Poison

Poison ivy.  Yes, I have it again.  Thanks for that, Molly.  All I have to do is think about the damn stuff and I start to itch, so I know what it looks like and I stay clear.  Molly, on the other hand, being a stupid cat, blunders through the woods and has no cares about poison ivy or poison oak or poison anything.  Last week, she came in and jumped into my lap while I was trying to work.  She doesn’t do this because she loves me, she merely wants to be fed.  I was trying to work and ignored her.  So she rubbed her head all over me, swished that plume tail all around in my face.  I didn’t even think about poison ivy then, didn’t even enter my little pea brain.  Now I have this wretched rash all over my face and neck and arms.   It’s been over a week and it’s no better.  The last three times I got poison ivy, I had to go get a steroid shot to make it go away.  I’m about to give in and make that call...tomorrow if this crap is no better by then.    

Feed me

The girls are reading a book over the summer for their English class, entitled Things Fall Apart.  They both tell me it’s dreadful so I googled it and it’s a classic.  Good for them!  Read those classics.  It’s kind of the way I feel lately with all this poison ivy and a sprained ankle from karate class last week.  So now I’m gimpy and itchy and I just have no patience for this at all.  

We’re going on vacation soon and I’m packing up all my work to take with us because I get a break from my job (hopefully..if I get no trouble calls) but I still have a class going on and I’m determined to finish Chapter 2 at the very least before I return from vacation.  I emailed the gentlemen who developed the questionnaire I want to use to ask their permission to use it.  They still haven't replied…..now I’m getting all antsy about that.  I told myself I’m not drinking again until that proposal is written and submitted.  Maybe that is the real cause of all this foul mood I’ve been in lately.  Maybe I need to invest in a bottle of liquid patience.    

Inception walking

So, I haven’t blogged in a bit. It’s been busy, busy, busy all the time for me with schoolwork and all the stuff that’s going on in my life right now. I reread that last post. I apologize for it, but I am quite in awe of my ability to use the F word in so many forms in a single sentence – let’s see…adjective, verb, adverb, and …is that an object of preposition? Not that I should be proud of myself for that. When I was young and used bad language, I was made to write many, MANY times “I will not take the name of the Lord in vain.” Never mind that my foul language usually didn’t involve the Lord’s name at all. What good did that punishment do? None! Time, ink, and trees were wasted with those exercises. Typically, I wrote down the page I I I I , then will will will will, then not not not, etc. If I wrote the entire sentences out, I added (in my head) the F word in all the appropriate spots. I will (F’ing) not take the (F’ing) name of the …oh no…but I did… Maybe it’s why I have migraines all the time. It’s my punishment.


My brother has accepted that he will die from drinking and not be going to rehab. I saw him yesterday, he looks dreadful. He’s 6’6” tall and I’m sure he can’t weigh more than 130 pounds now - my big brother who I used to think was indestructible and as strong as a lion. I hugged him when I left because I’m afraid I won’t see him alive again. I feel guilty in so many ways…but that’s not for the blog.

I remembered another story about little girls’ panties! Actually…I think they were in diapers but they had ruffled panties over their diapers because they were wearing fancy, frilly dresses. This one can’t be kept anonymous because it involves two little girls between 2 and 3 years old. We took them to church one Sunday morning and dressed them up extra cute because the childrens’ Sunday school classes were going to each get up in front of the congregation and sing a song or two…I forget the occasion. Anyway, Someone’s Mom had bought the girls frilly matching dresses and it was a warm day, so I put ruffled panties on them over their diapers instead of tights, and they wore lacy ruffled socks and little black patent Mary Jane shoes. Yes, they looked adorable. The kids all sat together in the front with their classes; Someone and I sat near the back in our usual pew. One group of kids was up on stage doing their thing. They were obviously distracted by something happening in the front pew. These were kids about 8 to 10 years old and some stopped singing and started giggling. Then we saw some adults in the choir smiling and talking, and then the minister started grinning. I started looking between heads to see what was so funny up front. Well, wouldn’t you know, it was my girls. The preschool group was sitting in the front pew and I could see just the tops of their little heads, but here’s what I saw..head, head, head, head, feet, feet, head, head, head, etc. My girls had slid down in the pew and had their legs sticking straight up in the air giving everyone in the front of the church a full view of their legs and panties. They were quite oblivious to the distraction and disruption they were causing. Finally the preschool teacher got up, walked over, and made them sit back up in their seats. After church was over, I asked them what they were doing. Emily told me she and Erin were playing on the ceiling.


Erin - Spring, 1999



Emily - Spring, 1999