weird week

On thursday somebody knocked on my door and asked if i could witness a notarized statement at the assisted living facility next door.

We have an assisted living facility next door?

Apparently we do. It explains all the cars parked on the street. Interesting.

So I go and do it.

The next day i was having a bad day and heard the door again. I avoided it like the plague. Turns out, it was the same lady, but she brought a pot of mini roses as a thank you. How nice and unexpected!

Then yesterday somebody pulled up in our driveway and knocked on the door. It was a man, he gave me a business card and a Police D.A.R.E. card and said he was interested in getting floor plans of our house because he wants to build one just like it. What?!

I can’t decide if he’s just a nice guy or a serial killer.

If you don’t hear from me for a few weeks, call the cops.

Then today, inexplicably, I get an email that my Ancestry.com account is now subscribed to the databases for 1 year. I sure didn’t buy that. Somebody paid $155 for it. I don’t think Evan would, because he fusses at that kind of thing. I would too if my heritage was Slavic.

I feel like i’m being stalked lately, but in really nice, complimentary ways.

Bad Day

I’m not having a very good day today. Overall it’s ok, but I had an unpleasant exchange with someone online about reacting to finding out you’re having a special needs child. She claimed to have background experience, working with kids, including special needs kids. She pretty much said that people who constantly blog about mourning the loss of a perfect life are wrapped up in themselves. I know i don’t blog about it a lot, and i don’t exactly mourn the loss of a perfect life every day, but man her words hurt.

i told her that i found some things she said to be offensive. she laughed at me. now I can be a snarky biatch with the best of them but i couldn’t believe how she was.

so of course i’ve been bawling, questioning my sensitivity and all sorts of other things. of course now my face is all red and puffy and i look like ass, and i have to go pick up the baby from daycare like this in a little bit.

i guess i should just be happy that she doesn’t live in my area and wont be working with my kids…you’d think a person like that would be a little more tactful and sensitive.

Hippie Chick

I got a book about hypnobirthing from the library. It comes with a CD that you’re supposed to listen to for relaxation. I’ve always wondered about that whole hypnosis thing. Should be interesting.

Garden Update: I’ve got some mulch in there and i mixed it in with about half the area of the bed. The dirt is rock-hard because it’s been sitting under tons of granite rocks for the last 20 years, so it will take time to break it up and make it less crappy. Related note: I found a coke can buried there, the date on it was 1986.

Decisions

I’m trying to decide what to build first:

or this:

(but not white)

i have too many projects, not enough time!

Creativity Kills

I had originally signed up for both creative writing and a fiction class.  I was feeling overwhelmed about baby2.0 and the lack of information about the course online once i enrolled and paid so i just dropped it.  It’s probably better this way.

I still have an A in creative writing.  I need to work on keeping a consistent POV.  I’ve never really written anything with characters, so i’m pretty newb at that, which is another good reason to put off the fiction class til I get more experience and I suck less at it.

The lastest thing I had to write was a story in 1st, 2nd and 3rd Person.  The teacher gave us the prompt: A dog is hit by a car.

WTF!  morbid!

It gets worse: I thought about just having the dog get bumper-scraped, but realized that’s a huge cop-out and unrealistic.  I killed the dog.  My story was good, but it sucked writing it.

And then it hit me: I was going to have to kill him TWO MORE TIMES.  omg.  longest homework assignment ever.

So now my google search history is further tainted due to my creative writing class homework assignments.  There are various searches about killing dogs/dogs hit by cars and related items, as well as “relationships with coworkers.”  Let’s hope the police never need to search my hard drive for anything suspicious, because I’m going to look really terrible.

Happy February

Maybe i’ll do a nablopomo thing for february.

1. it’s a short month

2. nothing life-shattering happening this month, that i know of.

Anyhow, i started messing with where i wanted my raised bed to be one month ago.  Here we are today:

Speaking of wood, (heh, now i have your attention) i have a new girl crush:

http://knockoffwood.blogspot.com

Not only is it a “how to make your own furniture” blog.  It’s actually nice-looking furniture! It’s written by a CHICK.  Not just any chick, she’s actually super cute!

I toyed with the idea of taking a woodworking class this semester.  It’s cheap through work, but it’s held at a high school one night a week, for like 5 hours at a time.  I do have attention-span issues, and figured the end of the semester might be a bit hairy when my pregnant belly gets huge.  Maybe not a good idea with sharp objects and general klutziness.

Thankfully her blog will satisfy both my need for basic instruction and a few key pieces of furniture.  It’s an added bonus that it’s written by a girl, because that’s just inspiring to me!

Heavy Day

I hadn’t announced it here yet (I’m lazy) but I’m pregnant.  It’s a boy.  We just found that out today.

We also found out that he’s missing the lower part of his left arm – a shortened forearm and no fingers.  It looked like he had the bones for a nubbin of a hand but we’ll have to see when he’s born if it is more like a stump or what.  I’m not sure if he’ll have a “wrist” or flexibility at the end of it.

There are a few different causes for this kind of thing, so far it doesn’t look genetic or connected to anything else bad.  Sometimes the amniotic sac can cut off blood supply but the doctor didn’t think it was this either.  She said most likely there was a blood supply or oxygen supply issue very early on as the limb was forming.  Nothing can be done for it.

At our 12 week ultrasound they had trouble seeing the arm.  Well now we know why!  They seemed to think at that point it was a positioning thing, because the baby was laying on it.

Today at the ultrasound, watching it all unfold, it was surreal.  Sure enough, the arm was still short.  No hand, no cute fingers.  The tech was measuring the bones and it became obvious after a minute that we didn’t see the lower parts -not because they were hidden but because they simply weren’t there.   I thought to myself, no big deal, so what, he doesn’t have a left hand?

And then I started thinking about how he’ll never wear a wedding band on his left ring finger.  And how the kids might stare at him and make fun of him in school.  Or how strangers will think he’s retarded of have the nerve to ask me if I did drugs while pregnant.  Stupid stuff, but stuff nonetheless.

And then I bawled.  Instead of having us settle our accounts as usual, they let us out the side door.  I guess having a red-faced teary person go through your nice ultrasound waiting room is bad for business.

I’ve started looking online for some resources.  I’m still not sure what this whole thing will entail.  All I know is I never thought it would be me looking at forums titled “Special Needs” or “Birth Defects.”  I KNOW there was nothing I did to cause it, and I KNOW it could be way worse, but it still sucks.

Tomato

We (ET and I) started some tomato seeds indoors the first week of January.  I haven’t killed them yet!  The good thing about having them near the window is that they are very conspicuous and therefore I remember to water them daily.  As you can see the last two squares of peat pot are empty, despite me putting seeds in all the little pots.  I have no idea why those 2 rows rebelled against me.

Creative Writing

I started my online creative writing class this week.

Observations:  the book does not have color pages.  boo.  and it’s filled with annoying generic praise in the beginning about how we’re all hidden genius or something like that that just needs to be tapped.  OK.

Aside from that, it’s going to be harder than I thought.  They say you should not use judgments or use things like “I like.”  I guess I think too much like a blogger (and enjoy sarcasm) because THAT’S HOW I LIKE TO WRITE!.

Anyway, I’m part way through my first assignment, which is to write 3 250 word pieces on various topics.  One is about a childhood incident.  It’s pretty good, IMO.  The second is about how I got my name.  Not an exciting story.  Not worth 250 words!  I can create images about an incident, but it’s really hard to be descriptive and image-driven about a name.  I have words down but I need to do a 2nd draft.  The third topic is open.  I haven’t started it yet.

I know it’s “creative” writing which in some aspects leads you to believe there are no rules with what you’re doing but while you’re doing it you’re supposed to remember to not do certain things (like generalizations, judgments, etc).  I’m not sure how creative is too creative sometimes.  Part of it is i’ve been using my writing brain very scientifically for the past decade or so and that kid of writing is very black and white, not really mental-image inducing.  Same with blogging.  It’s going to take some time to notice what i’m doing and consciously change it.  Le sigh.

On an unrelated note I’d like to pass judgment on Sherwin Williams.  The 2nd to last time I went there I inquired about semigloss oil based paint.  They don’t have it. They seemed concerned/confused as to why I would want that, when I could have semigloss latex paint.  HELLO!  You are the paint people, you should know the inherent differences betwixt the two and why one might choose oil over latex.  So I went back again yesterday, to get a small can of oil based GLOSS paint, which i knew they had because i was running out of the 1st can i got from them (yes i’ve made many trips there).  I’m painting a play kitchen white for ET.  Oil paint is going to look sweet ass in his kitchen.  Anyway.  In typical SW jerky fashion he seemed to think I was confused by my selection of oil paint and inquired if I was sure that’s what I wanted.  I’m pretty sure that’s paint store code for “we think you’re just a dumb girl who doesn’t know how to clean up oil paint,” OR maybe it’s “I know i work here but nobody ever buys oil paint and I can’t figure out why we even sell it!”

I’m sure it’s irrational and not sexist based at all but when this kind of thing happens, and it does occasionally, it makes me want to punch someone in the balls and tell them that I can change my car’s oil too.  I’m going to break up with SW and get together with Benjamin Moore.  Hawt.

Committed

Ha, not like you think.

I signed up for NOT ONE, but TWO writing classes this semester.  One is online, “Introduction to Creative Writing,” and the other is a hybrid (online/in-person) “Introduction to Writing Fiction.” Six credits total.

I feel kind of dumb because the fiction class is offered at the college where I’m on staff, and I can’t seem to figure out how to do the online portion.  Maybe I’m not supposed to know until I officially pay for the class.  At least school doesn’t start for another week and few days so I have time to figure it out.

The other totally online class starts monday, and I’ve taken an online class with that sister campus before so I think I can figure it out.  I have to go pay for it and find my book and figure out if i have something due the first day or not.

If nothing else, mayhaps the quality of my writing will improve.  I’ve never taken a writing class before but it’s something I’m interested in.  I have surprisingly good grammar and impeccable spelling for a science-minded person (thank you to the Dictionary, my mom making me look up words, and Mr. Cooper’s evil 11th grade English class).