The Fun Continues (or Why I Really *love* People!)

/bitching
Talk about fun for your birthday! I didn’t just have a *fun* birthday I had a whole, fun birthfortnight! Oh yeah!
Let’s start at the beginning, so to speak. The day before I was supposed to go out of town for the weekend, I started to feel a little sick. My voice was getting crackly and I was feeling a little congested. My mom and I ended up staying up until 6 am working on my Halloween costume. I was going to an anime convention for the weekend, and I was going as Sailor Saturn (from the Sailor Moon anime).

So, I’m a bit grumpy that morning when I have to get up an hour after I fall asleep to get the girls ready for school. I took a nap after they left and was feeling a little less grumpy. Yay! Unfortunately my congestion and cold had worsened some.

Most of the day Friday I just napped. On Saturday I napped the first half of the day, then dressed up and walked about the convention with my friend. I felt okay, but I could only whisper, which was annoying.

So, early Sunday afternoon we head home. When I get there I find out that Lotus decided to crawl into the dryer while my mom was folding laundry in another room. My mom heard the girls get into the laundry room, which had a sliding lock on it, and she went to get them out; unfortunately Lotus had just enough time to get a nasty burn on her arm. I put burn medicine on it later some antibiotic ointment.

I took the girls to school the next morning because I overslept and missed the school bus (again!). I showed the teacher and aides the burn, and I told them what had happened. I didn’t think anything would come of the incident, but I was wrong. The school nurse decided that Children’s Services needed to be called, even though later, other school officials assured me that they didn’t think that I was a “bad” mom or that I could have done anything differently. Hmm, yep, I think that’s the mission of children’s services; to investigate accidents. No? Oh, I must have been confused. This certainly could have been filed as an unusual incident, and I wouldn’t have minded. But neglect? Especially when I am told by the people who made the call that they don’t really think that I was negligent. Hmm, maybe I’m just silly in the head, but they either lied to me or they lied to children’s services; either you think I’m negligent or you don’t. It’s not really a “grey area” type of thing.

I kept missing the social worker when they stopped by unannounced, so I had to call and make an appointment. He said that the complaint was filed as "neglect" because of the accident. Hopefully it will be an open and closed deal, since there wasn’t any neglect actually involved. Anyway, I have installed a key locking doorknob on the laundry room, so the girls will have to be able to pick that before they could get in the room. Also, I’ve been shutting the breaker to the dryer off when it isn’t in use.

To add to the fun, I had a fever from my cold-turned-sinus-infection, and I was very tired and felt like crap. Wee!
When I took Lotus to the doctor on Tuesday there was a screw up at the sign in desk, as a lady came in after us and talked to the receptionist but didn’t write down her child’s name. The receptionist scratched off our name without pulling our charts, so we subsequently sat there for 45 minutes before I asked how long it’d be until we were seen. We were called back pretty much right away. Lotus was agitated and didn’t want to cooperate with the doctor, who repeatedly chastised Lotus and me for not being able to hold still while he examined her (hmm, restraining an anxious, frightened ten year old with autism isn’t as easy as you might think, especially when you are exhausted, sick, and near tears).

Okay, so after the fun at the doctor’s office, you’d think I’d had enough for the day. Nope, not me! I took the girls to pick up the medicine at Kroger later that day. Unfortunately Lotus decided to lie down periodically and not get up. I had to haul on her to get her to move. The nice, friendly community folks who were shopping that day were so helpful. They slowed down to stare, point, shake their heads, laugh, and make knowing glances at one another. I was obviously a bad mom with spoiled brats. Yep, that covers it. My kids and I look “normal” so we must just be spoiled kids with an inept mom. I ended up leaving without getting the prescription because I couldn’t keep the girls waiting for twenty minutes while they were agitated and uncooperative. (By the way, thanks to all of you who laughed at my family in front of your own children; you set a great example of tolerance and understanding for our future generation!)

There was one person who offered to help, but even he looked skeptical when I told him no. I appreciated the offer, but having a stranger get into the mix would most likely have only made it worse. Or Lotus might have hit him to get him away, which I didn’t want to happen.

On to more fun! I am probably going to have to use the money I was planning on using to get the girls' Christmas presents to buy a dryer, since my old one keeps getting clothes stuck in around the edges and when you pull them out they tear (and it keeps making a squeaking noise). I haven't bought them a single thing yet but... when it rains, it pours. Also, my car's heater has quit working. Yay! Pretty much all summer I was without AC, and now no heat. My car doesn’t like anything outside the 60-70 degree range, I guess. Also, when I got back home I had to snake my toilet because the girls (probably Celest- she's generally the instigator of these sorts of things) flushed at least one, if not more, whole bars of soap down my toilet. It's still not running perfectly, but it's better than it was. Someone told me to try putting a pot of boiling water down toilet, and I think I'll try that to see if it helps clear out the last little bit of soap. Also while I was gone, my garbage disposal quit working. I was thinking that I might have to get a new one, but it turns out that it just blew the fuse on the bottom of the unit. When I ran it, it did seem to be running more loudly, so I think I'll just try to avoid using it. We just put in a new disposal unit about two or three years ago though, so I don't know what the deal is.

And today I got a call from the psychologist that oversees the girls' ABA programming, telling me that we need to have a meeting to see where we go from here because my team and I haven't been cooperating with our new consultant. We missed a team meeting because the consultant insists that we have the meeting from 3-5 on Tuesdays (which is the only day we could all agree on). Problem is, the therapists can't get here at three and the girls are still at school. Argh! Why, why, why? Also, "it would be more convenient" for them if I could meet them at their office since they are so busy. Nevermind that it takes me about 35-40 minutes to get to their office. I don't have anything better to do. Nope, not a thing.
/end bitching