Me and Percy

I finally named the cat. We got him in September, and never settled on a name. My friend and her kids call him Cookie, because of the way I obtained him (from a stranger in a car at the park, just as we warn children not to take things). A couple of my children call him Panther, which is actually a pretty good name for him, as he is large and black and half-wild. Most of us just call him Kitty, but as he seems to double in size each week, that's starting to seem silly. This week, as the stupid cat tried over and over to get into my water glass, it occurred to me that his most distinctive character trait is persistence - maddening, insane persistence. Thus he has become Percy, at least to me. Percy, the cat of a thousand names.

It dawned on me this morning that I have a narrow but distinctive persistent streak myself (persistent sounds so much nicer than stubborn). I've always thought of myself as fairly wishy-washy, but on the few occasions that I actually commit myself to a goal, I don't let much deter me. Including common sense. I seem to have set myself just such a goal with this medical school madness. This morning, after being up almost literally all night with a stomach virus that left everyone else after 24 hours but really really likes me and does not want to leave, I drove to school at 7am in ice and rain, only to discover that the college had a one hour delay. I made good use of the delay in the bathroom in the student union (I'd better be thinner after this), and then proceeded to my 2 hour physics class, where I had to engage way more actively than my tired, dehydrated, ill body wanted me to in an experiment involving a bowling ball. I made it through without any horrifying incontinence-related emergencies, then returned to my car, only to discover that I had forgotten to hang my parking pass and had therefore received a ticket. And despite this, I fully intend to go back for more on Monday. Although hopefully without being a host for 8 zillion nasty stomach viruses.

I may already be dead

It's funny that when my kids have runny noses, I get annoyed by the constant drip and ick and whine and think they should just suck it up it's just a damn cold get over it already, but when I have a cold, it really does seem like a fairly serious matter capable of moderate to severe life-disruption. I'm not sure if this is a cold or the flu, but the symptoms include severe headache, inability to breathe, joints hurting, feeling of extreme heat, and incessant bitching about the aforementioned everything.

Oh, and that feeling of extreme heat? My regular body temperature is pretty low (around 97), and I almost never get fevers, but I feel like such complete crap that I was sure THIS time I'd broken triple digits. Took my temp, and it's 96.6. If I were a cadaver, they'd estimate my time of death as hours ago.

Illness, mental and physical

Little boy: Look! I in time-out!
Mommy: Why are you in time-out?
Little boy (a little proudly): I killed a baby! HAHAHAHA!

Our mental health benefits are really going to get a workout over the years, I have a feeling. Like they're not already.

So, I haven't posted in awhile. Here is the update of suck in a nutshell: Big boy's first week of school totally sucked. The twins and I have some African-sleeping-sickness-type illness wherein we whine and sleep as close to 24 hours a day as we can but have no other symptoms. My husband has introduced the big kids to the joy and social death of peer-to-peer gaming, so the rest of us are gaming widows/orphans. In better news, my mother is back, just in time to do everything while I sleep and my husband plays on the computer.

I spent too much time hoping the long weekend would have good weather, and forgot to add in a wish for no plague. Back to bed.

Plague redux (is that the right usage for that weird word?)

After a couple months without seeing the pediatrician, we started missing her. We're making up for lost time now. Both twins have ear infections, the asthmatic three year old is wheezy and had a chest x-ray today and is starting a daily regimen of Singulair, and I made a late-evening trip to the pediatric urgent care because big boy had a headache all day and then his hand went numb and I freaked out and assumed he was having a 6 year old stroke. Fortunately, he is stroke-free, but he does have strep. Poor bug. Throw in the mystery infection I'm on antibiotics for and well over half of the family is under doctor's care. Lame.

Ahhh, winter

Winter has finally arrived. The crisp cold, the huge, fluffy flakes, the plague. Yes, again. Or maybe still. I think our family size has officially reached that critical mass required to sustain permanent illness with no input needed from the outside world (not that we don't GET input from the outside world, as the children all interact with other disease carriers regularly). I used to think Target should set up a direct-deposit program just for me, but I've kicked that habit and now spend most of our disposable income at the pediatrician's. At least I don't bring home bags of new clutter to put away after each visit.

The twins are 7 months old today and abruptly seem like little people. They sit, they scoot (backwards only, but it's mobility), they seek out choking hazards with laser-like focus and intensity. My body is still destroyed but I no longer look 6 months pregnant, for which I am grateful. My brain is showing signs of activity, which is more of a pain in the ass, really, as I have no constructive avenue of output for mental exercise and no foundation of rest from which to develop such avenues. Saying little but "be quiet" and "blow your nose" all day is more grating when you actually want to have time/energy for deeper thoughts.

Since this is pure stream-of-consciousness, I'll note here that I just reread the 6th Harry Potter book. I really love that series, and I have a whole new set of opinions after this reading. I only read it once, and quickly, when it first came out, so this time I was able to think a little more about what was happening. I doubt anyone cares (or is even still reading), but my main conclusion is that I think Snape is actually still a good guy. You read it here.

Oh, good, girly needs a new diaper (she's currently in a snappi'd hand-dyed indian cotton flat diaper, folded with the origami fold, isn't that awesome?), which frees me from continuing to ramble and you from continuing to read.

Just in the nick of time...

I've caught whatever plague the children have had this week. Why is this in the nick of time? Because the babies are sleeping much better (especially my daughter, who slept from 7pm to 5:30am, then ate and slept again until 8, rendering her officially my favorite), and heaven forfend I not have something to whine about. That was a close one!

This is the oddest virus alive. All of us (all 4 little kids and now me and I think my mom, although she's being a lot more stoic about it than I am) have weird eye symptoms. The kids' eyes are all pus-y (ha, as in full of pus, not that their eyes are pussies) and red, and mine are so tired and painful I can hardly keep them open. I feel like someone is sitting on my chest, and I keep coughing, but nothing comes up. My nose itches but isn't running, and I've slept more in the past 24 hours than I have in the previous week (no complaint there). Big boy woke up sobbing last night with ear pain, but was fine this morning, and then he couldn't hear out of the other ear this afternoon. Now my ear hurts. Suck.

Other than the pestilence and the accompanying whininess (my own I can handle, the children's is getting to me), things are good. Not that there's ever a great time to feel awful, but this isn't a terrible time, and I am really quite good at sitting around doing nothing. I'm actually pretty impressed with my immune system for keeping me well all this time with no sleep. I attribute it to all the fat I've been eating. Who knew fat was so healthy? Granted, this conclusion is based on my own unscientifically conducted research using just the one test subject (me), but as it's a conclusion that allows me to rationalize having a milkshake in a few minutes to soothe my scratchy throat, I am embracing it.