self recognition

I went guitar shopping today and it reminded me that there are a few activities while participating in, I feel like myself.
Before I had kids and I usually felt like myself it was usually work that put my sense of self well being out of alignment, sometimes a nice vacation would snap me back into place, it might take two or three days but be it lounging in wine country, record shopping in Paris, or getting loaded with friends in NYC, the thought crosses my mind, this is me, this is who I really am.
Now with kids, even though I don't work out side of the home, I rarely feel that sense of self recognition, I guess because I need time to shed off whatever daily stress is on my plate, and then in a relaxed unhurried manner, without any person vying for my attention, enter into some activity that I enjoy which touches on those things which I perceive are the foundation of who I am.
I love record shopping, but having a quickly bored and often hungry family in toe is a kin to the kids repeatedly trying the master bedroom door knob while you are trying to have sex, you can work through it, but it is not what you were hoping for.

One way I can reach this state is in my monthly massage if I meditate rather than chatting with my massage therapist, the hour seems like it is endless until it ends and then it seems like only 15 minutes have passed.

75% Chance of Hamster Cancer

Poor Miss Fuzzy, so I did wind up taking her to the specialist, bumping up our total vet costs to around $400 for our $12 pet. When I went to the exotic pet specialist last week they found that our hamster most likely has skin cancer, about a 50% chance, which is basically untreatable, 25% chance of lymphoma, which can be treated, 25% of some other type of infection which would be curable.
We've been giving her two medicines twice a day and her wound hasn't been openly bleeding anymore, but it is not looking much better either.

99 Problems and a Hamster is one!

We've had a new hamster for about a month, a couple of weeks ago she chewed her tail off, why we don't know, maybe neurotic, maybe a tumor or something at the base of her spine, anyway after taking her to the vet and getting some antibiotics and a bill well north of a hundred bucks, the problem seemed to get better, though we never took her back for her follow up visit.

Of course that was not the end of it, her butt is all bloody again and I, who I only agreed to get if I had nothing to do with it's up keep, am taking her back and forth to vets across the northern part of the state.

My email to my wife on the topic, who of course is in meetings all day so she's not answering her phone:

"Just came back from the Vet, made an appointment with the specialist, they wanted to make one for today at 11:30 but that was cutting it too close since I don't know where they are it's thunderstorming, it would be a little hard to pick up lunch on the road with miss fuzzy in toe and honestly their fee of $160 to see her is quite outrageous and I honestly would rather cancel the appointment than pay that much for visit for a $12 pet, when my gut tells me with an animal this small they aren't going to be able to do much. Also I doubt that visit will include the cost of the X-ray they are going to do to look at her tail bone area.
Dr. Roberto didn't see anything that look like a tumor but did say at the last visit Fuzzy had a little tail stub which is now gone. She links that maybe there is a crack in her spine maybe that is giving her trouble, or perhaps that she needed to be on her medicine longer.

Please get back to me ASAP about whether or not you want to pay $160 for this specialist, since the sooner we cancel the appointment the more likely it is they won't try to get us to pay some kind of fee."

Great ... Just what a parent loves to hear

ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT
April 1, 2009

Dear Parent/ Caregiver/ Guardian:

We have been informed through the Police Department (and through parent notifications of reports filed with the police department), of three separate incidents of attempted luring over the weekend, and as late as yesterday afternoon.

There were three different incidents and descriptions of suspect(s) and vehicles:

· Sunday, March 29th: Identified as a white male in his early 40’s wearing a plaid shirt and possibly driving a green Chevy Suburban. Girls were asked for local directions and offered money to go with the stranger.

· Sunday, March 29th: Identified as a white male with brown hair and blue eyes, driving a black car, possibly a Mercedes Benz, with a “fake” license plate # K13-5E9. Two young girls were followed from the Public Library – main branch, towards Willow Street.

· Tuesday, March 31st: Identified as a white male with a white mustache and a lot of white and grey hair, driving a “beat up” red convertible. He spoke with a slur, and asked the students (speaking only to the girls) to give him directions to “the salon”, and then further asked the girls to give him directions to “the church”. This occurred at the corner of North Fullerton and Garden Street in front of the house across from the playground (by ______ School). The parent of one of the middle school students was in close proximity, at the time of the incident.

· We are reminding students – DO NOT TALK OR GO NEAR STRANGERS. REPORT ANY UNUSUAL SITUATIONS IMMEDIATELY TO AN ADULT. REMEMBER TO BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS AND DO NOT WALK ALONE, IF POSSIBLE.

· We are reminding parents – PLEASE PROVIDE SUPERVISION OF YOUR CHILDREN BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL, AND ON THE WEEKENDS, GOING TO AND FROM VARIOUS ACTIVITIES, EVENTS, ETC. PLEASE STAY IN CONSTANT COMMUNICATION AND CONTACT WITH YOUR CHILDREN.

We will keep the community informed of any occurrences as they are reported and confirmed by the Police Department.

Party Attire

What to dress the kids in when going to a party, of course you usually want them to wear their finest gear too accentuate how damn cute they are and to express to the world what a good job you are doing in manufacturing presentable future world leaders, HOWEVER there are three things at parties that run counter to risking your children's best outfits;
1) FOOD: self serve buffets, bowls of snacks and dips, cheap disposable adult size plastic cups, colorful cakes and other messy desserts. Kids have access to all of these things without full parental supervision and the persistent cajoling party hosts and relatives long in years to try this or that.
2) PARENTAL DISTRACTION: depending on the gathering the parent will either be super busy hosting or helping the host, or doing the yak-yak dance with long lost friends and relatives, leaving your child free to double dip their cuff sleeves into the oozing fudge fountain.
3) HYPER-ACTIONS: Mix the free flowing sugar products, Mom's focus on recounting a family vacation from 1979 and we have Hyper-Actions, kids playing out door sports in their finest indoor clothes, well intentioned horse-play evolving into a back alley brawl resulting punch to the head and a retaliatory kick in the gut, and the party's crowning moment a rainbow of vomit being spewed from the little guest of honor's digestive system recapping the afternoon in wide palette of food dyes. This last example actually happened, my boy was the kicker not the vomiter, not sure which would have been worse?

2nd Son, 3rd Person

I guess my pre-schooler is destine to become a professional athlete because as of a few months ago he started referring to himself in the third person, "'Othello' doesn't like asparagus, 'Othello' likes soft broccoli."
(I just asked him to name a food he doesn't like and he named asparagus which I'm sure will thrill his mother who has been trying to get it into our regular vegetable rotation. He then started to name foods he does like and hasn't stopped talking since and is trying to sit on my lap and is doing everything possible to separate me from the computer, unless of course I let him play Papa Louie, Batman the Brave and the Bold or some other free online video game, then the computer is great!)