Hey look Ma. I'm famous! Sort of. My book launch on March 19th was filmed by Ukiah Valley TV and they posted it here. Scroll to 2:46 to see my 40 seconds of fame.
Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. Between illness, book launches and doctor's appointments (plus painting my bedroom which took way too long) I've fallen off the blog habit. However, I haven't stopped reading your blogs. There are so many great writers out there!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
It's so nice when children share...
...unless it's the flu.
Yep. I caught it. And I must say this is the mother of all flues. I haven't been this sick since 2002. I haven't had much energy to do more than lie on the couch and watch old movies all day: Libeled Lady, The Thin Man (all five of them), The Women, Clash by Night, Philadelphia Story, How to Catch a Millionaire... in between helping Queen Teen and trying to keep on top of laundry so we don't run out of clean undies.
Queen Teen is well and went back to school yesterday. Thank goodness. That now gives me from 7 am to 2 pm to watch another movie and blow my nose.
I'm tired of being sick.
I'll write more in a few days when I can coherently produce sentences. I want to tell you all about my book launch! Yep, I wrote a book and published it through my press. It's a handbook that explains how to create your own publishing company. The book launched last week in the midst of Queen Teen being so sick. Once the adrenaline of the official launch wore off, I had a 102 temperature. It's exactly like when I was an actress and would work like a dog during a play, then the moment the curtain fell on the last performance, WHAM! Every one of us would be sick.
My book is available on Amazon and Powells you're curious.
Gotta go. I feel the need for another 1930's movie.
Yep. I caught it. And I must say this is the mother of all flues. I haven't been this sick since 2002. I haven't had much energy to do more than lie on the couch and watch old movies all day: Libeled Lady, The Thin Man (all five of them), The Women, Clash by Night, Philadelphia Story, How to Catch a Millionaire... in between helping Queen Teen and trying to keep on top of laundry so we don't run out of clean undies.
Queen Teen is well and went back to school yesterday. Thank goodness. That now gives me from 7 am to 2 pm to watch another movie and blow my nose.
I'm tired of being sick.
I'll write more in a few days when I can coherently produce sentences. I want to tell you all about my book launch! Yep, I wrote a book and published it through my press. It's a handbook that explains how to create your own publishing company. The book launched last week in the midst of Queen Teen being so sick. Once the adrenaline of the official launch wore off, I had a 102 temperature. It's exactly like when I was an actress and would work like a dog during a play, then the moment the curtain fell on the last performance, WHAM! Every one of us would be sick.
My book is available on Amazon and Powells you're curious.
Gotta go. I feel the need for another 1930's movie.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
It's a Mommy Thing
Queen Teen is very very very very very very sick. She's had a high fever and a bad cough for three days. Instead of going to school, I'm staying home with her because I found it physically impossible for me to leave. Really. I tried to pack up my gear this morning but I realized I was just standing in my room clutching my toothbrush while staring at my very dirty fishbowl thinking, "There's no way in hell I'm leaving." I returned my toothbrush to the bathroom and emailed my professors. So what if I get a hit on my grade; my girl needs me.
When I told Rick I was staying home he argued with me. "I can take care of her. Don't mess up your grades!"
"I know you can take care of her, but I simply can't leave."
"School is important. This is your career you're talking about. She's alright. I know what to do and I won't let anything happen to her. You need to go to class."
I just shrugged. "I can't. It is impossible for me to go. It's a mommy thing."
I didn't know how else to explain it and I know he doesn't understand. It's not that Rick is incapable of taking care of her. He's a great dad and knows perfectly well how to manage her fever and blow her nose. This feeling has nothing to do with his abilities as a care-giver. If Queen Teen just had a cold and was grumpy, I'd toss Rick the tissue box and say, "Have fun." Queen Teen has the flu. Last night her temp reached over 104 F. If I went to school tonight all I'd do the entire time is wonder how high her fever is while anxiously checking my messages every two minutes, fearing the worst. And if he did call saying Queen Teen needed me, I'd be over two hours away.
No. Impossible. Every cell in my body demands that I stay. My child has a gravitational pull on my psyche right now that nothing can escape. Not even sleep.
Does wiping green snot count as wearing green for St. Patrick's Day?
When I told Rick I was staying home he argued with me. "I can take care of her. Don't mess up your grades!"
"I know you can take care of her, but I simply can't leave."
"School is important. This is your career you're talking about. She's alright. I know what to do and I won't let anything happen to her. You need to go to class."
I just shrugged. "I can't. It is impossible for me to go. It's a mommy thing."
I didn't know how else to explain it and I know he doesn't understand. It's not that Rick is incapable of taking care of her. He's a great dad and knows perfectly well how to manage her fever and blow her nose. This feeling has nothing to do with his abilities as a care-giver. If Queen Teen just had a cold and was grumpy, I'd toss Rick the tissue box and say, "Have fun." Queen Teen has the flu. Last night her temp reached over 104 F. If I went to school tonight all I'd do the entire time is wonder how high her fever is while anxiously checking my messages every two minutes, fearing the worst. And if he did call saying Queen Teen needed me, I'd be over two hours away.
No. Impossible. Every cell in my body demands that I stay. My child has a gravitational pull on my psyche right now that nothing can escape. Not even sleep.
Does wiping green snot count as wearing green for St. Patrick's Day?
Monday, March 9, 2009
Why I Hate Daylight Savings Time
It's the first monday of daylight savings time. I'm sitting here at the computer trying hard to focus my thoughts on three hours of sleep. This is the third week of no coffee and herbal tea just ain't cutting through the haze of sleepiness. Queen Teen is watching a movie on her bed, unable to get to school due to a sleepless night. She was so tired this morning all she could do was cry. All of this sleepy misery is due to one so called money saving idea that plagues all parents with cranky children and insomnia: daylight savings time.
Supposedly daylight savings saves us money. With more day light hours during the time of day when we're home from work, we shouldn't have to use so much electricity, thereby saving several hundred dollars a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. I don't know a single parent on the planet who wouldn't gladly give up those hundreds of dollars for that one hour of sleep back.
Or how about we just keep the clock right here and stop messing around with adding and subtracting an hour two times a year? If this is the optimum number of daylight hours for savings, then keep us on daylight savings forever.
Queen Teen's bus arrives at 6:50 am, which means she has to be out of bed by 5:30 am. With daylight savings, her body thinks it's 4:30 am, so of course she couldn't eat breakfast or get out of bed. Last week the sun was rising when she got on the bus. This week it's pitch black out and the sun doesn't rise until the end of first period.
We've gone through this every year since she was born. Toying with her body clock makes her ataxia worse. Worsened ataxia makes it hard for her to sleep, which makes the ataxia worse, which makes sleeping harder... and on and on it goes. By keeping her home today I'm trying to give her sensitive body a chance to catch up with the time change. Perhaps an extra day is all she needs to reset her internal clock.
I really hope so, because I can't do this no sleep thing without a lot of COFFEE.
Maybe we should move to Hawaii. I hear they don't have daylight savings. Neither does Arizona, although Arizona doesn't have a beach.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Did You Know That Ears Grow as Fast as Feet?
Or so it seems.
Queen Teen had another audiology appointment last week so she and I drove down to Palo Alto the night before and stayed in an inexpensive hotel (yes, there actually are inexpensive hotels in Palo Alto. Well... sort of). I decided to go down the night before the appointment to try and make it fun for Queen Teen. We had McDonalds for dinner in our cozy hotel room and watched TV, which was a novelty since we don't have TV at home. Then in the morning we went for a walk in the sunshine at the Stanford Mall and watched the shops open and the people wake up with their early morning Lattes. Queen Teen especially liked all the Springtime flowers that fill every section of the shopping center, the yellow pansies and exotic orchids, iris and daffodil, cherry blossoms and jasmine, and the dormant roses just starting to stir. She also loved all the fountains and made a wish in one that looked like a water fall, complete with bronze salmon. I bought her a cute doll that was on sale at a children's furniture store (she loves looking at the baby cribs), and then it was time for audiology.
Her smile vanished.
During the appointment, the audiologist rechecked her hearing to see if there were any changes. Queen Teen was a trooper and did as the doctor asked, but every time she had to respond to a tone, she would say, "Oh brother." It started to get funny. Beep... Oh brother... beep.... Oh brother... beep... At least she was consistent, which made the testing easier.
Then the doctor checked the ear molds of her hearing aids and that's when we discovered they were too small. VERY TOO SMALL. They didn't even reach the inner cartilage of her ear! I was surprised she had outgrown them so quickly (it had only been about 8 months), because before it had taken a couple of years for them to become too small. The doctor told me that at this age (13), Queen Teen will probably outgrow them every six months. I think her ears are growing as fast as her feet, probably faster than the rest of her body, which seems to need new clothes every five months.
The doctor made new ear molds and thankfully Queen Teen was cooperative and even giggled. "That feels funny." I told her the doctor was putting frosting in her ear and she laughed.
There does seem to be a reduction in Queen Teen's hearing, but it is too soon to tell for sure. It's common for there to be fluctuations in hearing tests, so we'll need to wait and see what the next few tests show before we can say for certain that her hearing is getting worse. However, the doctor agreed with me that Queen Teen needs to learn sign language, simply because if her hearing loss is related to neuropathy, which is a neurological disorder, rather than a simple hearing problem, then she will have fluctuations in her hearing daily and hearing aids won't be able to make up for that.
Anyone know a good place to learn Sign Language quickly? I need a crash course. I took it in college, but that was 16 years ago!
Queen Teen had another audiology appointment last week so she and I drove down to Palo Alto the night before and stayed in an inexpensive hotel (yes, there actually are inexpensive hotels in Palo Alto. Well... sort of). I decided to go down the night before the appointment to try and make it fun for Queen Teen. We had McDonalds for dinner in our cozy hotel room and watched TV, which was a novelty since we don't have TV at home. Then in the morning we went for a walk in the sunshine at the Stanford Mall and watched the shops open and the people wake up with their early morning Lattes. Queen Teen especially liked all the Springtime flowers that fill every section of the shopping center, the yellow pansies and exotic orchids, iris and daffodil, cherry blossoms and jasmine, and the dormant roses just starting to stir. She also loved all the fountains and made a wish in one that looked like a water fall, complete with bronze salmon. I bought her a cute doll that was on sale at a children's furniture store (she loves looking at the baby cribs), and then it was time for audiology.
Her smile vanished.
During the appointment, the audiologist rechecked her hearing to see if there were any changes. Queen Teen was a trooper and did as the doctor asked, but every time she had to respond to a tone, she would say, "Oh brother." It started to get funny. Beep... Oh brother... beep.... Oh brother... beep... At least she was consistent, which made the testing easier.
Then the doctor checked the ear molds of her hearing aids and that's when we discovered they were too small. VERY TOO SMALL. They didn't even reach the inner cartilage of her ear! I was surprised she had outgrown them so quickly (it had only been about 8 months), because before it had taken a couple of years for them to become too small. The doctor told me that at this age (13), Queen Teen will probably outgrow them every six months. I think her ears are growing as fast as her feet, probably faster than the rest of her body, which seems to need new clothes every five months.
The doctor made new ear molds and thankfully Queen Teen was cooperative and even giggled. "That feels funny." I told her the doctor was putting frosting in her ear and she laughed.
There does seem to be a reduction in Queen Teen's hearing, but it is too soon to tell for sure. It's common for there to be fluctuations in hearing tests, so we'll need to wait and see what the next few tests show before we can say for certain that her hearing is getting worse. However, the doctor agreed with me that Queen Teen needs to learn sign language, simply because if her hearing loss is related to neuropathy, which is a neurological disorder, rather than a simple hearing problem, then she will have fluctuations in her hearing daily and hearing aids won't be able to make up for that.
Anyone know a good place to learn Sign Language quickly? I need a crash course. I took it in college, but that was 16 years ago!
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