Friday, November 7, 2008

This and that

Thank you, all, so much for your kind comments on my last post. That was hard to write, but necessary. It helps that it was met with such gentle kindness. Thank you.

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Twelve weeks ago yesterday my sister told JD that she thought it was kinda funny that she was hoping we would have the baby already, so that she could start getting more sleep, and we could start getting less. The her getting more part was because she stayed up every evening waiting for the call in case she needed to come over and stay with Monkey while we headed for the hospital. The us getting less part... well, that's pretty obvious. For some reason neither Adelynne nor I got, JD didn't think it was funny, or even kinda funny. Me? Since that Thursday was something like the fourth consecutive evening of contractions until wee hours of the morning (with a non-negligible number of nonconsecutive days in the weeks prior) I a) thought the joke was hi-effing-larious, and b) didn't think it was possible for me personally to get any less sleep than I was getting at that point.

Of course my sister got her wish mere hours after voicing it. Which, I thought, was an excellent deal for all involved. As a bonus, it turns out that I was right in the predictions department too-- I am not getting any less sleep now than I was getting that week. Except now that it has been over thirteen weeks of that much (ha-ha!) sleep I can say with some authority that the sleep deficit thingy really does accumulate. Drats.

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As we say in the Old Country language, these days only a lazy person is not writing about the election. Not that I don't have thoughts, but I (see above) am having some difficulty rubbing neurons together to produce complete sentences. Except this tidbit affords me an opportunity to both rant (mini-rant, honest; I promise-- mini) and brag. How could I possibly pass on that? I am only human, you know. So here goes.

After the 2004 election I noticed that a lot of conservative pundits acquired a new favorite line-- "And this is why you lost,"-- deployed, it seemed, any time a representative of the other side of the spectrum expressed an opinion about the state of the electorate or the tactics used to drive turnout or to "assist" voters in making up their minds. Used to drive me bonkers.

So in the spirit of joyful reciprocity I would absolutely love to say that the reason R's lost so thoroughly this week is that the country is no longer buying their divide and conquer, us against (and better than) them politics. I would love to be able to say that the Republican presidential campaign jumped the shark the moment Sarah Palin declared that she loves to visit real America, the pro-America America, implying, of course, that there exists, outside of those there fine small towns, fake America, consisting of the not pro-America parts of America. I would love to be able to say that that was why they lost.

I am realistic enough to know that that wasn't why, though I maintain that a country where it would absolutely have been the why would be an incredible place to live. And I persist in my belief that this country can one day be that country.

Meanwhile here in the fake America Monkey's class has been learning about the American flag. They learned all kinds of good things about where it came from and how you show respect to one. And, in preparation for the school's election day assembly, they learned a song.


P.S. This poster, that, of course, is still hanging on the board, was a completely spontaneous and independent project. Weird, don't you think, given, you know, that we are centrally located in the beautiful downtown, fake America?

P.P.S. We keep forgetting how well Monkey can read these days. We were watching the news the night the story of that quote broke, and when Monkey walked into the room, we paused (long live TiVo!) the news right as they were playing that quote while they also showed the transcript of it on the screen. She read the quote right off the screen, and she got offended. The stick your tongue out at the screen, and do a high kick in that screen's general direction kind of offended. So we talked about how these feelings are understandable, but how the real way we fight back against that kind of rhetoric is by voting and volunteering.

In the meantime I keep marveling at the amount of stuff (in areas of citizenship and dead baby studies just to name a few) that my six year old gets instinctively that some so called adults completely fail to grasp.

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Speaking of jumping the shark, I do not appreciate it when the shows I make time to watch regularly do the jumping. Have you guys seen the episode of House from last week?

Um... seriously? First of all, lactose intolerance and milk allergies are different and distinct, and the terms may not be used interchangeably. A much bigger deal? No adoptive parent worth their salt (or past a good agency's approval process) would ever try to talk a birth mother out of her new decision to parent. Like, NEVER. Ugh...

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I need tips for not forgetting medication. My thyroid is on its regularly scheduled post-childbirth adventure, providing me with an array of fun symptoms the worst of which is tachycardia. Which means heart medication, for symptomatic relief. Beta blockers, yum!

I am on the kind that is compatible with breastfeeding, but which needs to be taken three times a day. And there is my problem-- I have, in the last week, forgotten at least one pill a day more times than I care to admit, and yesterday I forgot two in a row. I am trying to take them after a feeding, to be extra careful. But I tend to need to do X, Y, and Z right after a feeding, plus, as I mentioned above, I am freaking exhausted, which, in my experience, does not help with keeping to the mental to-do list. Hence, unsurpringly, I sometimes end up forgetting to take a pill. So what do I do to avoid forgetting? Other than hiring a personal assistant to keep track of such things, I mean.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try setting your cell phone alarm. You can set it to repeat the alarm indefinitely so you don't have to keep setting it daily.

-e

Aurelia said...

I keep wondering where the social worker was in that episode. The whole thing was bizarre....

Anyway, of course monkey knows a lot about elections! You two show an interest, and have newspapers and tv news on....trust me a lot of people never do that. She is imitating mommy and daddy.

I kept meaning to write on that last post btw, so here it is, those are lovely names. ((((hugs))))

ms. G said...

Well, I am no help. I was taking a pill in the morning and the evening, but would literally forget my morning pill every other day. It worked out for me because the more med I can wean myself off, the better, so as soon as I figured out I could actuall be comfortable without the morning dose, out it went. Now I just have to remember evening.

Have you tried putting the pills in one of those dosing cases and leaving it out where you will see it often? Maybe walking by it a few times a day will jog your memory.

I hear ya on the exhausted part, by the way.

Lori said...

I am no fan of the "us vs. them" mentality that pervades this country. But you must know that exists on both sides don't you? I remember one analysis I heard after Kerry was defeated in which the commentator said something to the effect of, "Kerry won in the coastal areas where people have a better awareness of the diversity of the world and tend to have higher IQ's." It must have been quite a surprise for middle america to discover they are stupid. This was a mainstream commentator by the way. The day after Bush was elected I started seeing bumper stickers everywhere (in my very liberal city) that said, "Not MY President." So, the divisiveness runs both ways.

That said, I do hope that a greater spirit of unity will grow in our country but that will only happen when both sides are willing to listen and try to understand the perspectives of those with whom they disagree. I hope that can happen, but I am sad to say I am not entirely optimistic. Still, I will hope.

Rosepetal said...

I have the opposite - hypothytoid and only have to take one pill a day. Except I am supposed to take one whole pill one day and a half the next. I cannot for the life of me ever remember if I took the half or the whole the day before.

My husband suggested the same as Ms G - a little pill box with the days of the week. I have so far resisted it.

Magpie said...

I am terrible about remembering pills - they sit on the windowsill above the kitchen sing, and I look at them every morning, and at least one day a week, I plumb forget to take them.

Funny about Grand Old Flag - Mir has just learned that at school...she launched into it out of the blue the other day.

c. said...

If they are hidden away in a cupboard somewhere, I would take them out. They need to be in view, a constant reminder, to be at all effective for me.

Wabi said...

Oh, I saw that House and also wondered what the hell was up with the writing. So irritating.

As for the pills ... can you take them with food? If so, I would make it part of my mealtime routine. Leave the bottle on the kitchen counter or the table where you eat so when you sit down, you remember to take them.

BTW, I also loved your kid's names. So sweet.

Anonymous said...

Do you have a central diaper changing area? If so, I suggest placing a colorful note there (hang it at eye level) reminding you to take your pills. Or, on the refrigerator.


{new blog linked in my name: I shut tiger moon down due to trolls. The new one is quite different. Maybe interesting, maybe not :-)}

Julia said...

Lori, yes, I agree-- some on the D side can be very divisive as well. Though I have to say I've never seen that bumper sticker in my very liberal city. My own feelings were more like "I can't believe he is STILL our president."
I also didn't hear that commentator (who the hell was that, btw?), and I have to agree that questioning the other's mental acuity is waaaaay out of bounds. I have much more mixed feelings about questioning how informed one's opponent is, either due to own lack of curiosity (see: Bush, George W.) or due to structural issues (see: schools, failing). And I am plain flabbergasted that a candidate showcasing her own status as a proud ignoramus (see: Palin, Sarah) wasn't just laughed off the national stage in one minute flat. I dislike a great deal that we even have low information voters, and I hate with a passion the fact that instead of working on making all voters engaged and knowledgeable, some (see: Rove, Karl, evil incarnate) see that as a political advantage to exploit. John Kerry may be boring as all get out, but he is a decorated war hero, and cheering on slanderers who said otherwise while running a president who never seen a day of combat in his life was dirty, pathetic, and downright disgusting. That last bit comes very close to what I was talking about in the post-- I want to live in a country where questioning your opponent's patriotism is simply unacceptable rather than a standard campaign tactic. And really, while I agree that dems have our share of rhetoric, I really can't think of a single time the D side has ever used questioning opponent's patriotism as a campaign tactic, while Rs use it all the time. I find that extremely telling.

I want it to become unacceptable to do that. I want it to become universally acknowledged as being in extremely poor taste. I want there to be no soil in this country for the ignorance that bread that old lady's comment at the McCain rally. I want there to be no need for political opponents to describe each other as decent people because I want that to be universally understood as a starting point, and I certainly want there to be no booing if/when such a description is voiced. I want candidates (and the political party to which they belong [would be glad to make that plural if anyone can supply me with an example of that kind of behavior from the dems]) to stop tilling the soil to give rise to that booing. Is that too much to ask?

loribeth said...

I too take eltroxin for hypothyroidism -- 1.5 pills for two days, two pills on the third. I have one of those little pill boxes that i fill up weekly. Problem is, when I get to the end of the week, I can never remember when I last had the two pills. I give it my best guess. I figure it all evens out in the wash.

I take the thyroid pills at night before dinner. I take my bp meds first thing in the morning. So far I havent' forgotten.

Anonymous said...

My friend's son has galactosemia, albeit the mild form of it.

I was explaining it to a co-worker who kept telling me how her daughter was lactose intolerant and eventually grew out of it, so maybe my friend's son would too.

No matter how many times in the course of that conversation that I attempted to correct her, she just didn't get it.

niobe said...

I keep my meds in my car, so I take them pre and/or post-commute. Not that that helps you.

Tash said...

I'm sorry, I'm extremely late to this -- I got a new work out watch (I fried mine in the ocean in July) and it has something insane like three alarms (ok maybe not three, I should probably check, but I know some of them do), and I'm thinking, who the fuck needs three alarms/alerts? But I think I just found her.

It's nice. Timex Ironman for women.