Author: Doris

Edda is up all hours of the night and at 8 am, here she is passed out on the couch.  Jeremy’s headed out to California starting tomorrow for a week and I’m trying not to think too hard about the night time work that’s in store for me (and then prepping for the am bus pickup which Jeremy is 100% in charge of (unless he’s in California, then it gets delegated to me)).  It will be fine and it’s not that much night time work, it’s just mostly chopped up sleep with cartoon soundtracks in the background and then every once in a while, she sits on my head.  I’m ever hopeful that Edda’ll switch back soon to sleeping through the night.  Or at least until 5am.  At least she is generally delighted when she’s awake in the middle of the night.

Edda was sleeping on our couch at 8 am today, a Friday, because she had another orthotics appointment.  The foot braces look great in the very fashionable, geriatric, diabetic-type shoe.  Ankles look straight and she doesn’t get blisters from them.  The back brace seems a little off, I’ll have to search down the “in-brace” x-ray from the orthopedic surgeon.  And we were there for a new arm brace which is suppose to help Edda bend her arm a little without having her hand immediately go into her mouth.  But Edda defeated it in 30 seconds.  So no new arm brace.

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At the beginning of the week, we assign each day to a person to cook dinner – well everyone except Edda.  But she gets a bye because she can’t use her hands.  I forgot to cook dinner on Tuesday, my night, and I’m terrible at last minute things, so Jeremy pinch cooked my night.  And tonight was Jeremy’s night, but Vince has a Chinese project due on Monday where he has to recount his experience ordering food at a Chinese restaurant.  We went to our favorite (A&Js) and told the waitress that he was practicing.  He asked for a table for 6 people, asked for ice water and Cokes, ordered all the food, asked for forks, and then finally asked for the bill.  His two pals (both taking Spanish, not Chinese, asked for all the same things in Spanish to each other).  He didn’t pay the bill though.  He let us do that.  Which is fine because we are always looking for an excuse to go out to A&Js.

Music that I’m listening to this week:

Good old JT.  Fun song:

Meghan Trainor – Me Too.  Heard this first in the car and I was a little turned off despite the cute beat, when she said “If I was you, I’d wanna be me too, I’d wanna be me too” but this video gives it cuteness.

I laughed at this song which is funny,  love a rap song talking about saving money in a 401K.  Video is slightly raunchy, please overlook.

I ain’t parkin’ that unless the meter green, homie 
Hair cut several months in-between, homie 
Hit the motherfuckin’ lights when I leave, homie 
Single ply TP ass bleed 
Air B&B the mother fucker, least I’m never there 
I’m not in Cali, why the fuck my company in Delaware? 
Happy hour takin’ out the chicken, I don’t even care 
That applies to both dating and wings 
Peep matinees phone bill got the motherfuckin’ fam on it 
401k rollin’ over bands on it 
Coppin’ sweaters in the summer with the sale on it 
The fuck you rappers bragging bout? You overpay for it

The thing that kills me about Vince’s math class is that they use a TI-84 graphing calculator.  I don’t think algebra needs to use a graphing calculator – but they are plotting data and figuring out correlation coefficients and getting best fit lines.  I just don’t like looking at the math homework and seeing some problem and thinking to myself – wow, that’s a little complicated to figure out by hand, and then Vince is like, “that’s when we enter it in the graphing calculator”.  I hate the graphing calculator so much that I refuse to purchase it for home use when they told us to do it at back-to-school night and it’s coming around to biting me in the ass because his final project is all graphing calculator based.  Then Vince has no idea how to figure it out using anything different than the TI-84, leaving me to figure out some online emulator this week to mimic a graphing calculator.

Vince is experimenting with a new “signature”.

Jeremy and I snagged the last ten minutes of happy hour at World of Beer.  $4 beer, $5 eats, and $6 cocktails.  World of Beer opened last week in our neighborhood, we can walk home.

Then I brushed Ruby’s fur and created a mat of dog hair at our local park.

When I was younger, I was keen on doing something and then crossing it off the list and then moving onto the next thing.  I never wanted to do the same thing over and over again.  Every chore was a chore.  Every obligation an obligation.

Now I try to enjoy doing the exact same thing over and over again, with almost no expectation of success or forward accomplishment.  Feed Edda, use bib to wipe her mouth.  Cajole Vince into doing daily Chinese vocab.  Pick up trash around the house.  Mow lawn.  Wipe table.  Put away shoes. Work.  Work some more.  Negotiate with Jeremy logistics of the week.  Pick up dog poop.  Invite friends over.  Fight.  Make up.  Argue again.  Make up again.  Pay bills.  Go for a walk.  Get too tired, sad, angry, happy, excited and then all over again.  Then do all that again.

Look at the weeds that have grown up around the side of the house.  I hate weeding.  But I will weed.  And I will try to like weeding.  And I know in another 5 weeks, I’ll have to weed again.  And I’ll try to like weeding again.

Flowers to start off a nice day.  Edda, Jeremy and I went to Whole Food to see if we could snag some free samples.  We did not.

Jeremy then started biking from the WF lot headed to a lunch-time party in Alexandria.

While Edda and I went home, put the groceries away and headed to the party via minivan.  We met up with Jeremy to attend the famous Johns’s Memorial Day bash!

Then we headed back home where Jeremy made more food, chicken on a beer can.

Edda’s new shoes that fit her orthotics.  Hmmmm, sexy.  They are triple wide and still barely wide enough.  We are trying them out on her for a couple hours a day to see if they hurt her foot.  It’s weird they want her back brace on for 21 hours a day, but these shoe orthotics for 6 hours a day.  I dunno.

Ruby loves to sun herself on the deck – even when I think it’s way too hot.  It’s from her Texas genes. I remember her mother laying on the sidewalk in the full sun in summer in Austin TX just lovin’ it y’all.

I went to lunch with Debbie today.  We talked a lot about Pilates.  And nursing documentation and scheduling, Debbie does informatics in a hospital.

Hahahaha – a new candy store opened in Town Square.  Funny & disgusting at the same time.

Quiet day today (for me and Edda).  Much more interesting for Jeremy who bought a new bike today and he went all around Montgomery County on Ride-On busses.  From Rockville, to Silver Spring, to Montgomery Mall, then to Congressional Mall and then back home.  He is a public transit expert.

After he got home, we went to Rockville’s Hometown Holidays.  Vince had already abandoned us all day – give him a twenty and he’s off with friends watching movies and eating hamburgers.

Jeremy got us all tickets (because of his service to the city) to the VIP tent which had this amazing potato salad and BBQ sandwiches.

Edda shows off her eating while sleeping talent.

As part of the VIP package, we got some tickets to spend at the food concessions.  We got into the ice cream line.

 

Then we went into a new pub that opened downtown to have some drinks before we walked back home.

We are looking forward to a low-key three-day weekend.  We aren’t going anywhere, we have a few things planned – some all together and some all apart, trying to manage happy moments together without driving each other crazy.  It’s been a long week.  Jeremy’s been a little sick and he had a tough week at work.  Annual planning is coming soon in California, so there is a lot of prep for that and Jeremy’s been working through all the associated complicated issues with that.  I’ve been slogging through the work week because my mouth feels terrible.  I sometimes get these mouth ulcers that last for about 10 days. I’ve had these breakouts since I was a little kid, but as I get older, they really wipe me out.  I feel like I have a mild flu, I can’t eat well, I can’t talk.  Also, I’m a little under-scheduled, so that also has me feeling a little aimless and hermit-like.  I need a little bit of deadline stress and reasons to leave the house to really feel happy.

I made dinner tonight – IKEA meatballs (with swedish berry sauce) and tater tots and peas.  Dinner was very colorful and was super awesome delicious, but I’m not sure how healthy it was.

To counter my aimlessness and to complement my hermit-ness, I’ve taken to sewing more of Edda’s bandana/terry cloth bibs.  She’s chewed through a number of them and also I need to make them for Edda’s schools because they are so handy.  Really – this is what they need to invent – bibs for adults that don’t have bunnies/pastels or are lame and diapers for adults with velcro down the sides like those training diapers they make for 2 year olds so when the diapers are just wet, you don’t have to take off the whole pair of pants to change them.  They figured out that taking pants off a 2 year old was a lot of trouble, but, trust me, really it’s a lot more trouble on a 12 or 30 year old.

I’m also trying to learn chess.  I give this new hobby approximately three more days.

Look at this beautiful sunset!

Jeremy says good night!

Summer is finally here with the warmth and humidity.  Jeremy is starting to look more and more like his father the first time I met him.  I guess I met Bob when he was in his mid-50s, which Jeremy is now within spitting distance of.  

Ruby had a tough time today on the evening walk.  She started to not be able to breath well – hyperventilating.  We got her to rest on a patch of grass while Jeremy went with Max to fetch a car.  While they were gone, I was a little worried that Ruby might never catch her breath again.  Doggie CPR?  That frightened me, but then she stopped panting for a moment to sniff the ground around her and then I figured she was going to pull out of the breathing episode.
 

Ruby, being rescued during our 1 mile walk.  Poor girl.  Only climate controlled spaces for you this summer (AC went on in the house today!).  And very short walks!

Remember Camp Greentop, the awesome sleepaway summer camp?  Where Edda has to be quiet during the night because she’s have to share a small cabin with ten people?  Well she’s been sooooo loud every night this week!  So loud.  Like yelling at us at 3 am.  Any by us, I mean Jeremy.

Little girl!  Be quiet!  Maybe we should give her an Ambien.  Hmmmm…..

Jeremy stayed downtown tonight for happy hour.  Hanging out and drinking beer.