Tuesday, October 23, 2012

not even if my mouth was full...

My friend Dom has said more than once "you wouldn't say shit, if your mouth was full." and I suppose she is pretty close to being right.
I don't like to draw a lot of attention to myself, as a rule.
Every once in a blue moon I have what my grandmother would call a Daugherty breakdown (named for the unhinged Irish side of the family and having nothing to do with the rock star.) and let things fly, but in general I am a good keeper of both my cool, and secrets and I never, unless pressed really hard, ask for help.
I like be the helper, not the helpee and I reserve a certain smug annoyance for people that are needy in an external manner.  I am from a long line of people that fix other people's shit.

Today I had to take Maxwell to the orthodontist to have his final appointment.
We arrived twenty minutes early and checked in, sat down and I tried to read a magazine, while Freyja ransacked the toy area and made a lot of noise. 
Just as I settle into my PEOPLE,  in walks a lady with a quiet kid and a very noisy persona.  She was like the energetic version of Pigpen from Peanuts, you felt unsettled just being in the same room as this gal.  I hate that type of person, just can't stand it. 
I know that sounds horrible, but I would rather spend time with a junkie, or a person deep in crisis, than I would this type.
Yes, I am judging, but I am an excellent judge, and I was so right on.
The receptionist told her that she was late, and would have to wait for our appointment to be over, before her kid would be seen. 
She stands in the middle of the large room, taking up a lot of emotional space and declares to the room
"I was STUNG BY A BEE!"
Naturally I assume she meant that she was late, because a been stung her outside the doctor's office, or perhaps in her car, so I ask, 

"are you ok?  Are you allergic? "

Nope, not allergic, but she needs an ice pack.

The receptionist, who by the way happens to be a bit of a cold fish, ignores the request for ice, so I pester her.   
"Don't you have a first aid kit, or some blue ice in your break room?"

Nope, no ice. 

"Sorry Mrs. Myhusbandslastname we are an orthodontist office, we do not carry ice."
There is another older overachieving helper type lady in the office, who has just gone through disaster training, tells me she has a chemical ice pack in her car.
Viola! we are in rescuing heaven!   
She is super excited to get to use it!

The receptionist continues to be completely unconcerned, so  I start to get a little pissed, but there is something off about this bee sting victim. 
Perhaps asshole receptionist is onto something?
Hmmmm. 
I take a closer look and see that she looks pretty darn good, and not at all choky or shocky, or anything.   I ask "when did the bee sting you?"
"Oh a couple of hours ago when I was gardening."
The icepack disaster woman returns with two disposable ice packs and starts trying to activate them, which requires breaking an internal bubble thingy, which is more difficult that it should be, which makes bee sting lady whine, which makes me irritated. When I left she was getting a lot of attention from the ice pack woman, and I suppose she needed it, but I felt like slapping her.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Our elderly neighbor passed away yesterday.

I am baking muffins for her husband and Mark is looking at me like I am a lunatic with a spatula.  I am not a quality coper since my grandmother died. 
Mark says I have to not make everything about me, which I think is not possible. 
Don't we relate to each other and the world from our own perspective?
 Despite my husband's nay saying I a, know for being objective and a good observer (so there! HA!) I can take mad S*O*A*P style notes and write a decent analysis when needed. 
When little old people die, I tend to lose my shit.  It really is that simple
Or dogs.  My friend had to put his dog down today and I thought my heart would break.
So it's a sad day, and I am baking muffins and crying. 

Sunday, October 14, 2012


Took my baby walking...

This dog is really settling in. 
 Mark was away on a trip this past week and it was a doozy.
I had one 12 hour day and several other loooong days.
I was running around like a nutball piecing together childcare like a crazy lady.
My mother was also out of town.
WOW.
Amazingly enough we made it to most everything, school, work, karate, marimba band practice, regular band practice, math lab... We did forget circus class on Saturday, which is really stupid because I could have used that hour and thirty minutes to get my mental health together.
I don't really do spontaneous, I don't dig change.
I like stuff to pretty much be the same, all the time, so when I have to depend on other folks to do stuff for me, I tend to freak out.
Oh, and Friday was a no school day.
Portland Public Schools seems to revel in any excuse to close the shop down.  It was an extra added feature, as my dear Leo would have said.
Bring is PPS!,
Is what I said.
Lili offered to pick Maxwell up from a day long drama workshop I found for him, at Lincoln High school and Wawa my mother in law watched Freyja for me, so it went pretty well.  Rolf even drove her to Wawa for me on Thursday evening, the tail end of my 12 hour day.
There really is no substitute for good friends.
We are about to get up and do it all over again tomorrow, as mom is still out of town, so Maxwell will get out of school, walk to the marimba lady, practice, then go hang out with a friend that lives in the neighborhood,  then go back to school to get a ride home with our carpool, which is offset, because the carpool host's kid has play practice, WHEW, you try keeping all that shit in your head and see how well you feel.
I am personally not feeling that hot; I got off early on Friday, so I rushed downtown to pick Maxwell up from the drama thing and on the way back to our car in a downpour, I slipped one of those elevator grates in the sidewalk and slid down the sidewalk, about a quarter of a block. Like a fool, I was wearing sandals, and I ripped off my big toenail on one foot and bruised the heck out of my knee. 

... and biting us

Mark was in New York for the week, and boy was it a long time.  It was like dog years, or slow motion or something.

I made enough pie for an army, or for two 13 year old boys.

A big bag of limes for .99 at the Mexican store. 

and posing looking super cute

providing a good deal of entertainment

If you haven't tried no bake noodles, you are a fool.  I remember slaving over lasagna for my brother, when I was a teen, using those awful thick noodles with the curly edges.  The no boil noodles make making lasagna a snap, and the finished product is far superior to that gloppy mass that the old stuff used to produce.
Spinach lasagna

Not to toot my own horn, but isn't this the most beautiful boy in the whole wide world?

Gone on a journal jag, I have no idea where she gets it.

Sunday, October 7, 2012


Where I been at, many gifts this month...

 Freya and I both got haircuts last week, mine was a bit of a disaster, hers was ok.  A bad haircut can have a lasting effect, make everyone sad, as mama rages through the house, but this time I just sigh and decided that hair does indeed grow.  September was  that kind of month.

 I baked an apple pie.  I make a good apple pie, mile high pie.  This one had some super juicy apples that caused a little over flow in the oven.  When you have a very expensive vintage oven that requires a lot of TLC, you, as a rule try to avoid situations like this, that result in burned on sugar.  You can't use oven cleaner, so a lot of scrubbing is involved in cleaning up.  What a pain in the neck, say I.
 A friend of mine that has a little, little girl that is far, far away from him, asked "where can I get a pink scarf in a small child size?"  It just about broke my heart, to see it just about break his heart.  It was his little girl's birthday and she wanted a pink scarf.  Being a sucker for dad's that want something special for their children, I offered to make a scarf for him to mail off to his kid.  It came out pretty, pretty, if I do say do, and I do.  Freyja, is modeling the hell out of it here.  His daughter asked "how did that lady know I like pink?  How did she know what size I am?"  That really made my day.  If I could spend my whole life doing nothing, but making stuff that makes other people happy, I would be delighted.
 The kids are a lot less excited by the food carts than I am.  I LOVE them, and once in a blue moon force my children to eat at out local pod.  Maxwell is suffering through an afternoon snack.
 My friend Lili cleaned out her studio when she moved house last year, and she gave us the mother-load of holiday decorations!  I had a lot of cool Halloween stuff, but my table is positively chock a block full now. I set the dining table just for the hell of it, looks pretty nice, huh?
 My friend Marta said "I have a present for you, but you have to promise not to cry!"  She then presented me with these three extraordinary woolen goats, that she had made.  HOLY cow, holy GOAT!
 Freyja wanted to have gelato with a friend that lives near the gelato place.  She wasn't home, but we had fun anyway.
 Freyja made a play, the set, and the puppets over the course of three days all by herself.  She even made a ticket for each of us. WOW.
A new divan for moi.  Boy am I  blessed.  Thank you for all the people that keep us going.