Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Autumn Bradford Pear I



I've started a second one to go along with this one, but I have several major projects hanging over my head that absolutely have to get done first, so it may be a while before I get that other one done. Or I may continue procrastinating on those other things. You just never know. I gotta go with the inspiration when I get it. At least that's what I tell myself.

I found out a few days ago that a local newspaper is doing a feature story on me and my art classes. Today they interviewed me and took some photos. I think this will be coming out some time next week, so I'll share the article and pics with you then.

Regular school is done on Friday afternoon, but I really don't get to completely let my hair down for several more days after that. A teacher's work is never done, and the cover of the yearbook is due, so I'm going to be concentrating pretty hard on that until it's done. It would be simpler if it were just dependent upon me getting things ironed out, but I am also dependent upon submissions from others, and those items are just not dependably forthcoming.

I can't really even think about Christmasey plans yet. I was hoping I'd get to do some Christmas baking for the first time since we moved into this house 2.5 years ago, because today my oven finally arrived (!!), but Rick fell down the stairs the other day and broke some ribs, and he's absolutely unable to do the labor required to remove the drop-in cooktop so we can install the stove. I've waited this long, I guess I can wait a little longer. He really is in a lot of pain, so I'm not going to be mad. At this point, I'm just hoping to have a working oven by January 1. If it happens before then, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

We've been really struggling with the chaos of living with a mentally-ill teenager, too. It will be necessary for us to do as little socializing as possible during the lead-up to Christmas because it just sends her over the edge. After the Big Day, it will be easier to deal with her, but she just can't cope with anticipation and expectation and excess. Her moods have been pretty severely swinging. Right now we have given her only five changes of clothes to manage, because there are some pretty unspeakable filth issues she refuses to deal with (including her own body). Limiting her choices is pretty much our only option in this matter. I wish things could be different... I wish she could be like the other kids her age and have a celly and go have sleepovers at friends' homes and things like that. She just can't cope; she loses all mental cohesion and slips into complete delusional mania. What's the most frustrating is that she SEEMS like any normal teenager to everyone else around us. Nobody sees the transformation but us. So we seem like irrationally restrictive parents. I really don't care what most people think, but it's tiresome when we have to continually re-argue the point with her because she can't remember and learn from past experiences. Every day's new, and if she's been "good" for the past hour, that should be enough to make up for everything. Then when we don't give in, she begins swearing like a sailor's parrot, and then later remorsefully cries and insists she can't help being that way, so we should give her what she wants because she can't help it. It wears me down.

I need a private vacation. Preferably one involving warm sunshine and a massage therapist named Viktor who specializes in River Rocks and Aromatherapy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry I can't send you a vacation, but Christmas candy is in the mail. Love you!
Jill