The Contents of a Tesseract

Today I finished up some major decorative additions to the kids’ rooms. Bunny and Roo and I spent all day - I’m talking 8 hours with a 1 hour trip to see Grandma’s new kittens - cleaning their rooms up. We took out all of their clothes and reorganized, taking out the things that didn’t fit any more (Roo’s grown two sizes this year) and folding things so that everything could be easily found. Then, we tackled the toys and trash.

For some reason, my son is much more cleanly than my daughter, even though she is 3 years older. She has little … bits of things.. paper, glitter, beads, leaves, all over her room. Roo has legos, k’nex, and train tracks everywhere, but for some reason, he has caught on to the idea of compartmentalizing everything, while Bunny has the tendency to throw everything up in the air and leave it where it falls. It’s a new take on “laissez-faire”, I suppose. Hopefully this will change now, because of our new rearrangement.

After we cleaned Bunny’s room, we moved her bed slightly, and built a tent! It wasn’t easy, but it looks pretty cool. After, we draped the inner poles of the tent with beaded garlands and twinkle lights. It looked really nice!

Today, since Roo’s room was already nice and tidy, we put up lighted paper lanterns and dragonfly lights in his room. He already has a small tent that fits over his mattress on his bed, so this completes the whole “let’s camp outside in our room” theme they both have going.

Awesome two days. I love them so much.

Today, I have discovered that kids still play the jinx game, where if two people say the same word, the first one to say “jinx” has power over the other. My daughter, Bunny, came home from her friend’s, grabbed a notebook and pencil, and furiously wrote the following:

“I can’t believe it! I can’t say anything ever until (L) says my name 5 times! What am I going to do?”

And so begins the trials of preteendom for my little girl. (L) was apparently unwilling to ever say her name 5 times, and Bunny’s little brother was being a tease, so she got a little bored with the whole thing after an hour of furiously writing everything. Being extremely brilliant (I’m her Mom. I can say these things), she found an old pair of crutches in our garage and asked to borrow them. She used them all the way across the circle to (L)’s home. When (L) asked her what had happened, Bunny pointed to her mouth. She couldn’t say anything, so (L) wouldn’t get to know. (L) quickly said Bunny’s name 5 times, and Bunny told her that she just wanted to be able to talk again. They had a nice laugh.

Roo’s finally discovered the “handyman” kit Santa gave him for Christmas. It has real working tools, a tapemeasure, a toolbelt, safety goggles and a hardhat. He’s been excitedly unscrewing every battery-operated toy in our house. Only today did he stop wearing the hardhat to do so. He’s also been affecting a “trucker” accent. You know, the way guys talk to each other when they are staring at, say, a car engine, or a yard. “YEP.. That’s gonna need a phillip’s head screwdriver… ” “Welp, this battery needs a’changin, so we can get it working again.” “Fixed that, *belch* I’m gonna get me some cheetos.” Luckily, his pants haven’t developed that habit of falling down to reveal buttcrack… yet.

The weather’s gone insane. We had such a nice spring, too. It was soooo cold and wonderful. Now, it’s 97 degrees farenheit, a number normally reserved for late July or August. It’s hard to breathe outside, and my hair has decided to look like Slash’s from Guns N Roses. Enter the endless parade of neighborhood children banned from their own homes for one reason or another. Pet Peeve: If you’re going to shove your kids out in 97 degree heat and tell them “go play somewhere”, give them some money to pay for all the food they eat at the “cool mom’s” house, kay? I don’t mind it if we’re doing the “rotating houses” plan, where my kids get food at their houses, but right now, they are all over here, and have been for several days.

Oh! I’m officially a working editor now! Yay! I got paid. So add that to my tshirt biz, my own freelance writing, and my costuming, and I am a busy busy young lady!

Things are so nice right now, even with the heat. Maybe it’s the whole cancer thing that’s put life into perspective, but even the little things are wonderful. Add to that a new-found desire to stick up for myself more and to be *gasp* assertive, and I’m quite a different person these days. I’ve also lost 2 sizes since my surgery, and am still losing. Once I go on the Low Iodine diet in July, I figure I’ll be losing even faster. Have you seen that diet? I had no idea that iodine was in so many foods. Practically everything that is manufactured in some way has iodized salt in it, dairy is straight out, and many meats naturally contain large quantities. So that leaves… homemade bread, fruit, brown rice, veggies, and um.. fish, I think? I’m going to have to tailor my costumes by September

Still had the feeling that you wanted to stay?

I have had.. a bad week. It isn’t the normal kind of humming week where crises happen and are dealt with. This week needs an almost complete do-over.

With three exceptions: Got to see my friend Andra and her kids, come all the way from Denver. Also, Got to see my pal Tonya on vacation from Oklahoma. Oh, and My friend Kirsten’s dog had puppies. Other than that, totally annoying, ruinous, argh kind of week.

What was so bad about it? Well, My mom’s foster-dog was taken by some people she didn’t know to the tv station to get her 15 minutes of fame. Because she didn’t know them, or maybe just because these people were stupid, the dog slipped her collar and ran away. Despite her running away, both people in charge of her care still went inside and were on tv - while the dog was still missing. I guess fame is more important to some. My mom found out on the news. She wasn’t present at the whole thing because she had a Dr’s appointment, so by the time we got down there to start looking, the runaway dog had been missing for 2 hours. Even though the people responsible for the dog’s disappearance claimed they were down there looking for her, they were mysteriously gone when we got there, and did not return to help. The worst part, to me, has been watching my mom get more and more upset about this dog. We don’t know what’s happened to the poor dog, and I doubt we ever will. She blames herself, which is utter nonsense. The area she vanished in is not a good place to be at night, so she anquishes all night, then goes back to stake out this area where there have been known murders, kidnappings and drug dealings - in the day time. This isn’t something I can fix, and I think that’s why I find it coloring my entire week. I want to help her. I want to help the dog - she is a great dog, just really scared of strangers.

Another thing is that I haven’t been able to work out all week. I have practiced my katas, swam and walked a few miles, but it isn’t the same as learning new stuff, or being really pushed to do something well. More gray to my mood.

Then I had a lot of anxiety on Thursday, as my sweet husband had to go in for an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, and my mom couldn’t seem to understand why I was so worried. It was bad timing with the dog missing and all, but I couldn’t drop everything to do what she wanted, so she added to the stress of the day. She was very helpful in staying with our kids while we were at the hospital, though. It’s just me she got annoyed with. My hubby’s insides checked out, and there’s no major problems going on, but while I was in the waiting room, several others got bad news, and I listened to them, all the time wondering what they were going to say about my loved one. Not the best frame of mind to be in, and it stayed with me. Gloom and doom plus gray.

The dog’s still missing, too. I’ve been driving around the area every chance I get looking for her. Mom’s been to the animal shelter numerous times, as have I. She’s just gone. I can only hope someone’s found her and thought “oooh free dog!” and kept her. She needed a home anyway, so that’s just as good.

Thank goodness today’s the last day of the week. As a pickle to my crap sandwich week, the adventure I’ve been working on all week has to wait until next time, because of circumstances no one can control. I just wish I’d found out about it before we spent all day cleaning, and before I elected to work on the adventure rather than sew. Oh well. Sunday can’t come soon enough for me.

Lemonade from Lemons: After having read my rantyness, I have to add this. I have a clean house! I have a free evening. I have a healthy husband. There are lots of things like that. And there’s always next Tuesday for working out. Still don’t know what to do about the dog, but I’ll keep doing what I can.

Come on, Sunday!

Is now mostly over!

My thyroid’s out - all of it. The folks at Vanderbilt are awesome. They were very good at explaining what was happening, and took really good care of me. Turns out that I did have cancer - multiple places, too. So I’m going in for Radioactive Iodine treatment in August. There’s no rush, I’ve been told, since they took my thyroid out already.

I had one day of fright because we misunderstood which pathology report had the cancer - they had also done scrapings to make sure it hadn’t spread to my trachea, but now everything’s shiny and happy! Ok, I still can’t talk very well, but that’s temporary.

Back to the normal, less frightening stuff of my life. Like costuming - you mean I sew? Whoa.. I did that? Yeah, that was me earlier this week. Hydrocodone is so nice. Kids are getting out of school next week - 4 days late due to the whole H1N1 thing. OF course it had to hit our city of 40,000 people and not anywhere else near here. We’re having to find money to install a french drain in our back yard so our pool won’t turn into a nightmare every time it rains. Had a very hard lesson recently, also about small business owners in this area.

Now, I am a small business owner. I have a lot of friends who are the kindest people to their customers. They do thing in a timely manner, and are always looking for new ways to offer their services to others. But… there’s a glass bead maker, a pool guy, a pool company, and a veterinarian that are not so nice. With the economy this bad, you’d think (at least I did - I’m an optimist) that people would be doing their very best to earn good word of mouth and keep the business opportunities when they come around. You’d think they would want repeat business, as well. Nope. Not these people.

They are happy to say “I’ll do that” and then skip appointments without ever calling to explain. (Pool guy #1 did this 3 times over 2 months!) They will be happy to build a pool and then never return a phone call, and hide in the office until you leave, when the equipment they installed (with 2 year warranty) malfunctions. They will look excited about a project for which you will pay the going rate, but skip off to vacation before generating any results - without calling and leaving you in the lurch for a birthday present. And lastly, they will tell you an estimate on getting your dog fixed, have you electronically sign your agreement, and then charge you $300.00 MORE without calling and asking if you have the money, and refusing to return your dog until they get it. Ok, I know, I’m venting, but we live in a small town. That’s four people I will never do business with again. There aren’t that many others to choose from, and I’m getting tired of being mistaken for an idiot. It’s time to take back the right to good service.

I did, however, find one amazingly capable and honest handyman/carpenter, and one timely, prompt, and honest landscaper. They both showed up when they said they would, did their work quickly and the handyman even charged less than his estimate. I handed their cards to everyone I met for several days afterwards.

Yes, after many months of waiting out the system and driving to Vanderbilt Medical Center, I have been told when my surgery is and what it will be. Next Tuesday, I will be getting my entire thyroid gland removed. It means I’ll be on medication for the rest of my life, but that is not a big hinderance when faced with cancer.

We had a tornado touch down in my town yesterday at the exact moment I was leaving for Nashville. The sirens were screaming, and rain was so dense I had to pull over on the side of the road. I was so worried that I would miss this appointment! I didn’t want anything to stop this surgery, so my friend ‘Rissa and I braved the rain, and only found out about the damage upon our return. Our houses are safe. Our pets are safe. The thing uprooted a bunch of trees about 1.5 miles south of my home. That’s way too close. It continued on for about 2 miles, damaging some apartment homes, a school, and some people’s fences and windows.

Two weeks ago, the husband and I built a playfort/swingset for our kids. The instructions said it would take between 6 and 12 hours to complete, and while my sweet husband was thinking 6, I knew it would be more like 12. It ended up taking close to 9 hours, if naps, lunches, and picture-taking are not included. Roo and Bunny were very helpful, and got to use tools. I suppose that’s why it took longer.

Sewing projects are underway. This time, I’m using one of my own designs. I hope it looks as good when finished as it does in my head!

I’ve been twittering longer than Oprah! I just had to say that somewhere. For such a simplistic thing, it sure has become popular. The let-down, for me, was getting on there and finding that most people really didn’t have much to say. There are people that tweet what their pets are doing (I’m guilty of trying that one), people who are trying to advertise their websites, famous people who are promoting movies, famous people who don’t know what to tweet, so they just tweet everything that happens to them. I guess we all are doing that, though. Some people are more witty than others. I have taken to trying to tweet in Haiku when possible. Weird, but entertaining for me.

I’ve been reading old science fiction lately- books from the 60’s and 70’s that tried to guess where we’d be in the 21st century. Whoa, were they wrong. In some ways, we’re soaring ahead of their expectations. In others, like space travel, we are sadly lacking. The hadron collider and the threat of possible singularity creation was discussed in one of my recent reads. The main plot was about sending messages backwards through time, though. So in our reality, since we don’t have that backwards-time warning system, if minute singularities ARE spit out from the supercollider, we’re in trouble. I need to find that book and tell you the author. I’ll post that next time.