In the space of one night, the rollercoaster of emotions one can go through in relation to the kid.
I arrived home last night, later then usual, Operation Freeflow was in full effect. Ordinarily, I would have no problem with lots of guards around, espeically when some of the them are of the female variety but when the traffic takes an extra 40 minutes to get into town, then I'm not a happy camper. I stopped off at Clearys to see what they had to offer with regards to tops and I eyed up a few.
On arrival home, I was informed that the doctors appointment went grand, and the kid was put on the pill. Needless to say I was not impressed. But apparently, once she's reached 16, we don't have any say with regards to her going on the Pill. The only positive thing I can take from this maybe the hormones might improve with regards to PMT. I am still playing the ostrich in the sand with regards to her being a sexual being. I feel this gives her a licence to go off and shag all around her? I guess I just need some time to let this filter in and realise that its one more step that she's taking towards adulthood.
To more positive things, A Christmas Carol was great. I love it, its just so christmassy. As Mammy2 puts it, its like being hit over the head with a christmas stick, tis fabulous! With the lights up on O'Connell street and Henry street, I am so in the christmas spirit. So, my first black tie event tomorrow night, I hope I don't embaress myself. I'm sure it will all go well, the crux will be staying out whilst not getting locked with everyone else. There is a champagne reception and stuff but like I said, with an attempt this month I don't want to drown those poor swimmers whilst they work on seducing the ovaries.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Pole Dancing classes for fitness.
Funny how the kid didn't approach me and ask me about pole dancing classes. For fitness, of course. D, her best mate has been emailing Mammy2 back and forth, she has only recently discovered the joys of cyberspace and is emailing and msning to her hearts content. So she was obviously the one who drew the short straw in relation to asking about the classes. Things are still frosty around herself, she's been trying to pick a row with the poor boyf. I'm glad he has sisters else he would never understand the conundrum that is women. Not that he would be any closer to understanding us, but it gives him somewhat of a headstart.
This evening is doctors appointment. I would love to be a fly on the wall, except for I don't think I could handle listening to her talk about sex. I would be the person rocking back and forth in the corner. We are off to see a Christmas Carol tonight in the Gate. I love going to see it, its so christmassy and on opening night they have carol singers and stuff. Its soo cool. I hope her mood has improved, although after the doctor having a good look around, maybe she might not be.
This evening is doctors appointment. I would love to be a fly on the wall, except for I don't think I could handle listening to her talk about sex. I would be the person rocking back and forth in the corner. We are off to see a Christmas Carol tonight in the Gate. I love going to see it, its so christmassy and on opening night they have carol singers and stuff. Its soo cool. I hope her mood has improved, although after the doctor having a good look around, maybe she might not be.
Monday, November 28, 2005
The ghost of christmas past.
This weekend was hectic. Christmas shopping done and dusted. Wrapped and under the tree , yes that's right I did say tree. It went up last night along with decorations and tinsel and lots of other festive decorations! Poor Mammy2 was at her wits end trying to untangle lights. As per every year, one set of lights had to go. We were prepared for this though, and had an extra set.
9.00 Saturday morning, we were up and having breakfast. She was up because the boyf J had band pratice. We had met him the previous evening. It was ice cold and they were hanging in the courtyard again. We thought it was stupid with them freezing their butts off so we said they could come up. He was petrifed which I was delighted about. No need for the scarey talk just yet. They hung out in the room complete, with open door. I wasn't that niave. And then comes the statement no parent wants to know about. Mammy2 deals with all the sex talk stuff, I just cannot. As far as I'm concerned the kid is this small titch complete with nappy and not some sexual deviant. However,
Mammy2 indicated that she was indeed sexually active with the boyf. It took a huge amount of willpower not to go into the room and throw him out the window. We're only on the 2nd floor, he'd break an arm or something but wouldn't be too badly hurt.
Of cours in these situations, its always easier to blame the other person. There's no way the kid would instigate anything. This is what I chose to believe. Anyhew, Mammy2 is bringing her to the doctor this week for a check up. I'm not going to go down the route of in my day, because there's no point. She is fast on her way to adulthood and us grounding her or stopping her from seeing J is not going to change things. It might only make matters worse. I did say to Mammy2 that hell will freeze over before she gets up to anything in the apartment. Mammy2 is under the impression that the boy is too scared to try anything. I believe where teenagers and hormones are concerned anything is possible. And the fact that he isn't even shaving yet? Teenage boys are a conumdrum I've decided. Not yet shaving but able to have sex. Scary stuff.
Christmas shopping done, we met her for a late lunch. She devoured a salad, some pizza and a glass of coke before heading back to the boyf's band practice. It must be love, if she sits for the whole day whilst he strums away on the guitar. All day. Some of Saturday was also spent trying to find a dress for myself. I've got a black tie do to go this Thursday and I want to get someone fancy to wear. Is it too much to ask to get a dress that doesn't make me look like either a hooker or a transvestite? I mean , these are not looks I'm trying to cultivate but it appears to be what I end
up looking like.
Mammy2 thinks I could get away with wearing a smart trousers suit, I think she's worred about how cold I'll be. I wouldn't mind a smart trousers suit if I knew I wasn't going to be the only one in it. So this evening some more shopping and then a descision has to be made.
The kid is PMTing at the moment and holy god, yesterday was hell on toast. We did the grocery shopping and threw some choccy her way. Not that it worked. Things escalated when we were unpacking the decorations and found The BOOK? If you have been following this blog from its inception, you may rememeber a corn beef spirit and a possessed book. Well, this was the book I found. She was hanging in the room conjuring up spirits from the dead or whatever PMT teenagers do these days. After myself and Mammy2 had a good laugh at the book, mainly from the memories it invoked I had thought she would be able to look back and laugh. But no. When I went into the room to show her the book, she let a scream and ran to ring D about the possessed book. Apparently they threw it out. TWICE and now its back. Cue dramatic music.
There was an emergency phone call to D and plans were afoot as to how to get rid of it. I left them to it, there was dinner to be cooked. Last night being sisters night, once I'd armed myself with holy water we headed to the cinema to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the irony was not wasted on me.
Being the Savoy, one usually doesn't have to book. I say usually. The only film there were any tickets left for were Flight Plan. I didn't think that this was a film she'd be interested in, so I headed back to the foyer to tell her. Cue choirs of small boys shuffling behind me as I walked up and told her. 5 minutes later I was standing at the ticket place again booking 2 tickest to Flight Plan.
Surprisingly enough she enjoyed it? There were a couple of moments where she said she was going to be sick and a couple of moments where she was going to assault some people in tracksuits, for some reason these people seem to antagonise her more, but all in all, it was a success. Until we came out of the cinema to walk home. We live approx 20 minutes from the cinema and she wanted to get the LUAS. I braved the onslaught and we walked home. I then high-tailed it to bed asking Mammy2 to do the morning shift. There's only so much negativity one can take of a day or two.
I hope the period arrives soon, I don't know how much more of this one can take!
9.00 Saturday morning, we were up and having breakfast. She was up because the boyf J had band pratice. We had met him the previous evening. It was ice cold and they were hanging in the courtyard again. We thought it was stupid with them freezing their butts off so we said they could come up. He was petrifed which I was delighted about. No need for the scarey talk just yet. They hung out in the room complete, with open door. I wasn't that niave. And then comes the statement no parent wants to know about. Mammy2 deals with all the sex talk stuff, I just cannot. As far as I'm concerned the kid is this small titch complete with nappy and not some sexual deviant. However,
Mammy2 indicated that she was indeed sexually active with the boyf. It took a huge amount of willpower not to go into the room and throw him out the window. We're only on the 2nd floor, he'd break an arm or something but wouldn't be too badly hurt.
Of cours in these situations, its always easier to blame the other person. There's no way the kid would instigate anything. This is what I chose to believe. Anyhew, Mammy2 is bringing her to the doctor this week for a check up. I'm not going to go down the route of in my day, because there's no point. She is fast on her way to adulthood and us grounding her or stopping her from seeing J is not going to change things. It might only make matters worse. I did say to Mammy2 that hell will freeze over before she gets up to anything in the apartment. Mammy2 is under the impression that the boy is too scared to try anything. I believe where teenagers and hormones are concerned anything is possible. And the fact that he isn't even shaving yet? Teenage boys are a conumdrum I've decided. Not yet shaving but able to have sex. Scary stuff.
Christmas shopping done, we met her for a late lunch. She devoured a salad, some pizza and a glass of coke before heading back to the boyf's band practice. It must be love, if she sits for the whole day whilst he strums away on the guitar. All day. Some of Saturday was also spent trying to find a dress for myself. I've got a black tie do to go this Thursday and I want to get someone fancy to wear. Is it too much to ask to get a dress that doesn't make me look like either a hooker or a transvestite? I mean , these are not looks I'm trying to cultivate but it appears to be what I end
up looking like.
Mammy2 thinks I could get away with wearing a smart trousers suit, I think she's worred about how cold I'll be. I wouldn't mind a smart trousers suit if I knew I wasn't going to be the only one in it. So this evening some more shopping and then a descision has to be made.
The kid is PMTing at the moment and holy god, yesterday was hell on toast. We did the grocery shopping and threw some choccy her way. Not that it worked. Things escalated when we were unpacking the decorations and found The BOOK? If you have been following this blog from its inception, you may rememeber a corn beef spirit and a possessed book. Well, this was the book I found. She was hanging in the room conjuring up spirits from the dead or whatever PMT teenagers do these days. After myself and Mammy2 had a good laugh at the book, mainly from the memories it invoked I had thought she would be able to look back and laugh. But no. When I went into the room to show her the book, she let a scream and ran to ring D about the possessed book. Apparently they threw it out. TWICE and now its back. Cue dramatic music.
There was an emergency phone call to D and plans were afoot as to how to get rid of it. I left them to it, there was dinner to be cooked. Last night being sisters night, once I'd armed myself with holy water we headed to the cinema to see The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the irony was not wasted on me.
Being the Savoy, one usually doesn't have to book. I say usually. The only film there were any tickets left for were Flight Plan. I didn't think that this was a film she'd be interested in, so I headed back to the foyer to tell her. Cue choirs of small boys shuffling behind me as I walked up and told her. 5 minutes later I was standing at the ticket place again booking 2 tickest to Flight Plan.
Surprisingly enough she enjoyed it? There were a couple of moments where she said she was going to be sick and a couple of moments where she was going to assault some people in tracksuits, for some reason these people seem to antagonise her more, but all in all, it was a success. Until we came out of the cinema to walk home. We live approx 20 minutes from the cinema and she wanted to get the LUAS. I braved the onslaught and we walked home. I then high-tailed it to bed asking Mammy2 to do the morning shift. There's only so much negativity one can take of a day or two.
I hope the period arrives soon, I don't know how much more of this one can take!
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Leaving the nest.
The kid is moving in with her best mate D as soon as school finishes. She reckons that with herself and D working 2 jobs and starting college, they should be well able to afford a 2 bedroomed. Obviously they might need some financial assitance from us. I raised an eyebrow at this and informed her financial assistence will be for college if she decides to go and that's about. She was full of the joys of spring yesterday so nothing could slight her mood.
She met with D after school for a bag of chips and they obviously planned this moving in together stint then. She was very funny in relation to how much rent actually is. When she asked me how much we pay and I informed her, she was like "a MONTH , I thought it was every 2/3 months", it knocked some of the wind out of her. There was a quick phone call to D, some "yeah, no, I thought it was every month, okay, you think about it and get back to me". Phone hung up and then back to homework.
The weekend was fairly ineventful where she was concerned. I think its too cold for her to stay out past curfew. The boyfriend headed home early as it was freezing on Saturday night. When we got home , she was tucked up in bed with about 3 layers around her. We were out with Mammy2's parents. It was her mother's birthday and we met them after they had their meal for a few drinks.
Town was mental, its been ages since we were out in town of a Saturday night, we usually stay closer to home. It was also so cold, the winter is definetly settling in. I love the cold though, reminds me of home. Dublin never used to suffer with the frost and freezing fog, whereas down home it was great! The only thing I wouldn't like about this really cold weather is the poor elderly. They always
seem to bear the brunt of any cold snap.
Sunday, we had planned to cook stew. We left her to watch it whilst we went uptown to watch The Traveller Girl. Excellent movie, really makes me grateful for what you have. We arrived home to find the stew stuck to the bottom of the saucepan, she swears she stirred but to be honest she didn't look like she'd moved from her permanent position beside the PC. Luckily we had potatoes, so a spud dinner was what we settled on. Of course as soon as she was finished eating, she was DYING of cramps. I went for a shower and 2 minutes later, she barreled past me into the bathroom announcing that she was dying and did no-one care. As you may gather if you have been reading this blog for any period of time, when it comes to illnesses the kid is well up all things that ail you. If there's a dose going, chances are she has it. I'm not sure where this came from, whether as a result of Mam's illness or if it was always there.
So, when she is moaning whilst sitting on the toilet about how much pain she is, whilst texting with one hand at the same time, excuse us if we're not killing her with sympathy. I calmly explained that it was most likely cramps from eating properly seeing as her sole diet of a Saturday is brought to her courtesy of MacDonalds. She seemed to take this suggestion on board and I also warned her about improving her eating habits. When she gets in from school, I can understand her being starving, but instead of having a bowl of noodles, if she'd get some fruit or something to keep her going until we got home and cooked or even better she learned to cook for herself, when she wouldn't have these problems of cramps etc. Trying to explain this to a teenager is a waste of time though. The minute the cramps clear up, she's back to not giving a damn what she puts in her body.
Tonight and tomorrow, we are giving this baby making malarky another go. Mammy2 had the embaressing task of going into a chemist to ask for a smaller syringe. She managed to acquire one without having to tell the lovely lady behind the counter what it was for. We shall see how this attempt goes. I've been trying to do everything right, less units of alcholol, keep the stress levels down, etc etc, but I suppose there's only so much you can do and the rest in the hands of your ovaries. Feckers. I mean, they're great really. They are just soooo choosy. I mean, what was wrong with the last few guys that we sent up there. Perhaps a report might help as to what sort of swimmers they prefer. But nothing. No feedback, no Studies show that your ovaries prefer this type of swimmer. So we just try and wait.
But I've for the countdown to christmas to take my mind off things such as am I pregnant. We've got tickets to the opening night of A Christmas Carol, and the kid is all excited about going. Between that and christmas parties and the Golden Spiders awards ceremony, I won't have time to sit and brood as to when will I get pregnant. The Spiders are like the Internet Oscars for Ireland. Very posh and black tie. Hence I need to get a dress. I could borrow the one the kid wore to our anniversay do, yes, we are all the same size. Titchs the lot of us. I don't really want to splash out on a new dress which will probably be worn once a year.
Speaking of clothes, she had a non-uniform day today to raise money for some charity or other. Needless to say she was delighted. Lip piercing in, makeup on, flares and her knee length boots. I think she's going to enjoy thwarting the teachers today. She's been doing really well in school. She got her Art essay back on tatoos and she got an A. She was well impressed with herself. She is also allowed re-sit her Irish exam, as she was out for 2 days last week with a chill. She spoke to the Irish teacher and she's allowed to re-sit it. I was amazed that she went and spoke to the teacher herself.
HMV are looking for part time employees, so she's supposed to be dropping up there today as she's on a half day from school. It would be an ideal job for her with her interest in music, but somehow I can't see her doing anything more then dropping her cv in and scarppering. Although with this intention of herself and D getting their own place, it might be motivation for her. We shall see!
She met with D after school for a bag of chips and they obviously planned this moving in together stint then. She was very funny in relation to how much rent actually is. When she asked me how much we pay and I informed her, she was like "a MONTH , I thought it was every 2/3 months", it knocked some of the wind out of her. There was a quick phone call to D, some "yeah, no, I thought it was every month, okay, you think about it and get back to me". Phone hung up and then back to homework.
The weekend was fairly ineventful where she was concerned. I think its too cold for her to stay out past curfew. The boyfriend headed home early as it was freezing on Saturday night. When we got home , she was tucked up in bed with about 3 layers around her. We were out with Mammy2's parents. It was her mother's birthday and we met them after they had their meal for a few drinks.
Town was mental, its been ages since we were out in town of a Saturday night, we usually stay closer to home. It was also so cold, the winter is definetly settling in. I love the cold though, reminds me of home. Dublin never used to suffer with the frost and freezing fog, whereas down home it was great! The only thing I wouldn't like about this really cold weather is the poor elderly. They always
seem to bear the brunt of any cold snap.
Sunday, we had planned to cook stew. We left her to watch it whilst we went uptown to watch The Traveller Girl. Excellent movie, really makes me grateful for what you have. We arrived home to find the stew stuck to the bottom of the saucepan, she swears she stirred but to be honest she didn't look like she'd moved from her permanent position beside the PC. Luckily we had potatoes, so a spud dinner was what we settled on. Of course as soon as she was finished eating, she was DYING of cramps. I went for a shower and 2 minutes later, she barreled past me into the bathroom announcing that she was dying and did no-one care. As you may gather if you have been reading this blog for any period of time, when it comes to illnesses the kid is well up all things that ail you. If there's a dose going, chances are she has it. I'm not sure where this came from, whether as a result of Mam's illness or if it was always there.
So, when she is moaning whilst sitting on the toilet about how much pain she is, whilst texting with one hand at the same time, excuse us if we're not killing her with sympathy. I calmly explained that it was most likely cramps from eating properly seeing as her sole diet of a Saturday is brought to her courtesy of MacDonalds. She seemed to take this suggestion on board and I also warned her about improving her eating habits. When she gets in from school, I can understand her being starving, but instead of having a bowl of noodles, if she'd get some fruit or something to keep her going until we got home and cooked or even better she learned to cook for herself, when she wouldn't have these problems of cramps etc. Trying to explain this to a teenager is a waste of time though. The minute the cramps clear up, she's back to not giving a damn what she puts in her body.
Tonight and tomorrow, we are giving this baby making malarky another go. Mammy2 had the embaressing task of going into a chemist to ask for a smaller syringe. She managed to acquire one without having to tell the lovely lady behind the counter what it was for. We shall see how this attempt goes. I've been trying to do everything right, less units of alcholol, keep the stress levels down, etc etc, but I suppose there's only so much you can do and the rest in the hands of your ovaries. Feckers. I mean, they're great really. They are just soooo choosy. I mean, what was wrong with the last few guys that we sent up there. Perhaps a report might help as to what sort of swimmers they prefer. But nothing. No feedback, no Studies show that your ovaries prefer this type of swimmer. So we just try and wait.
But I've for the countdown to christmas to take my mind off things such as am I pregnant. We've got tickets to the opening night of A Christmas Carol, and the kid is all excited about going. Between that and christmas parties and the Golden Spiders awards ceremony, I won't have time to sit and brood as to when will I get pregnant. The Spiders are like the Internet Oscars for Ireland. Very posh and black tie. Hence I need to get a dress. I could borrow the one the kid wore to our anniversay do, yes, we are all the same size. Titchs the lot of us. I don't really want to splash out on a new dress which will probably be worn once a year.
Speaking of clothes, she had a non-uniform day today to raise money for some charity or other. Needless to say she was delighted. Lip piercing in, makeup on, flares and her knee length boots. I think she's going to enjoy thwarting the teachers today. She's been doing really well in school. She got her Art essay back on tatoos and she got an A. She was well impressed with herself. She is also allowed re-sit her Irish exam, as she was out for 2 days last week with a chill. She spoke to the Irish teacher and she's allowed to re-sit it. I was amazed that she went and spoke to the teacher herself.
HMV are looking for part time employees, so she's supposed to be dropping up there today as she's on a half day from school. It would be an ideal job for her with her interest in music, but somehow I can't see her doing anything more then dropping her cv in and scarppering. Although with this intention of herself and D getting their own place, it might be motivation for her. We shall see!
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Holidays are coming...
Its getting close to that time of the year again when I turn into a nutter. I love christmas. Absolutely love it and after last years escapades, I'm hoping this christmas is a bit quieter then visits to the hospital. Also with last year being the first year without Mam it was always going to be hard, no matter how much we try to get over and deal with things with our sense of humour. But this year, I am hoping things will be better. The kid is well on her way to being a regular stroppy teenager and is looking forward to christmas. Poor Mammy2 doesn't know what to do about both of us bouncing off walls about christmas. I don't know what it is about the holiday season that makes me so happy. I just love it all, the lights, the tack, the music. Everything.
Anyhew, its also getting close to that time of the month when once again I feel I am imposing on my
ovaries by asking the simple favour of inviting some sperm into their cosy little clique. I've started
noticing shoulders and men in general. My ovaries don't have as much taste as I have , I have to say. They seem to just for big and broad, someone can carry small children on one shoulder and a house on the other. I don't know if they have conversed with my womb at any stage, but to be quite
honest, huge bloke and tiny woman just do not work, or maybe its that I cross my legs anytime I see
one of the rugby players and the thoughts of producing a child with one of them. Whereas the ovaries turn into teenage girls and giggle a lot.
Next Tuesday and Wednesday we are giving it another go. God only knows what this attempt will bring. A martian child at this rate.
The interview process with miss Rte has been going quite well, she's quite easy to chat to. She wanted us in our natural habitat, not the George, silly people. The apartment, just cooking dinner and talking about stuff , as families are prone to do. The kid wasn't in the mood of chatting or sitting in this time and ran to the room. She sat there stumming her guitar and looking moody. She has that down pat. As it turns out she's been off today and yesterday with some chill she caught. Mammy2 is after catching it now so needless to say the apartment is great fun at the moment.
She's also been stressing about chemistry and wants to drop it as a subject. If she's stressing now, I can't wait for the Leaving Cert. In between stressing, she has passed on her christmas list of things she wants.
Otep CD "Sevras Tra"
any Cd by Jimi Hendrix
Lacunca Coil boxset
Slayer Cd "Reign In Blood"
Prey for Rock N Roll DVD
and a surprise..
Obviously she's not getting all of those, she's allowed one and so we have to chose. Personally, they
all look dreadful but its her present. She also wants a ticket to Trivum, who are playing The Ambassador in March. The tickets are only 25 euros and ALL her friends are going and they'll be SOLD OUT if I wait another day! And so on and so forth. I told her that once all the birthdays of this month had passed, we would see how the finances are and perhaps get her a ticket. She seemed to reluctantly accept that as an answer.
Anyhew, its also getting close to that time of the month when once again I feel I am imposing on my
ovaries by asking the simple favour of inviting some sperm into their cosy little clique. I've started
noticing shoulders and men in general. My ovaries don't have as much taste as I have , I have to say. They seem to just for big and broad, someone can carry small children on one shoulder and a house on the other. I don't know if they have conversed with my womb at any stage, but to be quite
honest, huge bloke and tiny woman just do not work, or maybe its that I cross my legs anytime I see
one of the rugby players and the thoughts of producing a child with one of them. Whereas the ovaries turn into teenage girls and giggle a lot.
Next Tuesday and Wednesday we are giving it another go. God only knows what this attempt will bring. A martian child at this rate.
The interview process with miss Rte has been going quite well, she's quite easy to chat to. She wanted us in our natural habitat, not the George, silly people. The apartment, just cooking dinner and talking about stuff , as families are prone to do. The kid wasn't in the mood of chatting or sitting in this time and ran to the room. She sat there stumming her guitar and looking moody. She has that down pat. As it turns out she's been off today and yesterday with some chill she caught. Mammy2 is after catching it now so needless to say the apartment is great fun at the moment.
She's also been stressing about chemistry and wants to drop it as a subject. If she's stressing now, I can't wait for the Leaving Cert. In between stressing, she has passed on her christmas list of things she wants.
Otep CD "Sevras Tra"
any Cd by Jimi Hendrix
Lacunca Coil boxset
Slayer Cd "Reign In Blood"
Prey for Rock N Roll DVD
and a surprise..
Obviously she's not getting all of those, she's allowed one and so we have to chose. Personally, they
all look dreadful but its her present. She also wants a ticket to Trivum, who are playing The Ambassador in March. The tickets are only 25 euros and ALL her friends are going and they'll be SOLD OUT if I wait another day! And so on and so forth. I told her that once all the birthdays of this month had passed, we would see how the finances are and perhaps get her a ticket. She seemed to reluctantly accept that as an answer.
Monday, November 14, 2005
The Underground
She has 'band practice' next Sunday and wants money for it. I asked her where this practice was taking place. Her response. The underground. I had images of her up to her knee in the sewers belting out a Slayer song with the teenage mutant hero turtles. Needless to say she was unimpressed with my response. An arched eyebrow and narrowed eyes were thrown my direction.
"Its a place in Temple bar" Interesting name I responded. The usual banter of a school morning.
She had to come home early on Saturday evening to put on more layers. Finally the cold is affecting her, she had to borrom my jumper, lucky I had it in black else it would have clashed with her dark ensemble!
I constantly look at teenager, as they stand around looking cool with not a jacket in sight? Sometimes they're standing there in next to nothing with a scarf casually thrown around them, like its going to protect their whole body from the cold.
So we're into another baby attempt already, well into the home straight so to speak as I ask my ovaries once again to be honest with me as to when I can expect a visit from the egg. They've been very unresponsive so far but I feel its in my best interests to not get mad at them, else it may
affect my zen or something. Perhaps I should take up yoga? Might relax me more.
I can't really see me sitting still for more then 5 minutes, though. I think the idea of trying to do that might stress me out more!
She got an A in her english essay. The teacher described the essay as provocative and inciteful. I had to go look up what those words meant. Needless to say she was chuffed. The essay was on the something to do with Smoking and hollywood, I can't the full title. It was impressive, I remember that much. She has another essay for Wedensday and she's already starting 'researching' for it. God bless Google!
Miss RTE is around tonight for the kids's interview, obviously with us around as well. It will be interesting to see how she deals with being serious, we're very rarely serious. Which will probably make us giggle more!
"Its a place in Temple bar" Interesting name I responded. The usual banter of a school morning.
She had to come home early on Saturday evening to put on more layers. Finally the cold is affecting her, she had to borrom my jumper, lucky I had it in black else it would have clashed with her dark ensemble!
I constantly look at teenager, as they stand around looking cool with not a jacket in sight? Sometimes they're standing there in next to nothing with a scarf casually thrown around them, like its going to protect their whole body from the cold.
So we're into another baby attempt already, well into the home straight so to speak as I ask my ovaries once again to be honest with me as to when I can expect a visit from the egg. They've been very unresponsive so far but I feel its in my best interests to not get mad at them, else it may
affect my zen or something. Perhaps I should take up yoga? Might relax me more.
I can't really see me sitting still for more then 5 minutes, though. I think the idea of trying to do that might stress me out more!
She got an A in her english essay. The teacher described the essay as provocative and inciteful. I had to go look up what those words meant. Needless to say she was chuffed. The essay was on the something to do with Smoking and hollywood, I can't the full title. It was impressive, I remember that much. She has another essay for Wedensday and she's already starting 'researching' for it. God bless Google!
Miss RTE is around tonight for the kids's interview, obviously with us around as well. It will be interesting to see how she deals with being serious, we're very rarely serious. Which will probably make us giggle more!
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Another attempt, another failure
Rollercoaster, its been used lots of times to describe all aspects of parenting, but I think it applies even before the bundle of joy is conceived. Well, for those of us who go the alternative route of getting pregnant. I don't feel too bad this month, I had a feeling last week with the PMT and all that, that it wouldn't have been a success. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. I'll skip looking for a Leo
baby and just settle for a baby at this stage.
We are thinking telling people we are taking a break. Just because it might stop them from asking are we pregnant yet every month. Its probably our own fault for telling them we were trying but if we say we are stopping for a while, it might stop them! They mean well, but it puts so much pressue on us. mammy2 got another book through work about getting pregnant. I know most of this stuff already, but another slant on it might do no harm. This woman recommends trying during ovulation as opposed to the day or so before which is what we've been doing. There are so many opinions on it, I guess we just keep trying! Thankfully, our donor is a patient man!
The kid behaved herself at the weekend, from what we can see. She didn't go to school on the Monday as she was DYING of period pain, no-one had ever expierenced pain like it apparently. She lived on a staple diet of MacDonalds, so I re-heated some stew we had left over from the weekend for her and she loved it. I swear, I'm thinking of giving her a cookery class. Then again I reckon
she knows how to cook and is just too lazy. Teenagers, lazy, surely not.
Anyhew, the weekend went too quickly, we took off to the wilds of Mayo with S and A for a girlie weekend. Friday night was spent in A's house in Athlone, she recently bought a new house so we had to admire the kitchen and her DIY. And her moulding, lest we forget. Then we headed out on the town, ended up in a pub where the music was way too loud of us to talk and we sat like 4 ould wans
giving out about the loudness of music these days. I felt so old.
Saturday morning, we paid a visit to Mam's grave and put some flowers on it. I didn't get a chance to go to it for her birthday as we were away in Wales. It still feels so strange reading her name on the headstone. We headed for Killary then, a quick stop off on the way for supplies and we arrived at the cottage for around 5. It was quite cold, so I got started on the fire whilst the rest of them started cooking dinner. A nice roast dinner followed by a few glasses of wine , and we had warmed up a lot! It was a great weekend. Lots of nutrional advice from A, who's big into eating properly. I think my diet of potatoes, poatoes and more potatoes scared her! Uno, Pictionary and discussions on Malaysia summed up the weekend. And long walks..
I had yesterday off and was in bed. The Kid was on a half day, and barreled through the door at around 12.45. I asked her how come she wasn't hanging with one of her mates. She yelled she'd be into a minute and sure enough 2 minutes later she wanders into the room in her pyjamas. She must hold the world record for the quickest removal of a school uniform ever. I have a feeling she has her pjs on under the uniform She was full of the joys of spring. She handed up her english essay and her english teacher thinks she's fabulous. She was reading Sylvia Plath after class and the teacher spotted her reading it and started a conversation about her, apparently its the teacher's favourite author. I asked the Kid how did the teacher walk about with the kids lips stuck to her ass.
She's joined some weird site called VampireFreaks.com. I sometimes think being left in the dark about what she gets up to on the internet is far better then actually seeing some the sites she accesses. Anyhew, she wanted to update her profile on this website and you needed to have some knowledge of HTML and/or Javascript. The minute she heard this, I was thrown into the chair and told to fix all the problems she was having with her profile. My skills come in useful sometimes it seems.
baby and just settle for a baby at this stage.
We are thinking telling people we are taking a break. Just because it might stop them from asking are we pregnant yet every month. Its probably our own fault for telling them we were trying but if we say we are stopping for a while, it might stop them! They mean well, but it puts so much pressue on us. mammy2 got another book through work about getting pregnant. I know most of this stuff already, but another slant on it might do no harm. This woman recommends trying during ovulation as opposed to the day or so before which is what we've been doing. There are so many opinions on it, I guess we just keep trying! Thankfully, our donor is a patient man!
The kid behaved herself at the weekend, from what we can see. She didn't go to school on the Monday as she was DYING of period pain, no-one had ever expierenced pain like it apparently. She lived on a staple diet of MacDonalds, so I re-heated some stew we had left over from the weekend for her and she loved it. I swear, I'm thinking of giving her a cookery class. Then again I reckon
she knows how to cook and is just too lazy. Teenagers, lazy, surely not.
Anyhew, the weekend went too quickly, we took off to the wilds of Mayo with S and A for a girlie weekend. Friday night was spent in A's house in Athlone, she recently bought a new house so we had to admire the kitchen and her DIY. And her moulding, lest we forget. Then we headed out on the town, ended up in a pub where the music was way too loud of us to talk and we sat like 4 ould wans
giving out about the loudness of music these days. I felt so old.
Saturday morning, we paid a visit to Mam's grave and put some flowers on it. I didn't get a chance to go to it for her birthday as we were away in Wales. It still feels so strange reading her name on the headstone. We headed for Killary then, a quick stop off on the way for supplies and we arrived at the cottage for around 5. It was quite cold, so I got started on the fire whilst the rest of them started cooking dinner. A nice roast dinner followed by a few glasses of wine , and we had warmed up a lot! It was a great weekend. Lots of nutrional advice from A, who's big into eating properly. I think my diet of potatoes, poatoes and more potatoes scared her! Uno, Pictionary and discussions on Malaysia summed up the weekend. And long walks..
I had yesterday off and was in bed. The Kid was on a half day, and barreled through the door at around 12.45. I asked her how come she wasn't hanging with one of her mates. She yelled she'd be into a minute and sure enough 2 minutes later she wanders into the room in her pyjamas. She must hold the world record for the quickest removal of a school uniform ever. I have a feeling she has her pjs on under the uniform She was full of the joys of spring. She handed up her english essay and her english teacher thinks she's fabulous. She was reading Sylvia Plath after class and the teacher spotted her reading it and started a conversation about her, apparently its the teacher's favourite author. I asked the Kid how did the teacher walk about with the kids lips stuck to her ass.
She's joined some weird site called VampireFreaks.com. I sometimes think being left in the dark about what she gets up to on the internet is far better then actually seeing some the sites she accesses. Anyhew, she wanted to update her profile on this website and you needed to have some knowledge of HTML and/or Javascript. The minute she heard this, I was thrown into the chair and told to fix all the problems she was having with her profile. My skills come in useful sometimes it seems.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Solas
We had a meeting with her counseller from Solas on Tuesday evening with regards to her continued sessions and her skipping of sessions etc. I can understand when she gets in from a long day in school, the last thing she wants to do is head up town to talk about a load of personal stuff and Mam with her counseller, but we also explained that until the counseller is happy to finish therapy,
she should stay going.
I still can't believe how long this counsller has lasted, she went through 4 previous to this one and they each lasted between 2 weeks and a month. The meeting went quite well, C , her counseller chatted with us as to what we felt about the therapy and how the kid was getting on. It was decided then that maybe Tuesday wasn't a great day, so perhaps another day. Thursday has become the new thearpy day and C feels that there is still a bit to cover with respects to different things that went on in the kids past etc.
The kid was very funny, she's not comfortable with us being serious when talking to her, but obviously with the counsller sitting in the same room as us we couldn't start joking around. A number of times, she checked with me in case I was getting upset, which is something she doesn't like at all. I must have looked on the verge of tears, I explained that it could be the heating in the room or PMT, take your pick.
All in all, a productive meeting. We had to leg it from there to the Bailey to meet this RTE woman. As it turns out its a radio show and not a TV one, thank god. I think I was beginning to have 2nd thoughts if it was tv. Basically, she wants to interview us, get some snippets of home life with
us in the apartment and that's about it. She's calling around tonight to start the process off. She wants to tape us having dinner, should be entertaining rather then informative methinks. If people are privy to what goes on in our place prior to dinner, they might think not alone should gay people not be parents but that we are barmy as well.
The halloween break is going well for her, she's sleeping an average of 4 hours in the night.! Yesterday as I was getting up for work, she was just heading to bed after a marathon session of Space Invaders. It has to be an age thing. The ability to stay up that long, go to bed , get like 3 hours sleep and then back up again to meet Joe Boyf. I would be dead. A walking zombie. Mammy2 couldn't comprehend it, then again she needs about 12 hours of sleep on average per day. She was 'hanging' with him for most of the day, and then ploughed into the apartment at around 9 STARVING. Mammy2 whipped up her special, penne arribiata. She devoured that and went back to sprawling on the couch , whilst texting and talking about her day. She 'forgot' to hand her CV in anywhere.
Job hunting still going really well then I see. Considering she's back to gettting her pocket money next month, she'll probably wait it out.
Her pocket money this week she reluctantly donated to us for flowers for Mam's grave. We're visiting it this weekend on our way to Mayo, as I never got down to it for her birthday to put flowers there.
This is also the first weekend we are trusting the kid by herself. I'm more concerned about her eating habits then worrying about her bringing anyone back. She won't, that much I know. She knows how we feel about anyone in the apartment that we don't know. Her best mate D is coming ove ron Saturday night and they are having a girlie night with DVDs and takeout. Also D has to ring us from the home phone to confirm that she's there. Not that we don't trust her of course, just to be sure.
Teenagers are very trustworthy. Ahem.
she should stay going.
I still can't believe how long this counsller has lasted, she went through 4 previous to this one and they each lasted between 2 weeks and a month. The meeting went quite well, C , her counseller chatted with us as to what we felt about the therapy and how the kid was getting on. It was decided then that maybe Tuesday wasn't a great day, so perhaps another day. Thursday has become the new thearpy day and C feels that there is still a bit to cover with respects to different things that went on in the kids past etc.
The kid was very funny, she's not comfortable with us being serious when talking to her, but obviously with the counsller sitting in the same room as us we couldn't start joking around. A number of times, she checked with me in case I was getting upset, which is something she doesn't like at all. I must have looked on the verge of tears, I explained that it could be the heating in the room or PMT, take your pick.
All in all, a productive meeting. We had to leg it from there to the Bailey to meet this RTE woman. As it turns out its a radio show and not a TV one, thank god. I think I was beginning to have 2nd thoughts if it was tv. Basically, she wants to interview us, get some snippets of home life with
us in the apartment and that's about it. She's calling around tonight to start the process off. She wants to tape us having dinner, should be entertaining rather then informative methinks. If people are privy to what goes on in our place prior to dinner, they might think not alone should gay people not be parents but that we are barmy as well.
The halloween break is going well for her, she's sleeping an average of 4 hours in the night.! Yesterday as I was getting up for work, she was just heading to bed after a marathon session of Space Invaders. It has to be an age thing. The ability to stay up that long, go to bed , get like 3 hours sleep and then back up again to meet Joe Boyf. I would be dead. A walking zombie. Mammy2 couldn't comprehend it, then again she needs about 12 hours of sleep on average per day. She was 'hanging' with him for most of the day, and then ploughed into the apartment at around 9 STARVING. Mammy2 whipped up her special, penne arribiata. She devoured that and went back to sprawling on the couch , whilst texting and talking about her day. She 'forgot' to hand her CV in anywhere.
Job hunting still going really well then I see. Considering she's back to gettting her pocket money next month, she'll probably wait it out.
Her pocket money this week she reluctantly donated to us for flowers for Mam's grave. We're visiting it this weekend on our way to Mayo, as I never got down to it for her birthday to put flowers there.
This is also the first weekend we are trusting the kid by herself. I'm more concerned about her eating habits then worrying about her bringing anyone back. She won't, that much I know. She knows how we feel about anyone in the apartment that we don't know. Her best mate D is coming ove ron Saturday night and they are having a girlie night with DVDs and takeout. Also D has to ring us from the home phone to confirm that she's there. Not that we don't trust her of course, just to be sure.
Teenagers are very trustworthy. Ahem.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Home Sweet Home
Paris is a breath-taking city and certainly lives up to expectations. So many things to see and do, the only thing I faulted it on was the fact that the word vegetarian was greeted with raised eyebrows. If you are vegetarian and want to eat in the non-tourist sections, ie where the locals for go meals prepare for the fact that a salad may consist of lettuce, chopped cucumber and tomatoes. Now , considering I had a limited amount of time there and didn't get a chance to get out every restuarent, perhaps it was just the ones I dined in. Then again, I am also a traditionalist when it comes to food and splendid things the french do with food was wasted on me.
The course was fairly full on for the 2 and half days we had it for, it will probably make more sense once we start developing the product. I arrived back into the airport on Friday night and the place was packed. I finally managed to locate Mammy2 and the kid squished between lots of people, complete with a bag of Tayto, they know me too well.
We gave my boss a lift home as we were passing by his house and for the next 2 hours my ears were assaulted by the kid filling me on exactly what she got up to whilst I was gone. It looked like I was going to get a minute by minute account. She apparently came out to the kids in school about us and they think its 'whopper'. Who knows what this means, except that its a step from their favourite expression "that's knacker". I was quite surprised she mentioned us, but there had been a conversation about parents and she wanted to set the record straight. No pun intended. In one of her classes, she was asked to fill in a questionaire about her parents and she said she just left it. Its odd how she can talk to frankly about being an orphan, no drama, no crying, she just deals with it.
She was telling us about one of her teachers was very funny. There is a girl from Niger or Nigeria, I'm unsure which, and the teacher asked her if they had to walk miles to the local school, to which the girl replied that she got the bus. The kid thought this was hilarious.
I think she's nearing the end of therapy, well in her head, whether or not Solas think so is another thing. She's been going for nearly 9 months now which is longer then we ever thought she'd stick at it for. She seems so much more grounded and happy in herself these days. Thank god.
The RTE woman rang at the weekend wanting to know if she could drop around and film some stuff on Thursday. Needless to say we said no. We still don't know the name of the program, how long it is, what angle they are taking etc. We have a meeting with the director tonight after Solas and we can thrash out some details. I'm not sure what she's thinking, but we are not about to invite cameras into our home and not have a clue what the program is about. I shall keep you posted as I am sure you will be riveted to your seats.
Another week to go before we can do a test, I have a good feeling about this attempt, not to put pressure on myself or anythings. Its funny because you are trying to act like its any other week, but in the back of your mind you are keeping an eye on your body's reactions to different things, or for any sign of PMT. Its going to be a fun one.
The course was fairly full on for the 2 and half days we had it for, it will probably make more sense once we start developing the product. I arrived back into the airport on Friday night and the place was packed. I finally managed to locate Mammy2 and the kid squished between lots of people, complete with a bag of Tayto, they know me too well.
We gave my boss a lift home as we were passing by his house and for the next 2 hours my ears were assaulted by the kid filling me on exactly what she got up to whilst I was gone. It looked like I was going to get a minute by minute account. She apparently came out to the kids in school about us and they think its 'whopper'. Who knows what this means, except that its a step from their favourite expression "that's knacker". I was quite surprised she mentioned us, but there had been a conversation about parents and she wanted to set the record straight. No pun intended. In one of her classes, she was asked to fill in a questionaire about her parents and she said she just left it. Its odd how she can talk to frankly about being an orphan, no drama, no crying, she just deals with it.
She was telling us about one of her teachers was very funny. There is a girl from Niger or Nigeria, I'm unsure which, and the teacher asked her if they had to walk miles to the local school, to which the girl replied that she got the bus. The kid thought this was hilarious.
I think she's nearing the end of therapy, well in her head, whether or not Solas think so is another thing. She's been going for nearly 9 months now which is longer then we ever thought she'd stick at it for. She seems so much more grounded and happy in herself these days. Thank god.
The RTE woman rang at the weekend wanting to know if she could drop around and film some stuff on Thursday. Needless to say we said no. We still don't know the name of the program, how long it is, what angle they are taking etc. We have a meeting with the director tonight after Solas and we can thrash out some details. I'm not sure what she's thinking, but we are not about to invite cameras into our home and not have a clue what the program is about. I shall keep you posted as I am sure you will be riveted to your seats.
Another week to go before we can do a test, I have a good feeling about this attempt, not to put pressure on myself or anythings. Its funny because you are trying to act like its any other week, but in the back of your mind you are keeping an eye on your body's reactions to different things, or for any sign of PMT. Its going to be a fun one.
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