderate travel plans often end in her getting overstressed and having additional issues for a while, so it blows to have to gang up on her and say "no, driving six hours to Mississippi solo and spending four days there alone while Dad goes to IN for the hockey games with James is not a good idea". I think she's still pretty pissed at me for having to say it to her and explicitly back up Dad on the point. Mom and I connect really well in general, which does mean that I'm the one most likely to be able to say hard stuff to her without a major blowup occluding the original point. So that's all been a bit exhausting, and just generally sad, because I do so wish for her to be able to have that level of functionality back, and it's unlikely to happen again in her life, I suspect. Also, the short-term scraping for change brokeness of the household was at its peak this week, adding a lot of stress. Thankfully, that's been mostly eliminated by a combination of household members kicking in in various ways, friends being awesome and generous, and as of last night, the replacement SSI check we covered for J showing up. Huge relief, and should get us through ok 'til the refund gets here and we can handle all the big stuff that's been waiting.
It's also been a Coco week, and that continues to go well, although we've hit a plateau in terms of progress with her, at least for the moment. She still acts like the floor inside is Hot Lava, and just freezes when she's set down on it, although she'll comfortably run around in the yard with Tarma and Leroy now, and she's fine with having them on the couch with her. It's just going to take time; we're a radically different environment than her home next door, and it's a lot of new stuff to adjust to. I'm happy she's already this happy and comfortable hanging out with us, even if she insists on staying on the couch the entire visit. LovelyNeighbor continues to be lovely, though. This week, along with the pet-sitting cash, and the cash she insists on paying us for use of our wireless, she dropped off a box of tasty european chocolates, and helped us out with water when we had the plumbing issues Wednesday.
Caleb and Grafton have been getting hugely motivated on the house, and all of the rest of us have been getting a bit more energetic about things too, as a result (me least of all, probably -- I spent a lot of time sleeping while they were working this week). It has resulted in a lot of minor and major improvements in the house, which makes it progressively more enjoyable to be here, so that's awesome. The basement lounge project is moving fast, and the kitchen is finally not scary for the first time in months. On the downside, we got a citation delivered, by bailiff even, for having put our trash out wrong back in October. So I apparently have to go down to the court about that, and I assume there's a fine involved. That's when we were stripping out the back apartment, though, and the problem was with how things were and weren't properly bundled. I don't doubt they're in the right. I'm just baffled at the delay.
So, anyway, that's what's up in life. Oh, and as we all figured would eventually happen, Netflix streaming no longer works from work. Ah well. I've moved the rest of Farscape into my mail queue, and it'll be along shortly. OK, I think that's actually all. Back to sleep now, it's the middle of my night.
