Ugh... sorry. I realized I've taken an unbelievable amount of blog breaks this past year, and I need to take another one... obviously, since I haven't been here in two weeks.
Five years ago I was diagnosed, after about four different specialists, with Hypermobility Syndrome. It's something you're born with that makes your connective tissue too loose - specifically the connective tissue around your spine. It's a genetic condition and my brother (clearly, though never officially handed a diagnosis) has it also. It causes your spine to move as well as "collapse" since the connective tissue can't hold it up properly.
If you're diligent about core exercises, you can (or at least my brother and I can) get pretty much pain free. But if you're pregnant and on bed rest and recovering from all of that and have various surges in pregnancy related hormones that make it worse, you're not pain free. At all.
Right now, and for the past several weeks, I've been battling chronic pain. Most of those days I've been able to walk, but some I haven't. The rest of the days I've stayed on the couch as much as is possible for a stay at home mom of a toddler and a 3 month old.
In a touching bit of Sibling Synchronicity, my brother and I are both currently trapped in what I'm calling Rehab Catch 22. The ONLY way out of the pain tunnel is to do your rehab exercises... You're in too much pain to even do that much. Ugh.
As anyone who's ever experienced it knows, chronic pain is a bizarre, lonely, frustrating, day-altering situation to be in. It overrides your perspective because it's all you can experience. Everything else around you is out of focus because you only have one sensation and it's highly in focus.
So after taking a few weeks off to deal with the acute pain, I've knocked my PT exercises back to two and am going to restart my regimen. Two. If that's not baby-stepping, I don't know what is, because I thought I was baby-stepping before when I was doing five exercises.
This Wednesday night B will be 100% done with grad school - thesis will be bound, presented, defended, etc. - and this weekend my brother and his lady are coming to meet Everett. I'll try to meet you back here in a week or two and be healthy enough to start enjoying our summer.
Showing posts with label Boooo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boooo. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Thursday, July 15, 2010
The one where I nearly lose my shit at Babies R Us
I have a vivid memory from when i was 14 and my brother was 9. We were all sitting around the dining room table for dinner and my dad dropped his fork.
"SHIT!!"
"I dropped my FORK!"
He sat there just staring at the floor in total disbelief. He had DROPPED his FORK!
I remember laughing at him and saying "Uh... you can just pick it up." And then I think I picked it up myself because clearly the evils of gravity and slippery fingers had sent him over the edge of reason.
I told him about that memory last year and he said that while he doesn't remember that specific event, he still feels like that sometimes. Like he can handle the big, stressful stuff in life, but the little stuff just adds up and hits a boiling point.
I had a moment like that yesterday. Except it wasn't the stressors of life. I have a great life and I don't feel stressed at all. But every once in a while some small injustice occurs and something COMPLETLEY SNAPS in my otherwise levelheaded and even-tempered mind and I just want to FUCK SHIT UP.
Like that one time we had gone to the mall to look for something specific - a baby swimsuit, I think - and we couldn't find one anywhere and we were tired and everyone needed to go home. And we took one last chance by walking into Sears to look in the Land's End section, except that it was upstairs and the elevator was broken. So I walked over to a cashier and asked if there was another elevator because the normal one was broken and she rudely brushed my off and told me that I could walk to the other end of the mall to use the mall elevator and then walk back to their store.
RED.
Like, crazy-pants HEEEERRREEEE'S JOHNNNYYYY kind of red. Like the kind of thing that SHOULD take over in the correct circumstances, like when someone is ACTUALLY trying to wrong me or generally being abusive or disrespectful. But in those instances I almost always go cold silent.
The clerk thing didn't end well. I swore under my breath and walked away and then she yelled something at me and all six people in line got a good story about some crazy-ass interaction at the mall today.
And so it was yesterday at Babies R Us.
It was so innocent. I was given a pair of shorts that don't fit Charlotte so I stopped by Babies R Us to exchange them for something bigger. I had the tags, and even the Babies R Us hanger, still attached. And I was EVEN prepared for the fact that they might not be able to give me a full exchange rate, because maybe the shorts have now gone on sale and they could only give me the current price.
So I'm standing in line at the customer service counter, chatting with the woman behind me who allegedly had her first baby TWO WEEKS AGO and is nevertheless out in the world, care-free, smiling, with a totally flat stomach.
So then I'm next in line. I breezily ("I'mmm BREEZY!") explain the situation to the clearly-already-frazzled clerk.
Clerk (with a disaffected puss on her face): You need a receipt. If you don't have a receipt you can't return or exchange things.
Me (confused): Well it was a gift, I just want to swap it out for a bigger size. (heart beating faster because I SUSPECT shit is about to go down)
Clerk: You need a receipt. Absolutely no returns or exchanges without one.
Me: But it was a GIFT! Why would I, or anyone, have the receipt from A GIFT?!
Clerk: ...
Me (Snnnnaaaaapp!): So, nothing then?! So if someone gives you a GIFT that you don't need or want or happens not to fit, you're just ffffff...... (don't swear in public).... SCREWED??!!??
Clerk (clearly gets this a LOT as she is totally immune to the INSANITY of this policy, sees a manager stroll by and says:) Here's a manager, you can talk to him
Manager (sees the crazy on my face and clearly steels himself for some bickering)
Me: I go through almost the EXACT same conversation with him, concluding with the exact same: So if someone gives you A GIFT without the receipt you're just FFFFFF.... SCREWED?!!!?
Um, essentially... yes. Fuckers.
The total INSANITY of a policy like this at essentially the ONLY baby store in existence and one of the biggest stores in the entire country still makes me completely enraged. Think of all of those shitty, off-registry gifts people are getting a baby showers everywhere that they are now stuck with. Hope you want your kid to look like a little Village Person because that horrendous cowboy outfit that your great Aunt Thelma bought him isn't going anywhere.
"SHIT!!"
"I dropped my FORK!"
He sat there just staring at the floor in total disbelief. He had DROPPED his FORK!
I remember laughing at him and saying "Uh... you can just pick it up." And then I think I picked it up myself because clearly the evils of gravity and slippery fingers had sent him over the edge of reason.
I told him about that memory last year and he said that while he doesn't remember that specific event, he still feels like that sometimes. Like he can handle the big, stressful stuff in life, but the little stuff just adds up and hits a boiling point.
I had a moment like that yesterday. Except it wasn't the stressors of life. I have a great life and I don't feel stressed at all. But every once in a while some small injustice occurs and something COMPLETLEY SNAPS in my otherwise levelheaded and even-tempered mind and I just want to FUCK SHIT UP.
Like that one time we had gone to the mall to look for something specific - a baby swimsuit, I think - and we couldn't find one anywhere and we were tired and everyone needed to go home. And we took one last chance by walking into Sears to look in the Land's End section, except that it was upstairs and the elevator was broken. So I walked over to a cashier and asked if there was another elevator because the normal one was broken and she rudely brushed my off and told me that I could walk to the other end of the mall to use the mall elevator and then walk back to their store.
RED.
Like, crazy-pants HEEEERRREEEE'S JOHNNNYYYY kind of red. Like the kind of thing that SHOULD take over in the correct circumstances, like when someone is ACTUALLY trying to wrong me or generally being abusive or disrespectful. But in those instances I almost always go cold silent.
The clerk thing didn't end well. I swore under my breath and walked away and then she yelled something at me and all six people in line got a good story about some crazy-ass interaction at the mall today.
And so it was yesterday at Babies R Us.
It was so innocent. I was given a pair of shorts that don't fit Charlotte so I stopped by Babies R Us to exchange them for something bigger. I had the tags, and even the Babies R Us hanger, still attached. And I was EVEN prepared for the fact that they might not be able to give me a full exchange rate, because maybe the shorts have now gone on sale and they could only give me the current price.
So I'm standing in line at the customer service counter, chatting with the woman behind me who allegedly had her first baby TWO WEEKS AGO and is nevertheless out in the world, care-free, smiling, with a totally flat stomach.
So then I'm next in line. I breezily ("I'mmm BREEZY!") explain the situation to the clearly-already-frazzled clerk.
Clerk (with a disaffected puss on her face): You need a receipt. If you don't have a receipt you can't return or exchange things.
Me (confused): Well it was a gift, I just want to swap it out for a bigger size. (heart beating faster because I SUSPECT shit is about to go down)
Clerk: You need a receipt. Absolutely no returns or exchanges without one.
Me: But it was a GIFT! Why would I, or anyone, have the receipt from A GIFT?!
Clerk: ...
Me (Snnnnaaaaapp!): So, nothing then?! So if someone gives you a GIFT that you don't need or want or happens not to fit, you're just ffffff...... (don't swear in public).... SCREWED??!!??
Clerk (clearly gets this a LOT as she is totally immune to the INSANITY of this policy, sees a manager stroll by and says:) Here's a manager, you can talk to him
Manager (sees the crazy on my face and clearly steels himself for some bickering)
Me: I go through almost the EXACT same conversation with him, concluding with the exact same: So if someone gives you A GIFT without the receipt you're just FFFFFF.... SCREWED?!!!?
Um, essentially... yes. Fuckers.
The total INSANITY of a policy like this at essentially the ONLY baby store in existence and one of the biggest stores in the entire country still makes me completely enraged. Think of all of those shitty, off-registry gifts people are getting a baby showers everywhere that they are now stuck with. Hope you want your kid to look like a little Village Person because that horrendous cowboy outfit that your great Aunt Thelma bought him isn't going anywhere.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Happy Place
Dear Self,
Remember last weekend? Remember how you were hanging out with your great friends and their adorable (allegedly Puerto Rican) blond hair, blue-eyed baby? That was nice. Let's go there, to that happy place of last weekend. Before TEETHING hit and you and Charlotte spent five days not napping, not sleeping, and camped out in the living room. And while we're at it, can we also go back a few days before that when your husband had a functioning back and could lift the perpetually unhappy baby?
Sigh.
Thanks.
Remember last weekend? Remember how you were hanging out with your great friends and their adorable (allegedly Puerto Rican) blond hair, blue-eyed baby? That was nice. Let's go there, to that happy place of last weekend. Before TEETHING hit and you and Charlotte spent five days not napping, not sleeping, and camped out in the living room. And while we're at it, can we also go back a few days before that when your husband had a functioning back and could lift the perpetually unhappy baby?
Sigh.
Thanks.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Welcome to the Capital District
Well, we made it! All of our stuff got here safely and swiftly thanks to Atlas Moving Company. Who would have thought that 2 people, 2 cats, and their little not-quite-here-yet baby could rock a full size tractor trailer so hard? I was picturing the 14' U-Haul that arrives when you perform a do-it-yourself move and stack your boxes 25' high. Apparently they're more careful than that when you're paying them. We got that big fat truck all to ourselves, got to block traffic in two different towns, and had any of the boxes marked Fragile single stacked so that nothing would harm them.
B also got to be known as "BOSS" for a solid two days as that was the head moving guy's name for him. I was cracking up the irony of the fact that B actually knew nothing at all about the boxes, the move, the moving company, etc., as I have been handling that for the past 9 months, but it satisfied my urge to not talk to strangers, so it was fine by me.
Thank god for my obsessive labels though. Those people are SERIOUS when they roll stack after stack of boxes into your house and you have to shout out where every box goes without the benefit of them actually stopping the hand truck. Also, don't think that boxes labeled "Bathroom" or "Master Bedroom" will negate your need to do this. Those men work hard and fast and have NO TIME for your labels. So I stood at the edge of the garage watching the next batch of boxes roll up the long driveway and tried to magically and frantically remember what I packed in That Box That Had The Torn Wine Label on the Side. Then they would roll up and it would be a frantic dash of "Uhhh.... KitchenBathroomGarageOffice!" God forbid we had to make them turn the box so we could see the label. I could feel them thinking "WOMAN! You've got a lot of shit for 2 people and we need to get back to Syracuse before dinner - MAKE A DECISION!" So - moral of the story - label those boxes within an inch of their lives if you plan on paying someone to move you.
So now the stuff is HERE, but the unpacking of it is an altogether different story. That'll take a while. And really, it wouldn't have taken that long - thanks to the labels! - but I'm sorry to say that my back is OUT. I mean big time out. The kind of OUT where I cry a little when I have to pee because it means I'll have to get off the couch. It hasn't been this bad since before I got pregnant and my physiatrist said "well... I can either give you the muscle relaxers and you can stop trying to get pregnant, or you can use heat and ice and keep trying." Both of us were at the appointment (since I didn't have the ability to stand upright at that point) and we figured that since I wouldn't be able to take muscle relaxers the entire time I was pregnant or breast feeding anyway, why start now!
I'm actually not even sure why it happened because there wasn't an "incident" per se. Some combination of pushing myself too hard during the move (although it really didn't feel that way) and pregnancy hormones. This is the exact moment in the pregnancy where you get an increase in the hormones that relax your ligaments - the same hormones and wiggly ligaments that make my exact problem worse.
So who knows why it happened but my annoyance at the problem is trumping the overwhelming pain. Do you know how FRUSTRATING it is to have a house of boxes and a baby on the way and NOT be able to let your new Type A personality unleash organizational FURY on those boxes?!! Sitting on the couch for 9 hours a day during those first trimester pukey days was great, but trust me when I tell you that it's the last thing I want to be doing right now.
I'm hoping that a few days or a week of rest will actually help the situation and this isn't the beginning of that "probably bed rest towards the end of pregnancy" that my specialists warned me about. In fact, I'm deciding right now that it's not because the reality is that I have too much shit to do.
B also got to be known as "BOSS" for a solid two days as that was the head moving guy's name for him. I was cracking up the irony of the fact that B actually knew nothing at all about the boxes, the move, the moving company, etc., as I have been handling that for the past 9 months, but it satisfied my urge to not talk to strangers, so it was fine by me.
Thank god for my obsessive labels though. Those people are SERIOUS when they roll stack after stack of boxes into your house and you have to shout out where every box goes without the benefit of them actually stopping the hand truck. Also, don't think that boxes labeled "Bathroom" or "Master Bedroom" will negate your need to do this. Those men work hard and fast and have NO TIME for your labels. So I stood at the edge of the garage watching the next batch of boxes roll up the long driveway and tried to magically and frantically remember what I packed in That Box That Had The Torn Wine Label on the Side. Then they would roll up and it would be a frantic dash of "Uhhh.... KitchenBathroomGarageOffice!" God forbid we had to make them turn the box so we could see the label. I could feel them thinking "WOMAN! You've got a lot of shit for 2 people and we need to get back to Syracuse before dinner - MAKE A DECISION!" So - moral of the story - label those boxes within an inch of their lives if you plan on paying someone to move you.
So now the stuff is HERE, but the unpacking of it is an altogether different story. That'll take a while. And really, it wouldn't have taken that long - thanks to the labels! - but I'm sorry to say that my back is OUT. I mean big time out. The kind of OUT where I cry a little when I have to pee because it means I'll have to get off the couch. It hasn't been this bad since before I got pregnant and my physiatrist said "well... I can either give you the muscle relaxers and you can stop trying to get pregnant, or you can use heat and ice and keep trying." Both of us were at the appointment (since I didn't have the ability to stand upright at that point) and we figured that since I wouldn't be able to take muscle relaxers the entire time I was pregnant or breast feeding anyway, why start now!
I'm actually not even sure why it happened because there wasn't an "incident" per se. Some combination of pushing myself too hard during the move (although it really didn't feel that way) and pregnancy hormones. This is the exact moment in the pregnancy where you get an increase in the hormones that relax your ligaments - the same hormones and wiggly ligaments that make my exact problem worse.
So who knows why it happened but my annoyance at the problem is trumping the overwhelming pain. Do you know how FRUSTRATING it is to have a house of boxes and a baby on the way and NOT be able to let your new Type A personality unleash organizational FURY on those boxes?!! Sitting on the couch for 9 hours a day during those first trimester pukey days was great, but trust me when I tell you that it's the last thing I want to be doing right now.
I'm hoping that a few days or a week of rest will actually help the situation and this isn't the beginning of that "probably bed rest towards the end of pregnancy" that my specialists warned me about. In fact, I'm deciding right now that it's not because the reality is that I have too much shit to do.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Ugh...
I'm gonna be on a hiatus for a day or two while dealing with computer issues. While using B's old laptop yesterday (that's the computer I use during the day) it started to make terrible noises, then the screen went black and it said "operating system not found." Thankfully most of our pictures and documents are on his main laptop (which we back up using an external hard drive), but there were enough pictures and documents that I hadn't yet transferred over to make it extremely infuriating that this happened. So... after pilates, volunteering, using the computers at the employment office for all of the paperwork that just happens to be due today, I'm headed up to Geek Squad to see if a file recovery is possible. Blech. Think good thoughts for me.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Wall Street Woes Hit Close to Home
I'm sorry to tell you that we received some bad job news on Thursday. Due to the economic tailspin of these last few weeks, the parent corporation of B's new company implemented a spending freeze and all new hires were not allowed to go through. As a result, they had to rescind the job offer. They still want B and there is a small chance that they will lift the freeze and be able to hire him in a few months, but we're not counting on it.
It was definitely a big blow to our household and of course it totally sucks. But at least he still has a job, which puts us in a much better position than a lot of other families in America. It will certainly have a ripple effect though, as several other companies are in spending freezes as well, making it so that fewer jobs are now available. As a result, we'll probably be in NY for quite a bit longer. However, we have two wonderful people in our life who are pregnant right now (B's sister and Bridesmaid Z, for those who hadn't heard), so it will let us see more of them and spend the holidays with our families, and those are not small blessings.
As I reiterated over and over and over to my sweet and disappointed husband on Friday, life is about perspective. If we have each other and we have our families, anything else that arises are just small bumps in the road.
So, we've been dealt an unexpected setback but we're moving forward. Tonight - believe it or not! - is our going away party in a VIP section of a local bar! Thankfully my birthday is Monday, so we called the host and retooled the party. B said that we should have changed it to a "We're Leaving... eventually!" party. Either way, we'll be dressed up and drunk - and really, what more can you ask for?!
It was definitely a big blow to our household and of course it totally sucks. But at least he still has a job, which puts us in a much better position than a lot of other families in America. It will certainly have a ripple effect though, as several other companies are in spending freezes as well, making it so that fewer jobs are now available. As a result, we'll probably be in NY for quite a bit longer. However, we have two wonderful people in our life who are pregnant right now (B's sister and Bridesmaid Z, for those who hadn't heard), so it will let us see more of them and spend the holidays with our families, and those are not small blessings.
As I reiterated over and over and over to my sweet and disappointed husband on Friday, life is about perspective. If we have each other and we have our families, anything else that arises are just small bumps in the road.
So, we've been dealt an unexpected setback but we're moving forward. Tonight - believe it or not! - is our going away party in a VIP section of a local bar! Thankfully my birthday is Monday, so we called the host and retooled the party. B said that we should have changed it to a "We're Leaving... eventually!" party. Either way, we'll be dressed up and drunk - and really, what more can you ask for?!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Huge Bummer
A few months ago when I was taking the car in for an inspection, the mechanic told me that there were some things wrong with the car that needed repairing. We finally got around to bringing the car in today for diagnosis and repair, but before that happened was this conversation:
B (to his coworker) - Hey Mark, can you follow me to the mechanic so I can drop my car off?
Coworker - Oh yeah, sure. I saw that someone slammed into your car this weekend, that's a terrible dent!
B - Uh... WHAT?!
Yeah. HUGE bummer. Somehow with all of the flurry of activity this past weekend during the wedding, someone (presumably a truck or an SUV because of the height) slammed into the side of our car. There is a huge dent where the panel above the tire is actually crushed in, I have no idea how we missed it.
So in addition to the $1500 of car repairs (oil, brakes, tires, suspension belt, etc) that occurred today, we now have an additional $500 deductible because someone was either drunk or careless and didn't leave a note. Booooo....
B (to his coworker) - Hey Mark, can you follow me to the mechanic so I can drop my car off?
Coworker - Oh yeah, sure. I saw that someone slammed into your car this weekend, that's a terrible dent!
B - Uh... WHAT?!
Yeah. HUGE bummer. Somehow with all of the flurry of activity this past weekend during the wedding, someone (presumably a truck or an SUV because of the height) slammed into the side of our car. There is a huge dent where the panel above the tire is actually crushed in, I have no idea how we missed it.
So in addition to the $1500 of car repairs (oil, brakes, tires, suspension belt, etc) that occurred today, we now have an additional $500 deductible because someone was either drunk or careless and didn't leave a note. Booooo....
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Rough Night
Sigh... not the most perfect Thursday one could ask for. Tonight I picked up B. from work - we were both starving and he had an incredibly rough day. Not in the mood to cook or even think about food, we ordered take out Chinese. But B. decided that this wasn't quite enough of a solution to ease the troubles of the day and got a bottle of Pinot Noir.
We get home, I'm putting the food on plates (we may as well pretend it's a real dinner!), and I hear "oh no!" I run into the living room (thankfully it's not on fire since that's what happened the last time he uttered those words!), but in his hungry impatience to get himself and his wine glasses to the coffee table, he spilled the wine, which splashed all over the cream couch. Sigh...
Thankfully the sales people were right and our microfiber couch really was easy to clean - even red wine! I thought for sure it would never work, but a damp soapy paper towel got all the stains out.
Just as I thought we were recovering from that part of the night, we were playing around and I took a pretty vicious knee to the back of my head. So now I'm nauseous and have a terrible headache. Sigh...
To improve both my mood and yours, I give you a video of Miles playing with the paper towels that were left in the living room...
We get home, I'm putting the food on plates (we may as well pretend it's a real dinner!), and I hear "oh no!" I run into the living room (thankfully it's not on fire since that's what happened the last time he uttered those words!), but in his hungry impatience to get himself and his wine glasses to the coffee table, he spilled the wine, which splashed all over the cream couch. Sigh...
Thankfully the sales people were right and our microfiber couch really was easy to clean - even red wine! I thought for sure it would never work, but a damp soapy paper towel got all the stains out.
Just as I thought we were recovering from that part of the night, we were playing around and I took a pretty vicious knee to the back of my head. So now I'm nauseous and have a terrible headache. Sigh...
To improve both my mood and yours, I give you a video of Miles playing with the paper towels that were left in the living room...
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