TGIF

Let me tell you about my Thursday.  This will be long.

Yesterday was a wash.  The night before Kid 2 had a giant blow-out with everyone in general and me in particular, due to being sick and cranky.

Part of the fight stemmed form Kid 2′s ability to dramatize every occurrence.  A while ago Gordon and I had a fight about the fence, which fell down due to having rotted away.  (A foot of standing rain water in the yard for the entire summer would do it to anyone.) It was the only large scale fight he and I had for the entire year, and it lasted a whole of 15 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of pissy fussing, after which we made up.  Apologies were rendered and accepted and two bottles of beer were drank in celebration of continued marital peace and decision to purchase a new fence.  The story Kid 2 told to counselor at school went somewhat like this: “My mom and dad are having marriage issues.  The fence fell down and they had a giant fight and screamed at each other and I thought they would get a divorce, but they got drunk after it so it’s all better now.”

Argh.

Since her sister was sick too, everybody stayed home on Thursday to be medicated.

Of course, midway through the morning I got sick.  My ear hurt, I was dizzy, and ran a low fever, and was generally in a haze.  Attempted to write.  Deleted large chunks of manuscript.  Realized that I wasn’t in my right mind, undid the changes, and left it alone before I could do any more damage.

Kid 2 had a project due for the gifted class to be taken to 4-H fair tomorrow (Yes, 4-H is a mandatory activity for the gifted classes in Georgia.)  Her project is on DollfieDream dolls, which will probably not go well.

It took me an hour to get formatting set-up the way it needed to be set-up, mostly because I forgot to check Print Background Image in Word options and because I was high on Tylenol Cold.  Which is vile by the way.  It’s not medicine, it’s some sort of demon spit.

Once I got it lined up, I tried to print.  The printer refused to print, claiming paper jam every time I tried to print, until finally, in a fit of suicidal glory, it committed seppuku, refusing to turn on at all.

Gordon took me to Walmart – I wasn’t up to driving – to get a new printer.  Printer was bought.  We came home, and I sort of collapsed for an hour, until the kids woke me up and told me they were starving.  I got up and made breakfast for dinner, took more medicine, and attempted to get the printer running.

Every attempt to print began with Paper Jam warning, which meant I had to clear the mystical paper jam and reinsert paper.  I finally got it running and the project was printed.  While it was printing, I had to iron the poster board, because Kid 1 managed to get it all bent while storing it.

I was still a bit hazy at this point, so I landed on the couch next to Gordon, who was playing New Horizons.  (He has no brakes when it comes to this game.  He played it years ago and he still loves it now.  He can play for 10 hours straight, unless I make him stop and eat or sleep.)  Now, I started my lovely sorbet-colored socks.  It a very simple diagonal rib pattern, knit 5, purl 5 for two rows, then move everything one stitch over.

I took some Advil Cold and Sinus to pick me up (lots of caffeine) and knitted for about fifteen minutes before I gave up and went to lay down again.  Del the Doberman chose this moment to have an extended barking fit by the window.  I got up – very zombie like – went back into the living room and wrote an incoherent email to our agent, who had replied to my message earlier.  Nancy probably thinks I am an imbecile now.

So I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t write, and I ended up playing a stupid puzzle game for a couple of hours until finally my head cleared.  The kids went to bed.  I came to sit next to Gordon to chat and be snarky about things I saw on the Internet.  Picked up my knitting.  When I had tried to knit earlier, some part of me must’ve realized that I had to alternate knitted and purled stitches.   I had gotten that part.  It’s just the 5/5 thing that didn’t register in my medicine-addled brain.  I had knitted and purled however the heck it came to me: the whole row was full of completely random stitches.  I had to unravel the row completely.

It’s Friday now and my head is somewhat clear.  TGIF.  Fingers crossed that it doesn’t go down the drain.