After four weeks of living life SANS kid, and learning the routines of a COUPLE, Max decided to move back home. Seems that one of the stellar citizens he was living with lost their job and the whole scene was falling apart. Well, that is not really a problem, but the fact that he has brought the disease and pestilence with him IS!!!!
Sunday while he and John were moving all his stuff he was very ill and looked like crap. He had most of the sign of flu, so it was off to the ER for him. Since I have asthma and in the "high risk" group I could not sit there while he waited to get looked at, so we told him to call us when he was ready to go home. About two hours later he was done. Yep, H1N1 confirmed.
Fever 103, lots of technicolor vomiting, severe body aches.....everything that the networks are scaring you with. They forget to tell you that the Tamiflu costs over $100 bucks for kids and folks without health insurance!! We paid for it, but OUCH!!
Nothing says fun like the odor of bleach in your dishwater and vomit in the house!! I feel like I am now working in a hospital!! Not to mention the fifty, or so, boxes of kleenex that he has gone through. They say this could last about five days. I can not wait to see what this new day brings!!
.jpg)
Let's start with this whole mess with David Letterman..... is it really necessary to STILL be discussing this? We shake our heads that it is still fodder for the evening news and talking heads. The man was not married. Adults are entitled to conduct their personal lives anyway that they see fit. If he felt like having sexual relationships with people that he worked with...so be it. Who's business is it anyway? Work place affairs happen all the time. It is easy and often safe to hook up with people that you work with, besides you spend so much time together you often know them well. I can't believe how much they are making out of this. They are all adults and until this other dirt bag dug into it there was nothing that anyone one else was talking about. Let it go!!
The weather here has gotten chill and quite "fallesque". When there is sun we are trying to spend as much time outdoors as we can. This weekend we went and got mums and pumpkins. We went back to the pumpkin patch where we used to take Max as a small child. It is a huge thing in this area. Many, many people attend and they have many other attractions besides pumpkins & mums. Carmel apples freshly dipped, hot cider, corn mazes and much, much more.
We went through the corn maze, a thirty minute walk, and then came home and had a nice fire in the backyard. We even cut sticks and cooked our own hot dogs over the fire! I haven't had a fire cooked hot dog, on a stick no less, in a very long time!
We used the rest of the weekend to watch the last episodes of Season One of Weeds. That show has such a fantastic soundtrack. I love it when a show stretches out and gets obscure music by little known or listened to artists. Even the theme song is funny!
Max hit week two of his new life living with two guys from school. Typical basement aptartment. Full of furniture, game playing stations and laptops. Each guy has his own room and all utilities are included. He came over yesterday to do laundry and we wnet out and had a nice lunch. hey, he's paying his bills and looking to the future, so what can I say? I moved away and lived life for many years before I settled down and went to school. At least he is making good choices thus far AND employed. Now we have to decide what to do with the empty room!! Thinking about looking on raigs List for a day bed so my mom has somewhere to sleep when she comes over. She can't hack the water bed!
Getting ready to read Dan Brown's new book. Working on mine. Living and loving life!! The way it's meant to be.
I took some much needed and well deserved time off this past weekend. Four days to be exact. Today is the last day. Why do we acrue vacation time if we don't use it once in awhile for mental health time? Also, my best friend from high school was here for our class reunion. He comes in from New York and we always go on a standing date.
Max turns 19 today. He spent the weekend working on his car. New muffler, various filters etc.
We hung out, I putzed in the garden, watched misc. movies, drank wine, slept late, never set the alarm. Ate too much. John & I went to Quaker Steak & Lube on a gift card. They have deep fried pickles as an appetizer! I was in heaven. So few people have them and I really love them!! Long, breaded spears with an awesome dipping sauce.
John left today for Norwalk, Ohio. Still eeking out work! A machine that was sold some time ago and just getting built, but work none the less. Aftre this there is nothing else, but he still has expenses to do from India, so that may take him to September at least.
My pals Mixter & Guy are off to the Creation Museum! They even offered to come and pick me up, but my work schedule was already set. Have a good time kids!! an't wait to see and hear all about this adventure!
So, I leave you now with a few snap shots of my excellent mental health weekend!!
Nothing like an unknown ache & pain, a few Vicodin and some wine to really make for a swell weekend!! Boy, do I know how to party like a rock star!!
It was a sharp pain, Friday night, that woke me from a dead sleep. Sharp pain in my left shin area just below the knee. I finally got back to sleep. Saturday night the same thing. I just could not get comfortable in the bed and more difficulty getting back to sleep. Went to work Sunday morning and it was not until I had done some kneeling, at work, that I came home at the pain and become intense. I also noticed while I was sitting, at the desk and doing the banking, at work that it actually was like a burning sensation. I had more comfort standing as a did it. It also was very uncomfortable to sit and drive, although I did not have a standing option there.
When I got home, Sunday afternoon, I tried to ice, but the pain and tearing/burning sensation was just too severe, so John took me to the med center. They took x-rays and gave me a knee brace. They also took blood to check for gout. So, that is where I am now. Waiting to hear about the results. As I sit here it is still burning/hurting. The Vicodin takes the edge off at night, but I can't take that and expect to work!! Not if people want their $5.00 latte to be what they asked for!!
At home though is another story! Last night it was wine and Vicodin and re-runs of NCIS. Iced off and on, but nothing seems to really help. They also gave me some steroids for inflammation, but I would have thought by now that if there was inflammation that they would have helped. I can walk fine, but it is the sitting and kneeling that are painful. It just feels like the meat is tearing away from the bone. How fun does that sound!! Sure makes the wine and Vicodin sound inviting doesn't it.
It just sucks when shit starts to happen to your body parts that are out of your control and it is not anything that can be deduced quickly. Things that require multiple tests suck! I am just wondering if I did not get a small stress fracture when I tried to run last Thursday, on my day off, and now I am feeling it. There you have it folks....another example of how healthy pursuits are dangerous!!
As for the Max update................he moved back home after two days in a bachelor pad with four guys, all 18, who are on their own for the first time. We all have talked and hopefully it is moving in a better direction for all of us!!
Yesterday it became apparent that you just really never know what might be going on in other people's lives. Those you work with as well as those you might serve. people that you come in contact with every day and all day long.
I am one of those people who always goes to work with a good attitude. People think that I am always funny & goofy. They have a good time working with me. They can never tell what my personal life might be like. There are other people, and I am sure that you have worked with people like this, they are always an emotional wreck or have some sad story or wear their emotional baggage on their sleeves.
I had a meeting with my boss yesterday to discuss a promotional/reward program that they asked me to create/implement etc. As it was over he shared some news with me that nearly brought him to tears and me as well. Then I shared with him the drama that is currently going on in my life. he was quite surprised and said, " What a mess are we right now"! Yes, I said, but you know I never try to roll my problems to work in a wheelbarrow. He knows that is the truth.
Max left me a note yesterday that he is moving out. He is coming over today to discuss what his plans are etc.
I am torn between being crushed, feeling like a failure, or begging him to stay. I feel terrible. The last thing I am interested in right now is work!! I could not be working on that promotion at a more dysfunctional time!
He has no intention of going into the Navy. I know this because he came home with an entire "sleeve" on tattoo outlines on his arm. not that I am opposed to tats, but you know if you can't afford them and don't have a really good job to pay all your bills etc. that you should be holding off, but he has not. I am not even sure that he still has a job. At least not enough hours at one to pay the bills he currently has.
I know that I moved away from home at 18, but I also got a really good job AND was able to pay bills. I was also moving out of an abusive environment. Max has nothing like that going on here. We have always been supportive and done all kinds of things with and for him as an only child.
I do not know what he is thinking. I guess I will know in a few hours, but it does not stop me from feeling like a failure as a parent. It feels like after 18 years I did not do any of it right. I have not given him any direction. I did not do my job properly because he is floundering and does not know what to do. I watch all these people whose kids are graduating and going off to schools and careers and mine is just floating off into nothingness.........
He says that he is going to go and stay with his friend that just moved in with some people and it is a first apartment. Oh yeah! I am thrilled about this.
I have always been so good at putting on the stage face and not letting people know what my personal life was like. Maybe as the result of having grown up in such a dysfunctional home it was my coping mechanism. It makes me look at customers in an entirely different light. How do I know what happened to them this morning before they came in for their coffee? How do I know what their kids did or said to them this week?
John is leaving Monday and for the first time I will be totally alone. I will not have Max here to watch junk television with. No one to talk to about the newest You Tube videos. It will be totally & utterly quiet here.
He had such promise with his electrical engineering background. I know that you can not force anyone to do anything, but it is very hard to watch or sit by and just let them go, when you have no idea what they are going to. I am feeling stunned, shocked and dismayed right now and can not imagine where to go from here.
.jpg)
