Thursday, June 22, 2006
Lunch
Coco has been feeling poorly – not eating, throwing up, diarrhea, sleeping a lot. We are concerned. I got up this morning and had to devote considerable time to cleaning up after Coco and persuading her to eat. Well, first I got her to eat a little of her expensive, easy-on-her-tummy dog food. I was elated that she ate that – she threw up all the plain yogurt I gave her last night. However, I had to clean up diarrhea. That put me behind schedule and I didn’t have time to eat breakfast at home.
Fortunately, Home Depot has a huge cafeteria downstairs. I got a nice bowl of oatmeal, an apple, and a large iced tea for breakfast, and enjoyed it at my desk. The oatmeal is home-made, very gelatinous and gloppy, just like I like it.
I am tired of running around like a headless chicken every morning. Chicken days have to end. I am trying to get my entire life more organized, from the moment I wake up, until I go to sleep. I have drafted a schedule for myself. I scheduled time to exercise, to check e-mails, even to tutor Alesia and help Mother with dinner. Who knows if it will work. I’ve tried this in the past and something always screws up my schedule. I feel better if I have a schedule, though, more secure. I have allotted myself 7 hours to sleep at night, which I hope will happen – usually I wake up after about 5 and have to try and fall back asleep. If I sleep late on the weekends I feel draggy all day so I am determined to cut that out. I need order and discipline. It helps me focus.
Alesia was disrespectful and argumentative to Mother yesterday, and disobeyed a TV directive, so she lost TV privileges for the day and was further punished for being ugly to Mother. I got on the phone and told Alesia she had to pick up every pinecone and piece of natural debris in the front yard. We have about 6 large pines, so it was considerable. It was about 100 degrees yesterday and it took her over an hour. I felt a twinge of guilt, but I was sick of her being a pill and disobeying Mother. I think it worked. She was very sweet last night.
I had the weirdest sensation all morning – I kept smelling Dad. Dad had his own personal smell, a blend of aftershave and male that was really nice – when he was clean. I suppose it’s not illogical to think I might smell like him, but since I use totally different soaps and skin care products and am a female, hmmmm…. I like to smell him occasionally. I feel it’s a little sensory message from the other side, telling me he’s with me. It seems so bizarre that he died 10 years ago this summer, on July 11. I think I will propose to Mother that we eat barbeque and green beans that night, to honor his memory.
DeKalb County has completely banned outdoor watering. We are in a drought. Yikes. The vegetable garden is exempt, thanks be to God. I hate to see all my flowers and shrubs die, though. I may have to quietly sneak outside in the middle of the night and do some watering. My next door neighbor is a criminal attorney and I bet he would represent me for a fair fee of homegrown tomatoes, squash, and peppers…
Alesia and I watched A League of Their Own last night. She loved it. It has a lot of good history lessons in it, as well as a good story. She was highly amused by the underwear the women wore back then.
I got the Fed-X back from the FBI yesterday. My prints were OK and the check was fine. Mother’s prints were rejected. I was irritated, until I called Adoption Planning and Alla said the dossier doesn’t need an FBI clearance on Mother. I still need to re-do the INS fingerprints on Mom and I am considering just showing up early one morning next week and trying to get her re-fingerprinted then, instead of waiting until July 8th. Susan [social worker] said she tells families to do that, it always works. I have not gotten the GBI clearance and that worries me.
Bedtime
Coco is better. She ate some egg for breakfast and was much more lively today, thanks be to God.
We got the new washer and dryer delivered and set up in the laundry room this afternoon. The laundry room looks much bigger now. The old stacked unit went outside in the garage. We should be able to sell it.
We had dinner at Steak & Ale, a favorite local place. I don’t think the food is that great, but Mother likes the prime rib. I had to cut it for her. It has a funky 1970’s ambiance in the décor. When we walked outside after the meal, there were several cops standing there talking. I like to go to cop hangouts.
We came home after dinner, and Alesia and I ran around the yard trying to water everything, because after midnight tonight, the grass is on a deathwatch. Heavy sigh.
