I try -- I really try -- not to post more than one entry a day. I think this is because at one time somebody's diary I was reading was posting all the time and I kept feeling like I was missing entries and I couldn't follow what was going on. (Don't worry, I check my buddy list in the morning, after school, and, oh, lots of times; I don't miss much anymore. But I digress.) So I got into the habit of posting once a day, usually, but rarely more than once. It's getting to be a challenge. The last week or two, anyway, weird shit keeps happening and I have to keep writing about it, but I don't post a second entry until the next day, by which time I've got more to write.
It's like I'm one of those cartoon characters that keeps running, but the legs are just going round and round and round and I never get any place.
So first, here's what's bothering me today. That's Thursday today, although I'm posting this on Friday. By which time I'll have another whole problem, but ...
There was this teacher in the library today with all her classes. She's been in my school maybe four years, during which time we are cordial and chummy, but nothing real. She's about ten years younger than I am, I guess, and has two daughters about ten years younger than mine. So from time to time she seeks me out for daughter-parenting advice.
Here's one from a couple of years back. This woman's a real back-to-nature type, and she can certainly see that I'm not a makeup and manicure sort of gal. She assumed, therefore, that my daughters are just like me. (We had also discussed our common Girl Scouting background, and that R did a lot of camping/hiking with the Boy Scouts in a Venturing Post, co-ed.) So she asked me once how I made sure that my girls didn't turn out to be girly girls.
Uh ... wha..?
One of her girls was showing interest in makeup and clothes and such and she didn't know what to do! How did I make sure that kind of thing didn't get out of hand with my girls?
Uh ... gee, I just let them be who they were. One wanted to hike. The other likes to wear makeup. Whatever.
So today, she mentions that one of her girls is having trouble with bullying, girls picking on her, etc. She's thinking of taking her to a therapist. Great idea, I tell her, that worked really well for my kids. Did I have anyone I could recommend? Well, yes, in fact, and I gave her the name.
She goes to the phone book and then calls out to me across the room, "Oh, Dr. Soandso isn't in the phonebook!" I was taken aback, and then she proceeds to put the SCM on the case, asking him to find a phone number for Dr. Soandso, therapist, in SuchandsuchTown.
Shit! Is it just me over-reacting, or was this just wrong? Did she really have to broadcast the name of my kid's former therapist all over the room, and especially to the world's biggest busybody? This is certainly the last time I help her with anything! I really felt like a confidence had been betrayed, mine and my kid's. I was not happy.
Hey, speaking of betraying a kid's confidence, I have to go pick up a bra for her on Saturday and ship it off to where she lives, but I thought you might be amused at the name of the store I have to go to get it. This store isn't exactly close to where I live, but it's within range, and it's like an old fashioned corsetorium (yes, it's a real word), so you can get odd sizes there, and they fit you, and such. It says on the sign outside the store WOB Lingerie. But that's just what it says on the sign. The real name of the business is
The Wizard of Bras
Heh heh heh.
And a word about the OCD thing which I alluded to ever so briefly some other day this week, or maybe it was today, who knows. Someone said something to me the other day in school about a new student teacher in the art department who has OCD -- apparently she introduced herself and said "Hi, I'm SuzieQ, I'm ADHD and OCD", just to make sure that everyone knew up front, and the comment made to me was how she doesn't seem to wash her hands a lot or anything.(Which wouldn't you expect an art teacher to have to do all the time anyway?) But I'm thinking, hey, you know, OCD isn't just washing your hands a lot. Or turning the lights off and on, or coming back to check the stove or the iron a hundred times. It's that, certainly, but I don't think it's just that. I think there are whole levels of this particular condition that maybe don't require medication because they don't so much interfere with a person's ability to function, at least not so anyone else would notice, but yet involve repetitive behaviors and patterns and what we will politely call control issues.
Like writing your diary entries a day ahead of time because you have to, even though you won't allow yourself to post them.
Like feeling that need to answer every post in the discussion in an online class because these people are stupid and don't even like Harry Potter and you know better and so you have to tell them!
Like keeping lists of errands you have to do and crossing them off and then when the list gets too messy making a new list.
Like having more errands to do than anyone alive.
Like checking your buddy list and email all the time.
Like having the same mouse and mousepad at home and at school and having both desks arranged, as much as possible, the same. That's the way I like it.
I'm scaring myself now. In fact, none of this is debilitating and it is actually very nice at this stage of life to feel that I have a nice measure of control over my environment and schedule, unlike when my kids were younger and my parents were sick, and so on. It's comforting, which I guess is also a part of OCD, that on some level, even despite debilitation, the behaviors are comforting. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that as I get older, I'm noticing more, and I'm more and more aware of these characteristics in myself.
It seems that I'm not just writing my entries in advance, I'm writing looooong. What will tomorrow bring?
--------------------------------------------------
I'm watching Dr. Phil
--------------------------------------------------
last ::
next
Sweet Sorrow - 06.12.2007
So ... - 12.19.2006
Christmastime Is Near - 12.18.2006
Fifteen Years - 12.17.2006
A Message From Our Sponsor - 12.16.2006
|
