Miscellany

• I ate "Pop Rocks" candy for the first time today. Freaky.
• There's a nagging feeling haunting me today, a feeling that I should be studying.
• I have been extremely tired today. I slept for about 9 hours last night, was up for 2 hours, then took a 5 hour nap. I'm still sluggish.
• I missed watching the Braves game this afternoon. Slept right through it. I see that they beat Houston 7 to 1.
• I'm getting psyched up to cut my hair. I got some pictures of the long stuff yesterday. This process is turning into something of a ritual.
• I survived the visit with Diva yesterday. It was actually almost nice. She behaved herself well. We bought her a bunch of clothes and two pairs of shoes. (two pair of shoes? pairs? Which is correct?) Then took her to see the new M!ley Cyr*s movie, the name of which I've conveniently forgotten. It's a great movie for its intended audience. I suffered through it. Greg K!nnear was good, but he had sh!t to work with, so there you have it.
• We go back to see The Diva on Thursday for a therapy team meeting. This will be the working visit, whereas yesterday was (allegedly) for fun.
• Oh, and they're talking about letting her come home for Mother's Day. That's next weekend, btw. (Get your cards in the mail to your mamas!) What a treat. (hear the dripping sarcasm)
• Have I ever mentioned how I feel about Mother's Day? I'm ok with it as far as honoring my mom and MIL, etc. I send a card and am done with it. I am, however, very uncomfortable being on the "mother" end of it. It's such a contrived pile of dung. Gonna try not to get too worked up about it this year, and let my young'uns do whatever it is they feel comfortable with. I'll smile and appreciate their intentions. If any of them forgets entirely, I'll be happy with that, too.
• My dad called a couple of weeks ago and spoke briefly with Superman. He told Superman to tell me to send him emails more frequently, updating him on the goings-on around here. The whole thing is just weird. I was here when he called, but in a different part of the house. When I heard that my dad was on the phone, I asked if he wanted to talk to me. Then Superman hung up and gave me the message. WTF? My dad is ... my dad. There's a big WTF factor involved.
• I'm losing life points, as Sproing used to say. Getting really tired again. It's that kind of day. I do this every so often, have a day when I sleep a lot. I try not to fight it. If I'm this tired, I need the rest. As long as it doesn't happen often, I'm not worried about it.
• That's about all I know right now. Further updates as the situation warrants.

Let's see what comes out of my fingers tonight

Went to college town to pick up Light for the weekend. I know, we just took her back to school on Sunday. She had an eye exam (passed with flying colors, of course) the week before she went back to school. She ordered new glasses, but they didn't come in until after she left for school. So she's back to get her spectacles.

I was online briefly this morning, but was in a rush to get out of town and did nothing but zip through my email. Didn't answer all the emails I wanted to. When we got home this evening I was eager to check the blogs. But alas, my computer wouldn't connect! Superman to the rescue!! He called tech service for our ISP, something else I think, and finally got tech support for D-Link. That was the magic number. After quite a while on the phone he finally got it working. He says he had to download some new firmware for the router. Thankfully our desktop was online. So I'm online again, thanks to my wonderful Superman!

Which is ironic. Because we had a discussion last night. A discussion about the time I spend sitting here blogging. He thinks I'm spending too much time here at the expense of my responsibilities to home and family. Frankly, he isn't wrong. It was an interesting discussion. We actually laughed a lot. The upshot, though, is that I need to figure out how to manage my time better. Be more responsible. Exercise self discipline. Not easy stuff for me. Stay tuned to see how successful we are at this adventure in self restraint.

I've been watching the Atlanta Braves get their butts beaten by the Washington Nationals. It's embarrassing. I like baseball. I like it even better when my team plays well.

"So," you may be asking, "what's up with Sproing these days?" I'll tell you. He's a stinker. His forehead is still slightly sensitive to the touch, but he's otherwise fine from his bonk on the noggin. He is experiencing some allergy symptoms, though. The nose is snuffly, eyes are watery; you know the drill. He really is uncomfortable, and I sympathize. We've been medicating him as best we can. This morning he woke up with a sore, hoarse throat and a slightly croupy cough. He played it up well, sounding so pathetic. So his dad and I decided to keep him home from school. He barely managed to hide his glee.

Superman went to work, I took the other kids to school, then went to Le Grand Retail store and the gas station. When I got home the poor pathetic child was eating a bowl of cereal and watching TV. I brought a small package of muffins from the store and shared a couple with him. (I got those adorable little mini-muffins.) He took one and popped the whole thing in his mouth, then asked for more through the crumbs on his tongue. Eh. He doesn't look too sick to me. I came back to my room to spend what little time I had left of the morning to be online. He came bounding into my room, nagged at me, then jumped up on my bed and began to bounce. I said "Sproing, go get dressed. I'm taking you to school." Oops. He didn't even fuss too much. I think he got bored here alone, just the 1.5 hours he was here. So I took him to school and I'm proud of myself for doing so.

How to shop at Wal-Mart 5 days before Christmas

I did it! And it didn't even kill me. Actually, I sort of enjoyed it.

Let's see if I can reconstruct the process.

1. Take a nap first
   
2. Wear comfortable clothes with plenty of pockets
   
3. Make a list
   
4. Get the MP3 player, stick it in my ear
   
5. Fill up a large travel mug with ice water to take along
   
6. Go alone
   
7. Drive the truck. The truck makes me happy.
   
8. Stop at Sonic for a large chocolate malt
   
9. Listen to peaceful classical music on the MP3
   
10. Drive on over to Wal-Mart, but don't pay attention to what the parking lot looks like
    
11. Park as close to a "cart corral" as possible
    
12. Make sure the MP3 is loud enough to drown out the store noises, but not so loud as to hurt the ears
    
13. Go about the shopping. Since the peaceful classical music is filling my head, I am able to think about what I need instead of getting distracted and upset by the hubbub around me.
    

    
    

And it really worked! My trick was to insulate myself with peaceful sounds. I also stayed away from the areas that upset me. Any aisle with visually garish displays or colors I just ignored. At one point I took refuge in the stationery/school supplies area. Those products make me happy. I stayed out of the "seasonal" aisle. It was the very definition of garish! Tall stacks of vivid green boxes full of sparkly crinkly plastic hovered like vultures on the shelves, waiting to pounce on me and rip away at my safety bubble. I didn't go there!

I listened to Handel's Messiah. The complete unabridged two-disk set, performed by the London Philharmonic. I started listening to it as I was writing my list, continued through the visit to Sonic and the consumption of the chocolate malt. The complete work was finished before I was finished shopping, so I started listening to Appalachian Waltz with Yo Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor. Very nice music, I think.

I got a lot of groceries. I didn't intend to get that much since I was shopping by myself. Usually if I have that much stuff to get I take along a useful, helpful teenager. But tonight I just couldn't handle being with anyone else, having to carry on conversation and shop at the same time. I had a cart full to overflowing by the time I finished. I stopped by the entry to grab another empty cart on my way to the check-out. When I got up to the cashier I put the empty cart at the bagging station then started unloading the full one. That way there was a cart to put bags into since my full one wouldn't be available to hold bags before there were so many bagged items the cashier wouldn't be able to check out any more stuff. Two carts are easier after check-out, too. I've noticed it is really hard to fit the same amount of merchandise post-check-out into one cart as I had in the pre-check-out cart. That is if I'm buying lots of stuff.

Looking at the quantities, the cashier asked if I was planning a large holiday gathering. I said no, this is for my family. She wondered if I would be doing all the cooking, or if others would be bringing things. I said "No, this is all for my family- my household. Those who live there." She gawked. I live for moments like that.

Though I went alone, I had good help when I got home. Light and Twitch and S helped carry everything in. Light and Twitch put everything away. I took a shower. That was nice, too. I feel accomplished.