October 16, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 199: A brief vaccine timeline starting Friday night.
* BOOSTED! Tiny poke, felt like nothing.
* 4 hours post-vax. Arm very mildly sore. Top half of body feeling mildly seedy but well within my normal range of “feelin’ terrible on a Friday night”.
* 15 hours post-vax. The bones in my entire right arm were pretty sore, my right hand hurt the worst. Tylenol helped ease most of that aching but I definitely felt like Kipo with her giant arm.
* 18 hours post-vax. Oh no I feel terrible. Generically terrible. Achy, tired, maybe nausea but can’t tell for sure, no longer happy to be upright, put myself back to bed for a bit.
* 24 hours post-vax. It’s distinctly weird to feel so sick but knowing you’re not sick. JB and Smol Acrobat have been told that we’re basically sick so y’all need to listen and help out. Smol is, of course, no help at all. JB is insisting on minding Smol so we can rest (with one ear listening).
* 32-38 hours post-vax. I woke up every hour drenched in sweat and then shivering minutes after removing blankets. Body couldn’t decide between hot and cold. Gross and annoying.
* More than 48 hours after the latest COVID vax and we’re pretty much good now. I think all the stuff going on today (aches etc) are entirely down to my usual health nonsense. It sucked but being out of sorts for about two days is so much better than coming down w/actual COVID for days and weeks.
A lot less of this arm thing going on today, for which I’m very grateful:
In exciting news, our blackberry bush arrived today! We freed it from the box, JB welcomed it with a watering, and I’ve been reminded that our normal weather is wind, wind, and more wind. I’d better get to repotting these two babies sooner than later, the blueberries have been knocked over three times already and the wind only just came back yesterday.
Year 4, Day 200: What a hard day. Work is inundated right now and I’m scrambling to cover as many bases as we can with what resources are available but they’re all stretched thin.
I’m stretched too thin at home, too. School dropoff, school pickup, and after school class are all routine and squash my day. I was already tired. Then we had to swing by the ortho visit and get JB’s thing installed so that put us further behind. Their discomfort and distress was manageable until we got home when they were especially clingy and needy. That would have been fine but Smol Acrobat decided to see that as a competition/ challenge and started demanding separate and equal attention. The kid who demanded group hugs this morning was offended by the ask to share my hugs this evening. Of course. Their bickering continued through dinner. Brushing teeth turned into a half hour ordeal as I had to help pick out all the food stuck in the appliance. I can handle all manner of ear gunk and dog yuck but this grossed me out. I’ll have to tighten the appliance nightly for two weeks as well. It’s part of our parent deal. I handle dental care because PiC can’t handle it and he handles all vomit and swim stuff.
Both kids are sniffly, sneezing, a cough here and there. I’m eyeing my antivirals thinking, do I take them now? Am I feeling sick or am I just extra fatigued?
*****
The tragic killings in Gaza and Israel are horrific. Anything I would say is deeply inadequate, my heart simply hurts for the families caught in this terrible conflict.
Year 4, Day 201: It’s time to start reading up on Open Enrollment again. I have a couple weeks to make some decisions. We’ll keep our HMO plan, no cost changes this year, and max out the FSA / Dependent Daycare allocations as usual. I have to decide when we need to change our vision and dental plans. We missed the window for orthodontic coverage for JB this year. We’re expecting a second treatment all the adult teeth are in so we’ll have to be alert to when that rolls around and upgrade to the premium plan ahead of time.
*****
So much household stuff today in addition to the usual school drop-off and pickup. Laundry, cleaning up, loading the dishwasher, swapping out gross old pillows that can’t be revived anymore with the new ones I got on sale. It feels like a bad week to be doing ANYTHING extra because I already overloaded the week with two big items: JB’s ortho care and their eye appointment. I’m tapped out already and we still have days to go.
Year 4, Day 202: Smol’s fever hit in the middle of the night. PiC fielded the first two rounds, a wake up and a night terror two hours later. The second night terror hit at 430 and I took that one, sending him off to bed. I remember JB having nightmares and being sick but they were more rocklike. They’d need me to hold them until they fell asleep, then I was usually free. Smol Acrobat requires a whole lot more getting up in the middle of the night. Multiple times. I felt that telltale tickle in my throat by morning as well, and started my antivirals in hopes of holding it off.
Just like with money, margin makes all the difference in time and health. Having more margin means being able to handle one more thing in the mental load, or stretch to one more sleepless night. This week has zero margin. Last week, I worked on improving my sunscreen habit, putting it on sunscreen every time I go out, to keep my rosacea in check. This week, that mental load shifted to JB’s dental care – I haven’t remembered to sunscreen all week. This week I can’t work late to catch up because Smol will need me at some point. I can’t afford to work late AND get up too early and depress my system enough that I get sick. It’s simply not in the budget.
Year 4, Day 203: Friday food review! Chicken fajita night: I only like chicken fajitas if someone else made them. Salmon: I’ve been baking salmon wrapped in foil about once a week lately, I think it’s becoming a regular item. Smol usually eats it like gangbusters (don’t jinx myself don’t jinx myself). I started pondering switching to parchment paper, but I set tortillas on fire in the toaster oven so I was done for the night. On Thursday I diced chicken into the tiniest of pieces to make chicken porridge for JB. PiC also brought them home a large pot of chicken noodle from Costco. We are awash in soft foods.
Water bottle goodwill: I got to repay the universe’s random assistance fund. PiC has unknowingly lost Smol Acrobat’s water bottle on their bike commute and had kind strangers notice, rescue it and flag them down. Today I saw a little kid’s water bottle fall out and roll into the street, right as I was saying goodbye to JB. The kid knew not to run into the street, they were yelling to their grandma that their water bottle was rolling down the street, and I was able to hop out, grab it before it’d gone a full car length and give it back.
Three weeks ago, genius that I am, decided that 4 pm Friday was a grand time to have JB’s eyes checked. Three weeks ago Me was cruel and/or foolish. We were there for two hours all told after a long day, at the end of a very long week. It is as if the Hope-Crushing Horde stampeded my SOUL.
October 9, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 192: It’s early release all week long. My already short interruption-free parts of the days are now even shorter. But in a stroke of luck, I found a cursive book on sale a few weeks ago and had tucked it away, it’s perfect for this week. JB was thrilled to get it. That’s got to be good for about three days of preoccupation, at a guess. Possibly four.
Year 4, Day 193: Smol woke up at 1 am crying for a hug and asking to go to the big bed. I hugged them until they were willing to lay back down in their own bed. Then I went back to bed where I was completely unable to go back to sleep because my bones flared up something fierce. Painsomnia, everyone’s best friend!
The silver lining to the brain fog was when I caught my brain trying to float away on a cloud of fatigue, instead of being mean to myself and scrunching my shoulders to my ears, I let it float until I could corral it gently back to task. I still got all the things done. Even if it wasn’t at the pace I’d normally set, it was without making the pain and fatigue worse by adding extra stress. I’m learning!
Well, mostly not. It’s so like my body to withhold honest feedback until evening and then run me over with the semitruck of pain and fatigue as soon as I put dinner on the table. I almost crashed but bucked myself up with the thought of cake for dessert. Naturally that’s when Smol Acrobat decided to revert to their “I can’t possibly transport a spoon from the bowl to my mouth, that’s an absurd expectation” mode and refused to eat with their own limbs. I dislike this mode.
They did not get cake.
Year 4, Day 194: The jokes were all on me today. I decided it was going to be a cozy sweats and stay at home (working, of course but no activities) day. Then I walked out and it was pushing 80 degrees. Oh. Right. Heat wave today. And then I saw the calendar and remembered that I have an in person meeting AND an appointment to take JB to the ortho this afternoon. Triple fail. 😅
Bonus fail: the ortho scheduler / office manager was incompetent and only scheduled one of the two appointments we needed for this stage of treatment so I was very unthrilled to add a second appointment to my week next week. I would have scheduled next week differently had I known. She and I are not friends. At our last appointment, she overcharged for our treatment plan claiming that she agreed to honor the quote but not the discounts in the quote. That is PART OF THE QUOTE. Ahem. I don’t appreciate dishonesty and I don’t appreciate overpaying.
But my blueberry bush arrived early! That was very exciting. JB helped me unpack and it’s very pretty. It’s compact, expected to top out at 1-2 feet tall and wide which is just the right size for our yard.
Also, I scored a really big win for myself and some of my team this week and I’d been puffed up with the joy of sharing their good news all day. It wasn’t until evening that I realized I’d forgotten to be happy about my part! Good job, me.
Year 4, Day 195: Heat wave cons: so hot, oh so hot. Sunburns. Sunblock runs into eyes when you sweat it off. The pavement gets too hot for Sera’s 🐶 feet so we have to be quick about walks. Emergency chocolate in my bag melts into a squishy lump. Legs stick to leather car seats. Dizziness strikes hard, at random. Half this household does NOT handle heat well.
Heat wave pros: dishes dry really fast. We can line dry clothes (usually it’s too damp so they mold. yuck.) At night, the sky is beautifully clear and the stars are visible. The morning chill is pleasantly crisp, sitting on the skin, not biting bone deep.
Year 4, Day 196: Friday food review! I made quick panko chicken on the fly one night, served with rice and creamed spinach from the freezer. Then I made a chicken, tofu, and broccoli stir fry kind of thing using up the leftover packets of Korean BBQ style marinade from the Kevin’s meal kits. That was so big we had leftovers for a second dinner and small lunch. The hottest day this week was designated “have someone else cook today”: chicken and waffles takeout! Supporting a small local business and delicious food = happy.
Our local Kaiser finally got their COVID vaccine supply in today so we tried our luck and now both adults are vaccinated! We have to set appointments for the kids to have theirs administered by the pediatrician, so now I have to stalk those appointments. Will report back on how we feel post-vax, the initial jab was pleasantly “small needle” feeling like our flu vaccines were, and no immediate effects were felt.
October 2, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 185: I spent most of the weekend on the shopping and tracking and all the admin work for our September Lakota families (background). I am thinking very sadly that last year we did SUCH an amazing job fundraising for shopping the Black Friday sales but I’m doubtful I’ll be able to do more than a small fraction of that this year. I can’t tell if it’s primarily because reach has shattered since the loss of Twitter or if everyone’s having a harder time than usual, financially. I hope that it’s just the former. It feels like I’m giving up when the going gets hard. People need the help more than ever, this year, and instead of getting revved up, I’m deflated.
****
Email from CVS: “You’ll find COVID-19 testing at your nearby CVS® for $69.99.” $70???? I am so tired of this country’s lack of affordable access to care.
My hormones are overactive today, setting off waves of cramps so strong that I’m nauseous and sweating. No wonder I hate everything today.
Year 4, Day 186: We’re still about ten minutes behind our usual morning routine and it’s been over a week of recovery. I’d expected to be back on it by yesterday, but I’m still dragging and waking up later than I should. Normally Smol Acrobat is my alarm.
The first rain of the fall season fell overnight, so everything’s wet or damp. It’s like a gentle warning of what may lay ahead.
Lots of bits of bad news from friends today. Two were injured, one with broken bones, and another one lost a job offer they’d been overjoyed to receive after months of hunting. Boy I hope things look up from here for them.
Year 4, Day 187: We finally got back on track this morning! Dropoff and sendoff (of PiC and Smol Acrobat) achieved before 8:30 am finally.
Following on from the weekend when I made the time to tackle some desperately needed floor scrubbing, floor scrubbing I haven’t had time or energy for since the entire pandemic started, I feel the urge to learn how to sew something new this year. I haven’t felt this pull all year. I’d love to figure out how to make these designs: Japanese knot bag and gift bag. Is it a coincidence that this coincides with the upcoming holiday gift season? I’m sure it’s not at all. Still, the desire to create doesn’t often wake up in me so I try to listen to it when I can. I most definitely don’t have time for it today but I CAN check to see where I can get for liner material on sale.
Year 4, Day 188: We’ve had forecasts for warm weather all week but it didn’t pan out a single day this week. Luckily it was dry enough that PiC and Smol could do their usual bike commute.
Last week, I started a new jug of detergent. Bought it on sale ages ago, so long ago I’d forgotten it was slightly different from our usual. This one came “plus oxi-clean with odor-blasters!” I’d focused on the oxi-clean part, which I like, and failed to understand “fresh burst” tucked into the corner meant scent. Oops. We’ve used fragrance free detergent for several years now so this was an unpleasant surprise. I crossed my fingers that I’d get used to it. I think we’ve achieved scent neutrality today. I’m accustomed enough to it not to be irritated. Small win!
You’d think I’d be accustomed to being tired all the time, but that’s not how it works. I’ve been fatigued since 2013 and every day is still a mystery of “why am I so tired today?” Last week made sense, we were recovering from a very strenuous weekend. This week, I caught up on most of my backlog and found 20 minutes to dig in the potatoes and onions garden. Why does reaching the end of the day still feel like crawling to a mirage in the desert?
Having chronic fatigue is weird. You know you’re always going to be operating at 10-20% at best and yet still try to find a “reason” for it as if it’s not just a built-in feature.
Year 4, Day 189: Friday food review! I heated up a Kevin’s premade meal, Korean BBQ flavored chicken and added a box of tofu to it to serve with rice and creamed spinach one night. Another night I whipped up a tray of panko chicken, served with rice and salad. Go figure, JB was in love with the Caesar salad, and Smol Acrobat was willing to eat anything in exchange for cheese from the Caesar salad.
Are there any good frozen waffles? Thick heavy hearty waffles? The kids love Trader Joe’s frozen waffles but they just make me sad. They’re probably about as good as Eggo waffles were back in the day but I haven’t had those in eons.
September 25, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 178: It’s “I feel like a SLUG” Monday. The weekend was too long and too much, and didn’t end until about 2 this morning because of painsomnia, but it’s over and I’m putting it behind me. A shame that I can’t put the PEM behind me just as expeditiously.
I managed huge piles of work and my expectations. The remaining giant piles can wait until tomorrow and it will be ok. It is not a judgement on my prowess that some days I can’t do the work of four people. I also gave myself extra time to go pick up JB so I could sloth as slowly as I needed without worrying about running late. Before giving up for the day, I picked a second Lakota family to shop for before September is over.
Something set off my bag lady syndrome. I’m balancing a flare up of my occasional “must hoard resources!” instinct alongside my usual must-help-folks-personally motto. Might be partly because we’ve given a lot more than usual in a single week to folks who needed cash, might be something else triggered my old insecurities. I often worry we don’t help people enough and then have to remind myself it’s ok to live our own lives too, we don’t have to give until it hurts every time all the time. We still have a responsibility to look out for our futures and the kids, as much as we do to give back to the community.
Smol Acrobat was a giant pill at dinner but cooperative during bath time. It doesn’t quite even out but that’s better than the usual terrible at dinner, terrible at bath, and terrible at sleep trifecta.
Year 4, Day 179: Another slow and late morning. We’re still recovering from the weekend, I’ll probably be sluggy all week. My eyes were irritated the whole morning, I assumed it was because my eyeglass prescription is out of date, but it may actually be because the wildfire smoke had been blowing in. I didn’t notice the smell until mid afternoon, when it had become cloying and gross. On that theme, I missed an important detail in a text which led to some complications in the kid pickup routine. Then the dinner place we were going to try was closed today. Also irritating! (more…)
September 18, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 171: I am made of anxiety and overwhelm today. I have staffing issues at work. Not bad issues, but issues that required a great deal of my attention last week and need more this week for it to work out right. I also have our meeting with the principal who has my hackles up so high, I can’t stand the thought of being in the same room.
I was honest about my feelings and did my best to breathe through them. That helped a bit. But it was frustrating that every time I noticed the anxiety symptoms had ebbed, noticing them brought them back.
Year 4, Day 172: Terrible sleep after staying up late to clear the decks before this morning full of meetings. But I am still glad I stayed up, that advance work let me get through all the meetings and the scheduling of more meetings and the regular work today without an anvil weight on my chest.
Quite annoyed that because of the many distractions caused by the school failing to do what they should have done without our prompting, I missed sending out a package on time to our Lakota sponsee. I had spent two months putting it together ahead of time, so I can schedule it to go out later this week once I have a moment. Just very annoyed at how impossible it is to handle all the things, all the time.
We got another “whose child is this?” report from daycare. Smol Acrobat turns into a whiny blubbery mess at the drop of a hat, mornings, evenings, and weekends at home. They go from happpyyyyyy to CRYFACE in nanoseconds. But their teacher at daycare commented one morning, after PiC exasperatedly observed that it was yet another hellish morning getting them out the door: that’s weird, they never cry here.
WHAT.
I briefly forgot but pretty sure this was the same for JB, too. I think they were a triple handful at home and mostly just fine at school. I remember many instances where I had to heft JB like a log and take them to their room for a time out, and conversations with a former teacher friend whose kids were the same age who reassured me that the kids who are terrors at home are frequently totally fine at school.
Year 4, Day 173: The meeting happened today, finally. The anticipation was getting to me. While it changed very little, we got a bit of new information that we didn’t have before. Their former teacher covered most of what we needed, the principal confirmed that they wouldn’t allow this to drag on if it keeps up this year. She mentioned checking in with the kid multiple times to make sure they were staying away from JB. So that’s the last piece we needed: to see the school taking some accountability and not ignoring the whole thing as a NBD.
Year 4, Day 174: Sera 🐶 and I both had a rough night. Not sure if her restlessness was due to arthritis pain or being unable to settle until PiC stopped working but she paced the halls at half hour intervals until 2 am. I had painsomnia and when I did finally drop off, my sleep was fragmented and light. Could someone bottle sleep and sell it, please?
On the bright side: it’s been two whole weeks since my last sore throat!?
Year 4, Day 175: Friday food! Go figure, the meal I liked the least was the meal that Smol Acrobat actually ate on their own: Costco rotisserie chicken wrapped in cheesy tortillas with (and without the second time) Mexican rice. I’m positive the selling point was the tub of sour cream they were allowed to dip into. They were given one wrap and they ate it entirely on their own without needing me to coax them one mouthful at a time! 🎉 We also had bulgogi from the Costco fridge section with rice and salad one night. The bulgogi is great on top of a salad without rice too if you’re cutting back on starches. We had each of those meals twice, on alternating days.
September 11, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 164: I only labored a little this Labor Day, and that was just to marginally make up for some time I’ll need to be away from my desk tomorrow.
I have had it up to here with cajoling Smol Acrobat to eat their dinner night after night after endless frustrating hair-rending night. I declared that their choice was clear: finish eating their meal, and join the rest of us in a bowl of ice cream, or don’t, and don’t.
PiC wasn’t sure I meant it until I sent JB to the freezer to bring out the tub. Yup. I meant business. I started eating my ice cream right in front of them. They’ve never cleared a plate of regular non-dessert food (safely, no worries, they weren’t THAT motivated) so fast on their own.
All I want for my birthday is not to spend another night trying to get this child to eat their dang dinner. You’d think we were trying to poison them the way they avoid eating until we come up with sufficient motivation.
Year 4, Day 165: All three packages arrived today, ahead of schedule: my medication, Sera’s 🐶 meds and treats, and my binders. It’s satisfying to get them all squared away on a Tuesday because the boxes can go out with the Wednesday recycling. It’s such a little thing to be happy about.
Year 4, Day 166: Roller coaster day. This morning, I contacted the superintendent’s office since the principal never bothered to acknowledge our email, much less engage in meaningful conversation.
The assistant confirmed receipt quickly, then it was just as quickly passed over to the Director of Student Safety, who dumped it back in the lap of the principal for an in-person meeting. You know, the one who ignored the email to begin with.
I shouldn’t be surprised, just like I wasn’t surprised that she refused to offer any constructive feedback on the situation in the first place, but it still felt like a punch in the gut. It felt like it was my failure to be effective. I did my best to lay out the situation as we saw it and open a dialogue. Instead, we get passed around like a hot potato that no one wants to deal with. And somehow it feels like MY failure. PiC says that it’s good that it’s now all documented. I suppose that’s looking at the marginally less dark side of things. We wouldn’t even BE here if they had bothered to respond to my email like they should have done in the first place. Or if they gave two hoots about student safety. They keep acting like we’re trying to punish the other kid. We have no interest in the other kid. We only want to stop the behavior before it gets completely out of hand.
Year 4, Day 167: I keep wondering why I’m so behind this week and then I open this post and realize oh, that’s right. We had one day off and though I cleared my desk on Friday, I’m still burning the midnight oil trying to get caught up and not making enough of a dent. So that’s depressing. But! The good news on the work side is we will be able to train more staff soon, ahead of need for once, because I had a brilliant plan and now all it needs is a brilliant execution to make sure that my team has good backup. So there is that.
On the personal side, I’ve been having all kinds of awful feelings of failure about the bully situation. While mulling over all the things I don’t know about this situation, I stopped by JB’s former teacher’s classroom to ask for her thoughts. She was very forthcoming about the things I asked, and then asked to speak to JB for a bit. She very kindly reassured JB that they have every right to defend themselves if this kid comes at them again, and that they wouldn’t be in trouble for that. I don’t know how they didn’t inherit my “touch me and I’ll pop you” gene but they’re more worried about getting in trouble than they are about protecting themselves. That accounts for at least half my feelings of failure. The other half is probably emotional backlash from seeing responsible adults at the school abdicate their responsibilities to keep JB safe. I didn’t spot that one, genius Jaydot did.
A line from Suits that stuck with me: “for all his faults, he would take a bullet before he would let anything happen to his little girl.” A whole lot of us are in the (We have/had a) Crappy Parent Club. Suffice to say my dad wouldn’t take a bent nail for me and I didn’t know how deeply that would undermine how I parent and how I feel about parenting.
Year 4, Day 168: Friday food review! I threw together a baked salmon, rice, and (frozen) broccoli dinner one night. I picked up a Thai feast the other night. PiC added my fresh dug potatoes from the garden (er, the potato growing bag), to a premade chicken curry from Costco one night. That’s the one dish that was popular with Smol Acrobat. Just enough for them to ask for some more than once but not eat all of it all the time. I can’t wait until they outgrow this distracted eating phase.
It’s felt like pulling teeth to get food on the table this week. I think I’m overwhelmed from juggling all the things.
September 4, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 157: My money nerd self soothing involves looking at our dividend income and figuring out how much of our bills we can pay with it. Right now the monthly average is about $300 so. That covers the water/sewer every other month, and the electric/gas bill, and 1/12 of the property tax. That’s not going so far.
I bought Costco stock in 2013 when it was around $120/share and that was expensive for my cash flow. If you’d told me back then that it would be quadruple in price in ten years, I wouldn’t have believed you. But I might have scraped together the cash to buy ten or twenty more shares just in case. I wish I had. The next time I bought was in 2021 at $360/share and I would have sworn that was the peak. It’s around $530 now so I clearly know nothing. Of course my incredulity that it’s $530 feels the same as I felt when it was $120/share and $360/share.
Year 4, Day 158: I’ve enjoyed having our potato growing sacks so much, especially because they don’t really need much tending day to day, that I’ve been strongly tempted to venture into berries. Blueberries and/or blackberries. Our friends a few miles away who actually get sun have fantastically producing bushes and as I type this I realize that sun could be the reason they have such a great garden. Am I going to be wasting our money on bushes? I recall reading that you need two buy two bushes for cross pollination of the blueberries, I wonder if that’s the same for blackberries. We’ll also need to put netting over them. Our friends didn’t in their first year and lost almost their entire harvest to the birds.
Year 4, Day 159: I am unsurprised to see that on Day 3 post-email, the principal still hasn’t acknowledged receipt or responded in any way. I’m giving myself the week to catch up on rest and work and then next week, when she still won’t have responded, I’ll wade back into this and escalate.
This is my week of sleeplessness. One night it’s because the pain just won’t fade enough for me to sleep. The next night it’s Smol Acrobat waking up multiple times crying and needing soothing back to sleep. The next, insomnia again. Maybe this is my body’s way of saying “you only think you’re relaxing!”
Year 4, Day 160: A month ago we surprised ourselves by buying the new car that came available rather unexpectedly. The expected result was that we needed to downsize by selling our now-extraneous third car. It makes sense. There’s no room in the garage for three cars. There’s barely room in there for two. The decluttering part of me wanted it gone the week after the new car came home but we’ve been really busy so I’ve just maneuvered as best I could and he cleared as much detritus that built up in the garage as he could. We coped. PiC finally found time last weekend to prepare the ad and now he’s getting replies. My I can’t wait to have that space cleared impatience was replaced with sadness the second the ad replies started to come in.
That was the car we brought Sera and Smol Acrobat home in. That was the car we took the whole family, including Seamus and Sera, on trips in. And that was the car we took Seamus for his last ride in.
Finally letting go of it feels really sad. But as a reminder, I can’t trust the trunk lid to stay up properly which is really irritating so I’ll try to balance the nostalgia with the stuff I won’t miss.
Year 4, Day 161: This makes six days this week I’ve not gotten four hours of sleep any night. I’m too tired to exist.
Friday food review! We had a Trader Joe’s frozen meals medley one night. Thank goodness the food is decent quality or that meal would have been really sad. We tried Jollibee for the first time. JB loved the burgersteak and Smol Acrobat loved the fried chicken, that was the opposite result from what I expected. JB loved the peach mango pie as expected and Smol didn’t like it, less of a surprise. Adults were fine with all of it. We had two leftovers nights and one sushi (big treat!) night. Feeding one kid who mostly loves everything (and therefore wants my sashimi) and one kid who dislikes mostly everything (and therefore only picks at every possible option) is becoming extra annoying when I have to spend special treat nights trying to find one thing Smol Acrobat can eat enough of to qualify as a sufficient calorie meal.
I know I said I’d give myself a week to rest before wading back into the fight but Monday is a holiday which means I felt like I needed to get a jump on drafting my email to the superintendent.
I understand why I felt that way but it was a terrible decision.
That was an awful way to close out the week, of course, leaving me irritable and angsty about the upcoming confrontation.