taking a break

Even apart from the Attack on Allysha's knees, life is a little hectic right now. I remember my mom saying that on Saturday nights she was always angry about something and it wasn't until years later that she realized it was a way to get her energy up so that she could get the house clean before Sunday. So, about a week ago when I started waking up a little ticked off at the world (mostly at inept doctors) I remembered this little story and said to myself "uh -oh". It's one thing to need to get psyched up for a Saturday night cleaning event; it's another when you need it to just get your day going. When I wrote up a draft post asking people getting married to kindly stop inviting me to their events because they were just too much for me, well...

My daughter starts 1st grade on Monday. My other daughter has developed a chest cold. My husband is finishing up a whirlwind of summer freelance projects and is getting ready to dive into a double dose of taking and teaching classes. My eighty year-old grandmother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last week, which could be an entire post in and of its self.

I've been thinking through how I can better organize things, how I can make sure the most important things get done, how my family can be happy and sane through this process of life. Well, maybe sane is overrated and too much to ask and I don't mind a little crazy some of the time. But a lot of crazy, well, I need to hunker down here. Which brings me to blogging.

I need a little break. I can hardly bear to take one, but I need it. I'm afraid you won't come back to read me if I leave for a little while (all 10 of you- oh wait, that's my family ~ so maybe all 20 of you! ~ I don't want to sound too pretentious), but I need to. I'm already pushing it by staying up super-late to watch Michael Phelps and Nastia Lukin but the Summer Olympics come but every four years, and gold medal ceremonies are good cathartic releases and no one will fault you if a few tears slip down your cheeks. (Seriously, those Visa commercials can get to me...) And you don't mind that I'm choosing gold medals over a few blog posts, right? I'll stay up late a few more nights and then I'll get to bed earlier, and get some things organized around the house, get the fall routine going and then I'll be back to blogging. It won't be too long, actually. Just long enough.

See you in a few weeks.

in which I decide to pursue a medical degree

So I was at the doctor's office today for the umpteenth time, with two doctors and a medical student thrown in for good measure; all three standing around trying to appropriately diagnose the confusing red sore spots that keep popping up on my legs and being somewhat painful. They said I was a mystery, and hey! that always makes a woman feel good, because being mysterious is fun!

Except not so much when it keeps you from being properly diagnosed! And full of antibiotics! And such.

The doctors think these mysterious painful spots may be an autoimmune reaction of some sort. Sort of my body fighting my body, maybe because I had such a violent attack of strep throat in June. The med student actually was just observing and so I don't know what he thinks of the whole kafuffle, but the other two doctors and I had some good fun conversations.

If that's the case (the whole autoimmune whatever whatever) I just need to take a lot, but not too much, ibuprofen and wait for it to go away. If it is a bacterial infection I need to let it get bad enough so that they can get a sample of the bacteria so that they can culture it and see what in the heck it is. Medicine is not the science you think it is folks. But it seems entertaining enough and has me considering a career as a family practitioner.

get your engines started

There's nothing quite like a pending visit from the mother-in-law to inspire the necessary motivation to get the house clean. As long as I don't expire in the process.




This is what I'm saying.