Social Hurricane Does the Adulting Thing

Social Hurricane will be twenty-two next month.  She'd be the first to tell you she's a little behind the typical schedule as far as moving toward adulthood.

To be fair, she had a rough couple of years, largely due to the onset of massive full-bore bipolar disorder coupled with anxiety issues and a a pretty intense learning disability.  Some really poor decision making in the middle of all that could also be said to be a significant contributing factor.

Of course, getting hit by a car probably didn't help much.  There probably are other young women her age who've had two stays in psychiatric facilities, a couple of weeks in the hospital, and a few additional weeks in a physical therapy rehabilitation facility, but I'm pretty sure she's in the minority.  We've lost count of the number of emergency room visits, and don't get me started on doctor bills.

But I digress.  She's moving toward adulthood.  She's employed full time as a CNA, which is no mean accomplishment in and of itself.  She's trying to get the hang of paying taxes, budgeting, bills, and keeping up with her own prescriptions and doctor visits.  At some point in time she's determined to get her driver's licence, but the anxiety aggravates the dyslexia, and she hasn't had the best of showings yet.  (Did you know that driving on the wrong side of the road is apparently an automatic fail in North Carolina?)  She wants to go on for further schooling and training, which we applaud; she's thinking phlebotomy.  She's definitely on a good career path for her--she likes working with people and with her hands.

And, at some point in time, she wants to move out, to spread her wings and fly.

Frankly, we're a little nervous about that possibility.  To be honest, so far she hasn't inspired a lot of confidence.  But she's way beyond what she was a couple of years ago--let's see what the next little while brings.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

Endangered Family Time

This is not desirable, and we need to do something about it.

Granted there are lots of contributing factors, but I couldn't tell you the last time all five members of my immediate family were awake and in the household at the same time, at least for more than a half hour stretch (and not many of those.)   I know it's been at least two weeks.  I work, essentially, first shift, Basement Artist works second, and Social Hurricane works third.  Graphics Magician is frequently out and about at friends' houses, Adored Wife has a busy schedule, and I was out of town for a conference one weekend and then BA was out of town with her fiance for a few days.

It's been kind of crazy.

But still, we have to do something about this.  It's not going to happen today.  Tomorrow I think BA has the day off (at least I hope she does), and if that's the case and if we can get AW home from the theater by 8:30 and GM home from his friend's house (and if we can send any friends he happens to have over home), and if SH can be up a little early before she has to go to work....

I think we may be able to pull off a family conversation.  I'll have to get some ice cream and toppings and we'll sit around in the dining room and, you know, just talk.

About what, I don't know.  But by golly, we're going to get together as a family.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

Anniversary Cane?

Adored Wife and I celebrated twenty-seven years of matrimony last week.  We went out to lunch, and a friend had given us free passes to Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, so we toured there for a couple of hours.  It was fantastic.

Minor snafu.  AW needs a cane, not for support but for balance.  She doesn't use one in the house because she can hold onto walls and furniture and steady herself fine.  But she keeps one in the van for when she goes out.

Except that morning, I'd used the van to haul a desk and cleared everything out of the back of it.  Including, of course, AW's cane.  I'd meant to put it back in.  Only I didn't.

So, we get to the restaurant and I smack myself in the head because it's at that point I realize I've forgotten to put the cane back in the van.  Absolutely nobody else to blame--this one was entirely and completely my fault.

We managed okay in the restaurant; AW just held on to my arm the whole time.  But she was understandably anxious about walking around Biltmore's house and grounds without her support--she has serious issues with unsteadiness and very little peripheral vision.

Our timetable would make going back home unworkable.  So, between the restaurant and the mansion I stopped in at Wal-Mart, and bought her a new cane.  Pretty blue one, actually.  She likes it.

Um...happy anniversary, sweetheart?

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

What's Been Going On

Hope all's well today, friends.

Last week I posted the "been kind of busy" blog post.

Some highlights from the family of late:

1. Basement Artist's fiance, Harbor Master, was visiting us for a couple of weeks, down from Canada.  He's back north now and I kind of miss him and BA really misses him.  He's a good guy, they're getting married in June, and we've been talking lots of wedding stuff.  I did draft him to help move some heavy furniture around while he was here.

2. Lots of illness has been running through the household, the neighborhood, the church, the school, and quite frankly everywhere else.  Some nonessential things (like, sadly, blogging) have had to bump a little lower on the priority list.

3. Graphics Magician has an inflammation of the growth plates in his heel called calcaneal hypophysitis.  He's supposed to be taking it easy on the running and physical activity, and he's not good at taking it easy.  He's out of track for this season and more than likely out of soccer for the season as well.  He's not happy about that.  He's been doing lots of socializing with friends--we've expanded his privileges a bit when he turned thirteen and (with a few hiccups) he's so far been behaving pretty responsibly regarding them.  It's required some adjustment and some getting used to thinks.  Adored Wife tends to be overprotective and anxious and she knows this and tries not to be, but it's hard.

4. Social Hurricane, oddly enough, seems to have the most normal and stable life in the household just at present.  Wow.  Would NEVER have called that........

5. Adored Wife has been very involved with personal and family interests and health concerns, and has been having to pick up some extra duty with BA's upcoming wedding and GM's foot problems and new social regime.  She got shanghaied onto a women's retreat at the church which she enjoyed but came back exhausted from.  

6.  I'm staying active working at the church, I wrapped up a play recently (thoroughly enjoyed doing it, but also kind of glad it's over) and I'm busy working on household projects, trying to pay attention to the family, and further writing projects.

And I haven't even told you about the cat or the troubles with the Jeep or the invasion of our home by random adolescents or the various birthday and anniversary celebrations or my first-ever writers' conference.

So, that's a little bit of it.

Thanks for reading, friends, and God bless.

Regrouping

Hello, friends, and sorry to miss the normal Monday posting.

There's a LOT going on in the household right now.  It's all good, but boredom is emphatically not an issue.

Happy anniversary to Adored Wife this coming Friday.  Twenty-seven adventurous years!

New material will return next Monday, March 20.

Thanks, friends, and God bless.

Basement Artist Turns Twenty-Four!

About twenty-four years ago, a two pound three ounce baby girl entered the world three months earlier than hoped for in a Texas hospital.  You've heard they grow things bigger in Texas?  Sadly, the only Texan in the tribe was the runt of the litter.

Four surgeries before the age of eighteen months, one of them (a heart valve procedure) when she was less than a week old.  One hundred and two days in the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital.  Medical bills were pretty impressive.  Insurance was good but we still wound up with a fair amount of out of pocket expenses.

There were a few times it was a little touch and go, but she was a fighter.

My mother bought her Cabbage Patch doll clothes, which were initially too big.  We had to wake her up every few hours to feed her.  She couldn't eat much at a time, and calories were very important.  A cleft palate complicated the feeding process.  Her vocal chords were paralyzed, probably from the tubes down her throat.  You could tell she was crying when you looked at her, but you couldn't hear her.

We had her paid off by her sixth birthday, the year she started first grade.

She turned twenty-four this week.  She's a beautiful young woman with a mischievous sense of humor, and she's engaged to be married in June.  She has a large circle of friends, a job, an associate's degree, and a spectacular collection of hats.  For some reason, she's always loved hats.  She's a gifted musician and writer and an amazing artist.  The voice has never been loud but she can carry a tune quite well if she can get a microphone for amplification.  She's extraordinarily strong and is thinking about going into massage therapy.

I'm pleasantly surprised we've made it this far.

Happy birthday, Basement Artist.  I'm very proud of the young woman you're becoming.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

The Neighbors Think We're Busy

We actually have some great neighbors.  One set of them, with a son Graphics Magician's age, helps us out frequently.  (We try to return the favor as opportunity permits.)

It was a very full weekend.  Adored Wife had gotten dragged off on the women's retreat by ladies from our church, I had the closing three shows of the play I was in, and Basement Artist's young man, whom I shall refer to in this blog as Harbor Master, was visiting from Canada.  (He handles river traffic in Montreal for a living.)

Long story short, I needed a way to get Graphics Magician safely home from a basketball team party, and then a safe place to stay for a while, because NOBODY was going to be at my house and we were going in six different directions.

Cue the neighbors.  Their son is on the same basketball team and they graciously offered to let GM hang out with them for several hours.  By the time they needed to hand him off, Social Hurricane was available to be home and on duty, so I didn't have to worry about it.  It's not that he can't stay by himself if need be, but he couldn't have gotten himself home from a ten-miles-away party, and we feel better if he's not alone for too long.

Thankful for good neighbors today.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

Getting Sick When You're Not Well

I generally enjoy good physical health.  I don't get sick often, and when I do it's usually nothing all that major.  My recent bout with the flu was a rare exception--I was pretty worthless for a couple of days.  (I'm feeling much better now.)

But Adored Wife ALSO got sick, and it kind of threw into relief for me another thing about chronic health troubles.  People with chronic conditions handle illness differently than we healthy types do.

Low grade fever doesn't actually slow AW down much.  She already deals with so many daily aches and pains that she barely notices a minor thing like that; she's perfectly capable of just assuming she's having a bad day.  I've had to point out to her that maybe she's coming down with something.  She's used to getting up and getting moving even when she doesn't feel well, because she NEVER feels well.

But when Adored Wife catches a serious illness, that's pretty much it.  I can drag myself out of bed and get moving if I have to even when I'm feeling at death's door, because I'm overall in good health.  AW operates with so little reserve anyway that a bad virus will completely lay her low and she'll spend almost literally the whole day asleep.  That's all she's got.

Just some post-flu thoughts.

On the plus side, I lost a little weight while under the weather.  I wonder if there's some way I could arrange to be sick about another ten pounds worth?

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.