Update March 18, 2023

News

Saturday

Saturday I forgot to do anything. I worked in the morning, vegged until it was time to go to laser tag with M10, then went to work. The kids didn’t do anything interesting (besides M10’s laser tag), either.

Sunday

Sunday was fun. I cleaned the livingroom – or tried to. I got the floor half swept and then didn’t have the energy to do more. I guess I needed to take it easy despite feeling a lot better. Aaron finished sweeping for me, though.

In the afternoon, Aaron and I took IL4 to swim lessons. After that, we played a couple of games, had dinner delivered, and watched Psych as a family.

Monday

Monday I was super, duper tired. Apparently I’m still sick. 🙁 I took D13 to an appointment, and then IL4 to Urgent Care. He’d had an ear infection the night before, with a fever that didn’t immediately respond to Tylenol. (Suppositories apparently take longer, and he refuses oral.) He still had an ear infection in the morning, but it didn’t hurt anymore. 🤷‍♀️ D13 had Willy Wonka rehearsal, as well as rehearsal for her middle school play. M10 graduated from Cub Scouts to BSA, so he missed Willy Wonka rehearsal. I took IL4 to the library in the city of D13’s rehearsal while waiting, and it was HUGE.

Tuesday

Tuesday was frustrating. It started with me taking M10 to an appointment. But the appointment didn’t exist once we got there. The woman seemed quite certain I had made a mistake and wrote it down on the wrong date, but our last appointment was two weeks before, and our next appointment was two weeks after, and none of my other recorded appointments were wrong. Logically, that seems more like they made a mistake in scheduling (told me they made an appointment but didn’t finalize) or that it had been cancelled and only biomom (not me, the stepmom) was notified (that’s happened more than once in the past.) The rest of the day was strangely open, too, because I moved an activity from Tuesday to Thursday.

TRIGGER WARNING

But while I was pondering my suddenly open day, it occurred to me that my friend Todd hadn’t replied to me in two days, and in fact the last time I talked to him he had been pondering suicide, had the means to do it, and had packed up all his belongings so that it was easier to move them when he was gone. The last conversation had ended with me believing he was going to go to his mom’s. Besides, this isn’t the first time this has happened. So I contacted his mom, who also hadn’t heard from him in two days. After a bit of worrying, I finally sent a message to Todd saying I was going to send a wellfare check on him if he didn’t answer. He immediately answered and told me to go away after I suggested lunch. Very Todd. One sure way of getting an answer is to threaten to send the police. I should have thought of it sooner. I went to lunch with Aaron instead. Then I took dad to the doctor for what may be pneumonia.

Then, in the evening, I got this call from someone claiming to be a cop with someone he said was my sister. (The “sister” was blubbering incoherently in the background.) Not having any reason to doubt this story, I started driving to pick her up. Then, they changed their story and said they were The Mexican Mafia. (“Have you heard of us?” He asked. “No.” I honestly answered. Sounds vaguely racist, I thought. Is this a real thing? People call themselves the “Mexican Mafia? That’s kind of lame. He explained that they were a drug cartel.)

Anyway, so they told me they’re going to kill my sister and her kids if I don’t bring them money. I immediately pulled over. Because. Uh. Sounds like I would just get killed myself? What’s the point in that? And before you laugh too hard, keep in mind my sister has been arrested 4 times for dealing cocaine, so the ball wasn’t entirely out of the arena with the idea she’d gotten in above her head.

Anyhoo, I dialed 911 on my dad’s phone and let them listen in on the conversation with 911 operator muted. Hey, I thought it was a good idea and was under duress. The “Mexican Mafia” guy was threatening to kill my sister if I hung up. 🤷‍♀️ What was I supposed to do?

So the 911 operator hangs up and calls me back so many times that I finally hang up in mafia guy out of frustration. (I guess my sister is dead now?) The operator yells at me for not talking to her, telling me it was a scam. Well, now that she says it, the whole thing was rather suspicious. Howvee, she continues to rudely scold me for the way I handled the situation and I said “I thought my sister was going to get killed if I hung up, do you understand that?” The b**** said “No, I don’t understand that.”

You know what pisses me of? Her. She pisses me off more than the scammers. She is supposed to be a decent person to people under duress, and she was a b****. She’s paid to be patient. She’s supposedly trained to be patient. Training fail. Yeah. Still pissed off at her.

I adrenaline crashed the rest of the night and couldn’t stay awake.

END OF TRIGGER WARNING

Wednesday

Wednesday morning I had a tough discussion with M10. He wrote a short comedic story about summoning Lucifer.  I told him that I know I watch Supernatural, Lucifer, and Good Omens, but that he has to realize when he writes something like that for a classroom, some people are going to be offended. He claimed no one he knows in his school is religious. I explained that he didn’t know that. He was offended. I suspect he was offended because he’d wanted me to praise the story. I didn’t much because I think I was a little offended, I guess. It took me a while to figure out that Lucifer from Lucifer and Crowley from Supernatural are likable, but they are evil. They are nuanced characters. And Crowley from Good Omens is even more nuanced that Lucifer and Supernatural. M10’s story lacked nuance, and left me with the icky feeling that he didn’t understand that devil worship entailed worshiping evil (as I understand it – never met a devil worshiper, I guess).

Other than that, I did nothing. D13 had middle school rehearsal. M10 auditioned for a solo in the musical production he’s in. He doesn’t have much skill at high notes, but good on him for trying.

Thursday

Thursday was a lot of paid work, but no appointments. D13 and M10 had their first Willy Wonka dress rehearsal. IL4 took some toys from the school – he snuck them into his backpack when no one was looking. When he got them out, I said “Oh, an excavator!” This little man, who can’t even hold a conversation schooled me though. “Not excavator! This on back! Backhoe.” I Googled it. He was right. Does that count as a conversation? It almost felt like one.

Unfortunately, my sore throat and fatigue returned Thursday. I’m going to try to make a doctor appointment. Urgent Care wait times are so long!

Friday

Friday I decided to reassert myself in cross-stitch and scrapbooking once a week. This time, I watched a video on how to cross stitch instead of assuming it was easy. Although this nice Southern gentleman made it look easy, he also gave some tips (like how to thread a needle and how to tie off the first stitch) that would have been helpful my first time trying cross-stitch. 😂🤣 Next week (on Thursday) I will start sorting pictures for my scrapbooking.

The rest of Friday was pretty laid back. I read to IL4, wrote two letters, got out my 20lb vest so on Saturday I can wear it all day for extra exercise, and took IL4 to the library.

Week’s Photos

Reading to IL4

• Attack of the 50-Foot Fluffy, by Mike Boldy
• Boo Who?, by Ben Clanton
• The Bad Seed, by Jory John and Pete Oswald
• DJ Funkyfoot Butler for Hire, by Tom Angleberger
• Dona Esmeralda, Who Ate Everything!, By Melissa de la Cruz & Primo Gallanosa
• Llama Destroys the World, by Jonathan Stutzman & Heather Fox

M10 reading

• Fuzz, by Mary Roach
• Dragonbreath, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: Attack of the Ninja Frogs, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-wiener, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: Lair of the Bat Monster, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: Revenge of the Horned Bunnies, by Ursula Vernon
• Dragonbreath: No Such Thing as Ghosts

D13 reading

• Wizardmatch, by Lauren Magaziner
• The Doldrums, by Nicholas Gannon

Wrote

• 1 letter Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Michigan Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Virginia Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Maine
• 1 letter Maine Department of Corrections
• 1 letter Louisiana
• 1 letter British Columbia

Media Partaken In

Posts

• Escape the Underdark Episodes 3-4

Games Played

Productivity

Weight loss journey