A Mommy Story

I’ve had a lot on my plate lately, so rather than explain in long narrative, I’ll give it to you in bullet points to save you the time:

• Two weeks ago, we got the note home from school that no parent ever wants: head lice. Mira had been exposed to lice in her classroom, and they found nits on her. (Itchy yet? I am.) I had been a lice virgin until now (thank you, Cordy, for never wearing another kid’s hat!), so I bought all the lice remedies, we did the treatment on Mira, cleaned all the linens and stuffed animals, combed and looked through her hair carefully, etc. No one else had been exposed – yay!
• Same week, after having the brakes replaced on the car, the battery decided to die. The car now has another month added on to how long it must keep running as penance for the money we spent on the new battery.
• I also got a note from my agency (I’m a contractor) telling me they accidentally forgot to take city taxes out of my paycheck all of last year. Oops! And so they need to take a year’s worth out now. Like all in one month. I bargained them down to splitting it across 4 paychecks over 2 months, but it’s still going to hurt.
• Last week, Mira had nits again. Noooooooooo! (Seriously, click the link – it’s exactly how I felt.) Lather, rinse, comb, laundry, vacuum, repeat.
• Thanks to a combination of factors, last week was also the first week where I’ve ever slept less than 5 hours every single day. It sucked, but I’m trying to look at it as a badge of honor – I survived!
• I also had my first experience at ever totally losing my cool at a customer service rep on the phone. (Maybe due to the lack of sleep and stress, perhaps?) We thought switching cable providers would give us better service. But after placing the order and spending 2+ hours on the phone across different days trying to sort it all out before it had even been installed, I was losing hope that this was a better option. When they then gave me a different – higher – price than I was originally given, saying it could all be worked out after installation, I lost it and demanded they cancel the entire order. It wasn’t the rep’s fault, and I try to never take it out on them, but the poor guy must have thought I was bipolar by the way I turned on him.
• A week later, I still haven’t been refunded the first month’s payment they charged me. And they sent me a “Your installation is complete! Welcome to our service!” e-mail today, too. More yelling may be coming soon.
• Then the kitchen sink faucet broke. Water goes everywhere if you turn it on.
• The garbage disposal followed shortly after that. Looking into plumbing recommendations now.
• On Monday I developed strep throat, although I didn’t know that’s what it was until the next day. Swallowing still hurts. Ordered to stay home for 24 hours until the antibiotics kicked in. Enjoyed the sleep, but didn’t enjoy missing a night of work and falling behind.
• And Mira was sent home with lice nits again yesterday. Dammit. Treat, comb, laundry, vacuum…. if it doesn’t work this time, I’m shaving her head and burning down the house.

To sum up: it’s been a busy few weeks. I don’t remember my fortune cookie cursing me with “May you live in interesting times” the last time I had Chinese for dinner.

It’s been said that bloggers hate when they have nothing going on, and therefore have nothing to write about. I’ve actually got too much happening to write about all of it, and most of it is stuff no one wants to hear the long version of.

I’d be happy to have a little boredom around here for once.