Halloween

Halloween is rapidly approaching. V has a large number of activities this year to attend. This weekend a neighboring town has Trick Or Treating downtown (Oct 23rd) Her school usually has a little party where you go to each room in costume and get a prize (no candy) (Oct 26th). There is the community center Trick Or Treat parade (Oct 28th), which we waited in line for over an hour last year and she loved, and the neighbor’s church is having a little party (Oct 30th), and regular Trick Or Treating (Oct 31st) of course. I don’t know if we will make it to everything. V is much more into candy this year, but it is not about the candy, it is about having fun, and she likes to do that as well.

I loved Halloween as a kid. It really wasn’t about the candy (really!). The time of year was always nice, I loved feeling special dressing up in costume (even though many in the 1970’s were those cheap plastic get ups and I longed for a mother that would sew elaborate costumes), there was usually a party at school, there was always a community pumpkin decorating contest which I managed to win a prize in every year grades 1-8 (seriously), and my mother was usually in a good mood that holiday (since she hates holidays and this has ruined many). My dad would take my sister and I trick Or treating and we just would always have such a nice time.

V’s really warm pumpkin costume still fits from last year. It was freezing here on Halloween last year and I was glad to have it. I also found this chintzy looking Jesse costume at a mom’s sale that she loves to wear around the house. It’s too big and not cute enough IMHO, but I have another costume that she will model shortly.

Trying Times

Last week was... well, a week. We got home from vacation on Saturday night. Sunday we regrouped and put away suitcases and all that stuff. Monday was Monday. Tuesday afternoon I spent at the doctor - the entire afternoon discussing some stuff. Stuff that I cannot share just yet, but I will in the near future. I missed lunch that day and was in full meltdown mode by 4:30. I promptly drove to FiveGuys Burgers and Fries where they have bunless burgers and gluten free fries. OMGosh that place could become an addiction. When I picked up V at school, she had episodes of diarrhea that day. Remember, she has had diarrhea almost every day since September 21st. On vacation, she was having up to 8 soilings a day. School was pissed. I took her home and she seemed tired, but okay. We still have no fridge but I bought my junky, dented dorm fridge home from under my desk and now at least WE HAVE SOME CHEESESTICKS AND SOME DAMN COOL DRINKS.

Wednesday I kept her home (this is the 3rd day in three weeks due to this damn diarrhea). It will stop for two days, but just keeps going on and on. The doctor was useless and I had to strongly suggest to test the stool samples I brought. Thursday she was good, but Friday had a massive, diaper filling soft stool (she is potty trained, but I have her back in diapers because she cannot control this diarrhea). I called her allergist and they didn't think it sounded like a food intolerance. When we went to the ER in Maine, they thought it sounded just like a food intolerance. I'm afraid it is celiac or something. She hasn't grown much in the past year and actually lost 1.5 lbs at her three year visit. She has been diarrhea free this weekend but I guarantee it will be back tomorrow. Oh, all the stool samples (culture, CDiff, gram stain, etc) were all negative.

To top it off, she has had this majorly horrible cough at night. She has difficult to deal with, super whiny, tantrumy, sassy, lots of hitting. Also, terrible breath.
Thursday I finally made it to work. Friday was somewhat better. Then my husband went out of town this weekend. I am really looking forward to things calming the HELL down over here.

Friday Night Leftovers - Vacation Edition

* I ate so much Lobster this week. I love Lobster! I would have eaten more fried seafood, but with the Gluten Free thing and all, it makes it pretty difficult. P ate fried clams a lot lately. He says the East Coast is the only place to get fried clams, other places they are fried frozen clam strips. Not the same thing at all.
* V has been so ill this week, but acting normally. She got sick last Wednesday and Thursday with horrible diarrhea, stayed home from School Friday and seemed fine, was sick on the plan on Saturday, and had episodic diarrhea continuing through Tuesday. We ended up taking her to ER on MDI and they were just so darn nice. They too thought it was a virus and said that I was doing a great time of keeping her hydrated. Thankfully she has improved and no diarrhea has been absent for the last two days.
* Now that the diarrhea has stopped, V has a terrible, hacking, choking cough.
* Maine is so incredibly beautiful. Craggy, rocky, and watery. I grew up in Northern Michigan and I bet the winters are pretty similar here. Yuck. 80+ inches of snow a year is too much!
* We haven't been at the cottage much since we've been out doing things. It is very nice. I brought along Toy Story 2 for relax time and frankly, I can't take any more of it. I can quote it by now. I should have brought Toy Story 3 as I've only seen it once.

On Vacation

We are in Maine! And the weather has been wonderful, with the exception of today I've felt decently, I've eaten Lobster six times, I've seen some absolutely gorgeous scenery, and our cottage is really lovely.

The biking today almost did me in, I've gotten more mosquito bites then I have had all summer, and Victoria has had three days of diarrhea.

It's really been nice being on vacation though and I'm just sitting here resting.

Friday Night Leftovers

broken

I was gone for 4.5 days to visit my mother up North. P was gone to backpacking. When I got home around 7:00 pm on Sunday night the refrigerator was making a loud noise. P though the (already broken) ice maker was trying to make ice. It wasn't. The fridge contents felt cool, but not cold. I didn't think to check the freezer.

Yesterday I called and found someone to come over "sometime between 2-6". Okay then. I got him to narrow the window to 3-6 and I left work today at 2:30. Right now I'm waiting for him. The fridge is only four years old.

Last night I opened the freezer and it was basically a soup. I didn't have a ton in the fridge but the freezer was loaded. I had a large bag of tilapia and shrimp in there along with carefully cut and frozen fresh Farmers' Market vegetables. They all were a mushy mess. I threw everything away plus all our condiments. P brought dinner from the Coney Island last night. I didn't have anything to put in V's lunch really. I gave her a warm juice, warm carrots, a non peanut granola bar, and a Graham cracker with soy butter.

There are also no cool drinks and three trash bags of rotting food.

September 11th, 2001

Today is September 11th 2011. Ten years ago our world was horrifically, inexplicably changed by hate. P and I had been living in England for over a year. It was in Grad School and stayed home that day (a beautiful, mild, sunny day) because the tree trimmer was coming to trim out chesnut tree in the back garden and I needed to let him in through the locked gate. I can't remember what alerted me to what happened and when as we were five hours ahead of New York. The tree trimmer was taking a tea or smoke break or something and made some remark like "bloody Americans deserved it". I called P at work and immediately turned on CNN, which I watched the rest of the day. P came home and watched with me and several of our relatives back in the states called us that evening. It was frightening to be so far from home and witness the events. Several of our fellow expats called each other and expressed our feelings.

THe next day I went back to my University Department and not one person said a word to me except our cleaning/tea lady. (At university, there was a lady whose job was to set up "tea" every day promptly at 11:00 am which includes two pots of tea, yucky biscuits, and three press coffeepots, sugar and milk. She washed all the mugs afterwards -just water- and wiped and put everything away.) She was an old British lady and said, "I know who did this, the Japs did it". She had lived through WWII. I was so disappointed that not one person expressed a condolence to me for the tragedy that our country went through. (What hurts was when there a big earthquake in Greece, and we had a student from Greece, they all expressed sympathy and took up a collection for the victims). The majority of people in that department were jerks.

The following week I was in a large British SUpermarket and Prime Minister Tony Blair (I really liked him) decreed a moment of national silence for the victims. Every single person in that supermarket stopped what they were doing for three minutes and were silent out of respect. That was so touching. I don't think one person knew I was American and how much it meant to me. I was touched. When we came home that holiday season, I was awed by the large displays of patriotism everywhere. THe next year on September 11th, I hung up a giant american flag in our window (we lived at a main intersection).