Disappointment

"If it wasn't for disappointment, I wouldn't have any appointments."

-- They Might Be Giants, "Snowball In Hell"

This has been a very tiring and disappointing week.

I've been operating for the last few weeks now on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Bagel has been horribly constipated. We called the doctor and on his advice gave Bagel several bottles of corn syrup in water. Bagel, as it turns out, loves the corn syrup, but only if it is served in a bottle with the proper shape of nipple. I knew there were certain glass shapes that had to go with certain wines or liqueurs, but who knew there was a proper nipple for corn syrup water?? Bagel is still passing occasional and really dry stools, but at least he's no longer in pain.

Because Bagel had been in pain, he had required holding during most of his waking hours, which meant I didn't get anything useful done until after he went to sleep. I still had to keep the laundry going, fill my weekly quota of crown centerpieces, get some products ready for the show next weekend, get my Summerfest application in, do research for my new product line, administer and grade the 6th grade Math League competition, and prepare for Sonshine's pirate party (which is today). I didn't get to bed until about midnight every night, and I still didn't get everything done. I haven't even started Princess' opera costume, worked on any of the million sewing projects that need doing, or gotten the house cleaned up for the party.

The pirate party is going to be fun. I've never had such a high percentage of invitees RSVP before! I didn't get the pirate flag made, but it will still be a fun party.

Girl Scout cookie sales are all over but the collecting of the money from the girls' deliveries. The cookies are now all gone.

I've tricked out my knitting machine with a new carriage and a row counter, and it is now about as sweet as these little toy knitting machines get without homemade modifications. I can produce ponchos faster now... if I can find the time to work on them. I also got my shipment from Dharma Trading with the scarf blanks and dyes. I desperately want to start work on my scarves, but with the party and all, I won't have time until next week. And next week is Spring Break for Princess, which means that I get to break up fights between Princess and Sonshine throughout the entire day from dawn till bedtime, instead of only between after school and bedtime.

I got a wonderful taste of Spring Break today. Princess called me from school to tell me that she'd twisted her ankle so badly that she needed to go home. I thought she might have a touch of Fridayitis, so I told her I'd pick her up in an hour when I come up to the school to present Math League awards to the 6th graders. She was hopping around so violently that she was injuring other parts of her body, and wincing horribly every time anything came within a foot of her ankle. I had to leave Math League early because Sonshine pitched a horrible screaming fit after not being allowed to check out books at the school library. On the way home from the school, he managed somehow to steal Princess' shoe from her foot while they were both strapped into carseats in separate rows and on opposite sides of the van, and she was bawling. Since he did it just to make her miserable, I took his shoe too, and then he too was bawling. They both bawled like hound dogs all the way home. Then when we got home, I let them have the remainder of my horchata and laid down for a nap. When I awoke, I discovered that they had spilled the horchata all over Sonshine's raincoat, taken the dripping raincoat down the hall into the bathroom, washed it off, carried it dripping with water back down the hallway, and set it down on top of one of the ponchos I was working on. And in the process, they kicked over my purse and knocked everything in it all over the floor.

Why do I bother taking a nap? There's just even more work to do when I wake up than there would have been if I had stayed awake.

My back has been a mass of pain, to where I can't decide whether I want to painfully sit, painfully stand, lay down and try to sleep while in pain, or walk around in pain. Since I already had a chiropractor appointment scheduled after Math League, I took Princess to the chiropractor, who predicted she would have a miraculous recovery later in the day. And sure enough, by about 8pm, she was dancing around. I knew the chiropractor was right, of course. Her twisted ankle didn't seem to stop her from chasing her brother around the house and fighting with him. I fell asleep on the bench at the chiropractor's office. When I woke up, I realized that I'd fallen asleep because it was the first time all week that I had been able to lay down and relax.

So now the week is almost over, and I'm disappointed. I didn't get to do the things I find fun. Once again, I've spent my entire week in service to the people I love, who then turn around and take me for granted most of the time.

Oh well. Maybe next week.