Confessions of A Bad Seattleite

My stomach hurts and has been upset all night. I think it's the ridiculous amounts of coffee I've been drinking in order to stay awake during all that overtime for iPhone-ageddon. But coffee (like computers, airplanes, grunge, rain, and lumber) is a staple of Seattle culture. Is my inability to handle it a sign that I'm a bad Seattleite? I mean, I was born here and I've lived here all my life.

I'm also not a particularly big fan of the Seahawks, which is tantamount to treason in these parts the past year or so. Oh, I don't mind them; I'm just not a sports fan in general. But it's practically religion around here, and aside from the conversation opening that gives me for customers, I can't really bring myself to care much.

I am a fan, however, of the good folks at Apple Health, the Washington State version of the Affordable Care Act. I sure wish we had been signed up with them when we had the Great Moving Debacle of 2013. Because right now we're using the benefits to their fullest; Miz Liz has to have a tooth removed (it's the stainless steel-crowned one; it's abscessed). Because she is under eight years old, they need to pull it under general anesthesia. As long as they're in there, they will fill the other few fillings that we never got done last year. And the out-of-pocket cost is minimal thanks to Apple Health. (And I'll get the health insurance from my work as soon as I am eligible; I don't like to leech off the state any longer than I have to.)

Edit: I would just like to say here that I dithered over the word "leech," and I have had it pointed out to me that I am not leeching off the government; I'm not a... let's call it a habitual user of social services. I pay into the system and have for at least 28 years, and that's what it's there for; to help out when it's needed. But I don't like having to use those services; I prefer to be on the paying-in side than the taking-out side. Prideful? Maybe. But goodness knows I can't afford extensive dentistry without it, and so I'll take it. But it's not leeching.

It just occurred to me that the Momma-fretting about oral surgery on my baby may be a contributing factor to the Upset Stomach of Doom, along with lack of sleep, too much coffee, consistent stress about finances in spite of Apple Health, and general fatigue. And so we come full circle.

Ah well, only a few more days of iPhone-ageddon to go, maybe a week or two. I have Thursday and Friday off and while I will be working on my birthday next week, I am not working overtime that day. I'll pull out of this!

Back to School is Lots of Work

This post is a series of Random Thoughts surrounding school, work, and home.

• Apple brings out the iPhone 6 (and 6 Plus) this week. This causes overtime at the wireless service carrier where I work. This is a Good Thing (because I can really use the money - more on that later) and a Bad Thing (because school just started... and more on that later too).

• Lizzy's birthday party was a rousing success. Lots of kids, lots of fun. Leanna couldn't make it because she was sick, but I suspect she wouldn't have been all that entertained anyway, as Abby was the oldest child there and I was using Abby as a helper; she would not have had time for Leanna. Parties for little kids are boring for big kids as a rule.

• Speaking of Abby helping, I applaud her organizational skills, though she was perhaps a little overenthusiastic about whisking gifts right out of Lizzy's hands so she could get onto the next one. At one point (she was trying to get the littler kids to line up) Laston told her there was a difference between organized and bossy, whereupon she gave him one of those withering adolescent looks, turned back to the little kids, and said, "All right, everyone who wants to, line up over there." All adults were hard pressed not to crack up.

• Lizzy is still young enough to be indifferent as to gender among her friends (hence Stick-the-Glasses-on-the-Barbie even with boys at the party)... most of the time. There was quite a bit of dithering over which thank you cards to use for which child. Is it okay to use flowered ones for a family where there are two girls and one boy? What if they're all friendly, but the boy is the one who is really Lizzy's friend?

• Oh my goodness, never try to nail a Bouncy McGee to a kitchen bar stool to write thank you notes. It was a much harder ordeal than it should have been. Rather like homework, for which she also cannot sit still unless Abby is doing hers beside her.

• Which brings us back to school. Abby's sixth grade is still elementary school (at least until they finish building the new high school in our district; eventually there will be a middle school model). But in an effort to get them ready for junior high, they have a homeroom class and three other classes they rotate through. Abby's homeroom teacher is the language arts teacher, and given that her only big issue academically is spelling, I wonder if that was deliberate.

• When I went to the school last Friday to drop off a forgotten binder (don't worry - we had a chat about personal responsibility and the need to keep track of one's own things) I chatted with the school nurse (with Abby's nut allergy, I find it behooves me to know the school nurse well... just in case). She said that usually there is a honeymoon period of a couple weeks at the beginning of the school year, where kids only get bumps from soccer balls and falls from playground equipment; they do not usually get sick. Not this year. This year they started showing colds and flus out of the gate.

• Which is probably why I have a cold right now when I am scheduled for a ton of iPhone 6 overtime. La gripa, my neighbor calls it (as opposed to la influenza - she understands much more English than she speaks, and the inverse is true of my Spanish). But I promised to work the overtime, and I need the money badly, so I will muddle through. I have zinc and vitamin C at my desk, Nyquil at home, and I could float away from how many fluids I've been drinking. 

• Because of the previous snafus (and a couple of new ones), I could really use a fairy godmother right about now. I know it, and I'm not too proud to admit it. But I don't want one (need is different from want, as every parent has told their child a time or two); I want to work for my money. But working for my money is so slow. And it doesn't help that somehow financial institutions - even credit unions - think that if you don't have the money to pay a particular bill, then an NSF fee will somehow miraculously appear. Um... no. 

• On the other hand, I am working for my money, and I think I'm doing well at it; as any of you who know me probably understand, I'm not as technical as some of my compatriots, but the customers like me. So I'm slow but I give great customer service. And right now - the running joke is that ATT stands for At This Time - that's what they're looking for; those soft skills outweigh the tech skills in my particular job description.

This Week I Learned...

...that Dollar Tree is the place to go for birthday party favors and decorations... except for party games. We'll find out Pin the X on the Y somewhere else.

...that Lizzy believes these are equivalent to these... at least a little bit. She says she blinked and nothing happened.

...that +Carrie Miller and +Jason Miller are lovely neighbors and friends... but I already knew that.

...that I'm not the only one using GoFundMe for basic life-rebuilding... a few friends are too. These are good folks, folks; give 'em a hand if you can. Or Sharon's Kickstarter if you can manage it.

...that iPhone 6 at AT&T is reminiscent of Windows 95 at CompUSA. At least this time I won't get literally shaken by a customer.

...that Abby loves to read... but hates to start reading.

...that Community Health takes our AppleHealth medical card... even for dental.

...that I'll actually complete my degree in just two more classes after this one. December 15 is the big day.

Just a bunch of stuff I've learned - or relearned - this week.

Oh, and my mom rocks. But I already knew that.

Seven Years Old.at... MARK!

Lizzy is seven (can you believe it?)

Or rather, as she says in her precise way, "I will be seven at 12:30."

It's true; I had a planned c-section (because Abby was an emergency section after 22 hours of unmedicated labor, and they gave me the option of a VBAC but the likelihood of a repeat section was very high. So I skipped the labor part the second time around), and they started the procedure at noon straight up.

At 12:30 we had a baby.

Lizzy - you may have noticed through these pages - is a bright little thing intellectually, but she cannot sit still to save her soul. Unless you hand her a book and it captures her interest. Then she's still but she's not listening because her nose is stuck in a book. Sound like anyone else you know, Mom and Dad (and anyone else who knew me as a child)?

Yes, right, well.

So we are having a birthday dinner with Just the Girls tonight as we always do, and then we're having a party next week.

In the past we've had the party on the weekend following her birthday, but this year her dad and I both work weekends, so we thought we'd do it on the Thursday after school, which we both have off. This was my mom's idea, as is the party idea below, because Mom just rocks that way. We don't have the party the day of as a rule, because this early in the year she needs a week or so to settle in and decide which kids she needs to have there.

Anyway, knowing we are chronically short on funds, my mom suggested a scavenger hunt in our yard and on our porches. With prizes from the dollar store (and our dollar store has their favorite treat most of the time, packaged cotton candy) I think we should have a good thing going. So I am spending my day off happily doing homework and dishes and laundry, and writing out little rhymes for a scavenger hunt, like:

Globes of red, orange, yellow and green;

A clue you’ll find when these you have seen.

So the next clue would be in the tomato plants out in the side yard, yes?

I think it'll be fun, and Tiger can hide in the house if all the kids are out doors, and all will be well.

Speaking of Tiger, I did not write about her here, but we thought she was ill. Not ill, exactly, but not well; she's 16 and cranky and just old, and she's starting to move quite creakily and having trouble washing herself well. But I let her wander around outside for a bit the other day - she's always been an indoor cat - and she seems quite a lot better. Maybe she just wanted some fresh air. Or maybe she had a kitty equivalent of a summer cold and is now feeling better; it's hard to tell.

But she's been with us for over twice the time the Birthday Girl has, and that's saying something.