Author: Doris

Please give me grace to make it through these last weeks of summer. I hate, hate, hate that school starts after Labor Day. Next week, Jeremy is traveling, Edda has almost no childcare, Vince is suppose to finish all his summer packets and start college stuff. I’m still an itchy mess which makes me *itchy.

On the last day of the fair (Saturday) we ditched our whole idea of taking Edda there and getting the annual corn dog, the turkey leg and the ice cream. It was hot, we decided the food at the fair was too expensive and Jeremy was mostly grumbling about the quality of the ice cream at the fair, so instead we went to our favorite ice cream place Carmen’s just 200m from our door. I had to insist that they make the ice cream smaller than their regular small but that I would pay for a small, no problem. Sometimes this is surprisingly hard to do. The fair ended well with the parking lot almost to full capacity, the line out to the Rockville Pike, but they never had to close the gate – they always let people in. That is some good parking skillz.

Jeremy wanted you to know that he ordered a case of peanut butter. He is thinking of replacing dairy in his diet with peanut butter.

On Sunday, there was a picnic to celebrate the end of the fair. We had to stay longer than we wanted to because both Vince and I had to take a swim test to go on next year’s spring break trip back to the Florida Keys with the scouts. By then, Vince will be 18 and he will be one of the adults on the trip.

Jeremy volunteered to flip the burgers and no one else was really interested in it, so he did it the whole time. He went early, but texted me to bring the meat thermometer. He wanted all the burgers to be heated up to 160 degrees which is well done. He doesn’t trust premade, frozen burger patties. He likes to grind the meat himself. He wanted to make sure to kill off everything that could possibly be killed off.

On Sunday, I went for a run and out of nowhere a bee came and stung me on my forearm. I’ve spent the past two days with my entire arm swollen and I’ve been grumpy and sleepy and itchy.

With swollen arm, I had to repair the toilet three times this weekend. First the replacing the flush mechanism. Then it was leaking at the water supply connection (enough so that the tenants downstairs came rushing upstairs to say that we were leaking into their kitchen) and then after I thought I had fixed all the leaks, the tenants came up again on Sunday night to say that it was still leaking. So I turned off the water and replaced the wax ring on Monday morning. Then today, I still heard the phantom flush I was trying to fix by replacing the flush mechanism originally.

Colonoscopy on Monday for Jeremy. Bowel prep started on Sunday night. Bowels look excellent, GI doc complimented him on both his bowels and his prep. Jeremy got to joke with all the nurses about how I try to practice IVs on him. His CRNA was also an engineer who taught at Irvine.

Vince and I have been trying to work together on college stuff and senior year stuff. It’s not easy. I can be discouraging and judgemental and he has a lot of feelings that he can’t quite use his words to describe. I try to remember what it was like to be that age. To have such strong feelings about things but confused what those feelings were and how to articulate them. I try to remember to not fix everything for him. He’s learning things about scheduling, managing conflicting events and priorities. How to turn people down, how to maintain a deadline when you are counting on other people.

I am a member of two gyms: the Rockville pool’s gym and Earth Trek’s gym. How on earth did I become a member of two gyms, I will never know. Apparently I like going to gyms where the main focus is not the gym, where the gym is an afterthought and tacked onto a little side room off of the main attraction. I hardly ever go swimming at the pool (thought I have swimsuits) and I rarely go climbing at the climbing gym (though I have climbing shoes). I’ve been going more frequently to the Earth Trek’s gym in the past year, but I have been, in the past, more loyal to the pool’s gym. I love the pool’s gym because a lot of neighbors go to that gym and it’s filled with 70-year-olds getting their workout in. I love Earth Trek’s gym because it’s filled with girls who can do like 5 pull ups in a row. I can be a strange gym goer, I like to nod hello to people, but not actually talk to them. I’ve recently been taking Edda to Earth Treks. There is a table right in front of the glass walled gym that I can set her up at and she happily watches TV while I do whatever it is I want to do and mostly keep an eye on her – though these days, she does quite well on her own. I do wonder, since I’m essentially in another room, if people walk by Edda and look around for a family member, but they seem to not care. Also, the handicapped parking spot is never, ever taken and is not only the closest spot to the front door, but it’s the only shaded spot in the whole lot, so bringing Edda is an outing for her and generally a net-benefit for me.

I did some plumbing work today. Our main toilet was having phantom flushes, so I had to replace the main plunger-thingy.

I’m trying to read more. Experimenting with the kindle and borrowed library books. I’m starting easy by reading children’s books. Wolf Hollow first, now Graceling which is quite good. I’ve been following Jeremy’s example of falling asleep because I’m having trouble sleeping and winding down at night the kindle’s screen is gently lit (softer than my phone) and not connected to the internet, we can turn off all the lights in the bedroom and quietly read and fall asleep as we are reading. I even prop the Kindle up on a stuffed animal, so I don’t even have to hold it up as I’m reading. Granted, in the morning, we have to go hunting for the kindles (and the stuffed bear, but it’s not bad.

And the fair continues. Vince took the day off yesterday and went shopping with girls at Montgomery Mall (and bought some shirts) and then drove to the fair at about 4pm to work the evening shift. He’s still managing the operations well (at least from what I hear). A low drama year from a low drama kid. I’m scheduled to work this afternoon. And then Jeremy will work the last shift tomorrow, thus bringing our summertime fair adventure for over half a decade to a close. We’ll celebrate by taking Edda to the fair a little before Jeremy’s shift starts and eating: a corn dog, ice cream, grilled cheese and a turkey leg. And I will look at the chickens which are my favorite farm animal. So many different colors and so delicious! Both the eggs and the meat. We almost did not join this troop because of the fair commitment – each family has to put in 35 hours of adult hours which is a lot (how did we do it last year with my working at the hospital full time? I think Jeremy did them all…) – but it took only a year for Vince to fall in love with the fair. I will say that we are in much less love with the fair, but sometimes the love can be reflected from the person who loves it.

I stopped by the hospital to say goodbye to Audrea on her last shift -one of the most senior members of the nursing staff. Eleven years, which in nursing is forever! Most people stay only a couple of years. She’s the one wearing the little hat and taking a call from our boss who is on vacation, but called in to wish her good luck as a new nurse practitioner.

Jeremy bought a whole bushel of peaches and they are not ripening deliciously enough for him, but they are ripe enough for me. (Asians like their peaches in the fridge and not ripe. Childhood summer for me is a cold, crunchy peach.) So I’ve been eating five a day because no one else is eating them. I think I’m ever so slightly allergic to them because my tongue is swelling and itchy. Huh. That sounds worse than it is. Don’t worry! I’m not worried about my airway.

I spent most of the day at the fair and mid-afternoon I did feel a little bit woozy standing out there in the middle of the hot parking lot. That also sounds bad. I was worried about heat stroke for about 3 minutes at 3:30pm, but then I felt much better after immediately drinking a liter of ice cold water. My job involves a lot of standing waving a flag and also driving a golf cart around in circles.

Here’s Vince holding a “meeting” where he is discussing parking status with Ed, I guess the head of fair logistics? I will have to ask Vince when he gets home. I hear the lot holds 1400 cars. Monster truck night tonight!

Edda’s been back at her regular after school program just for this week. During the summer, they hold sessions from noon-4pm. Edda’s been at all day Camp JCC, so this is the first week that she’s been back with the regular crew. They haven’t been feeding her lunch :(. The first day, I thought they just missed her lunch box which was tucked into her backpack. I texted and made sure lunch was part of the day and they said it was and then today, lunch came back uneaten again! Poor girl. Eliana fed her her lunch when they got home at 4:30 pm on both days. Hopefully, she’ll get lunch tomorrow.

Jeremy headed to Baltimore today for a meeting. He doesn’t often leave the house in a suit. Most times he needs a suit he changes into and out of it at his office, wearing the suit only for the meeting he needs the suit for. He was grumpy today, but it turns out it was mostly because he is trying to lose weight and did not eat.

This was the first day that neither me nor Jeremy worked the fair. Poor Vince, he had a tough(ish) day yesterday. A few scouts took too long of a lunch break/dinner break and came back to their posts late. Vince had to deal with that. Otherwise, everything is going smoothly. I’ll be there tomorrow.

On Saturday, Edda and I went to see the live action Dora movie. We were the only ones in the theatre. Edda loves Dora. We are still watching Dora videos from 2005. The movie was not terrible. I stayed awake the whole time and might have laughed at certain points. I think Edda enjoyed it. Afterwards, we went to the Panera where we could order using an iPad. Fancy. But lonely.

Vince was at the fair all weekend. I worked Saturday night where I got to talk to a bunch of old mom friends. Vince’s best best friends from elementary school are all still in the scout troop. A gang of 6, but then once high school started, it really split into a group of 2 and 4. And Vince ended up in the group of 2. But everyone stayed in the troop and everyone still works relatively well together – I think no one hates the other ones, but out of the troop, they travel in different social circles. But it meant that I lost contact with the parents of the other group which is a bummer because I like the parents very much. So it’s nice to see them and have time to chat and catch up.

Now that Camp JCC is done and various schools are starting up again, Edda’s childcare is more sporadic and spotty. We have some am care this week, pm care is Celebrate Ability camp and Eliana will pickup Edda from camp.

I worked the fair this afternoon and took naps.

Jeremy biked in from DC to the fair to work tonight.

Eliana is learning to be a CNA so she took blood pressures on my 10,000 times.

Jeremy’s last shift of the night.

I was nice to racist patient the other day. When I took over at 7am from the night shift nurse, he was already yelling spent the night yelling at phlebotomists, nursing techs, food service people. Demanding that we change his name on the whiteboard to Hitler. It was not good. Some staff end up engulfed into the drama of the whole thing and yell or scold in return. I understand their reaction. But I never like that tactic. I always want to diffuse the energy – at all costs to lower the drama level instead of feeding into it because it just makes my job easier and who needs extra drama? So I’m nice. Like doggedly nice. Warm blankets? Water, no ice? Gah. But it didn’t prevent him from eloping from the unit and therefore making me and two techs roam the hospital for 20 minutes looking for him.

The summer passed in a flash for Edda. Seven weeks at Camp JCC – swimming, trips, music, and the dreaded art. I didn’t meet her 1-on-1 counselor until the last day because I did none of the drop offs or pickups and Suary didn’t get assigned to Edda until the 2nd week. It was a pleasure to meet her and hear that they had a great summer together.

Vince started running the parking at the fair, so he’s out of the house from about 7:30 am until 10:30 pm. The action really started Thursday night with a walk through for the first year scouts and their parents. I had had a list of non-fair things to do for him on Thursday, but he woke up on that morning, came downstairs and gave me a hug and said that he was nervous to be running the whole thing. I hadn’t even thought about that, so I didn’t mention the college related things I wanted him to do before he showed up at the fair on Thursday night. It’s been beautiful weather, crowds are showing up. The scouts are directing the traffic. We are trying to be there at least part of the day on most days working our shifts.

Jeremy biking to work.

Vince leading the fair! Which starts tomorrow!

I need to get back in the groove of daily blogging. Or at least every other day blogging. Too much goes on when I leave too much time between posts. Jeremy and I have been crossing paths very briefly for weeks now, so we decided to go on a date on Thursday night. But then everyone else was going to be at home, so we took them all on the date with us. Because the minivan is on loan and we only wanted to take one car (Edda’s caregiver, Eliana was with us), all five of us squeezed into the Civic. Vince promptly started to perform mock sibling fighting with Edda.

I have been thinking about getting another dog. Max just turned 9, so it’s time and it would be more fun before Vince went to college. But then this summer, Max started peeing all over the house, which dampened my enthusiasm. But then we got medication for Max which has helped a lot. Though I know, in my deepest doggy loving heart, that Max wants to be an only dog. Do you see how jealous Max is of this baby? So sulky.

Jeremy drove Vince and Sam to Pitt for a day-long tour. I think I was secretly hoping Vince would come home and breathlessly say – I love Pitt. Let’s apply to Pitt early and then he’d (probably? hopefully? maybe?) get in and then it would all be done. But that did not happen. He was meh about Pitt. They are not my people. He’s like – they talk too much about sports. Everyone does sports at Pitt. I’m like – huh? Have I ever heard of a Pitt juggernaut in any sport? (Whoops, I see they are #1 in their conference in football. I am an idiot.) I’m like – who exactly are your people? I have no idea. Actually, I do have an idea. I think he thinks his people are 0.5 miles away from Pitt at Carnegie Mellon to which I internally sigh a deep sigh.

Jeremy drove the two on Thursday night to Pittsburgh late after a scout meeting that Vince needed to run. So they got into Pittsburg past midnight and then up early for a 7:30 am tour. Jeremy got them checked in and settled and then went on his own five hour bike ride. Pittsburgh is very hilly and there is a race there called the dirty dozen which goes up and down the 13 biggest hills in town. Jeremy tried to recreate it though a bunch of roads were closed and one of the hills had a 38% grade. I asked Vince if all the other parents stayed for the whole 6 hour program and Vince said that he was the only kid without a parent there the whole day (well except Sam, who was in another section). Jeremy was like – I drove them there! I missed my bedtime twice, took a whole day off of work. He said, I already went to undergrad, I don’t need to go to undergrad again. I laughed.

Edda is having a nice summer – lots of fun at Camp JCC. This is the last week. Lots of help from our lovely caregivers. <3