Tuesday, October 26, 2005 Alesia doesn’t know her science. Every time I ask her “Are you ready for the test?” she says yes. Then when I sit down and start going through the questions, she doesn’t know the answers. She is supposed to be learning the basics of weather [winds, clouds, etc.] but she doesn’t know the meaning of words like “liquid” and “absorb” – words we’ve gone over before but she doesn’t remember. I am amazed she made a B in Science on the last report card.
I told her tonight - after showing her the huge pile of notecards with questions she doesn’t know and the relatively thin pile of cards with questions she does know - “You are going to fail the test tomorrow. You haven’t memorized the words. You don’t understand the concepts. I didn’t say it in a mean way, but she started crying anyway.
She went off today and forgot her purse, filled with sanitary napkins. I remembered it this morning and called Mother, who got her driver to drop it by the school on the way to therapy. Alesia forgets so much – but she remembers some things. She remembered an offhand remark I made the other day about giving our aluminum cans to my friend Bronwyn who picks her up from school. She raced in from school, Mother said, and got the bags of cans from the garage and took them out to Bronwyn’s car. I only mentioned that once, I think Saturday.
I am piled up with work to do at work and hardly have a free moment to catch my breath. It’s very frustrating. I’ve gotten a dozen new cases in the last two weeks. I keep forgetting things – just tired and stressed. Never causes major problems but I kick myself every time, because one of the attorneys always points out to me what I’ve forgotten. Now she thinks I’m an idiot. She has started looking at me funny, like I am so mentally defective it’s amazing I can walk upright. I keep wanting to say “Lady, if you’d had the horribly stressful life I have had lately you’d be hanging on by your fingernails, too!” Makes me want to slap her.
Mother says the therapist is working her hard. She ran out of pain pills today and the stupid doctor’s office wouldn’t call in a refill because the doctor wasn’t there. It’s a very mild pill. I was so irritated at the office.
I keep trying to get back on a diet and failing miserably. Stress makes me eat. I have become the candy monster. Every time I get stressed out I reach for the chocolate. It’s depressing. Maybe after Halloween I can do better.
I ordered Alesia a cute witch’s costume today. It should be here Friday. She is going trick or treating with her friend Elena. The pumpkins we carved a couple of weeks ago are starting to look hideous. It’s time to light ‘em up…
