Thursday, June 16, 2011

May this night be uneventful


I’m hoping for a nice quiet night at this point.  Work today was frustrating to say the least and I need time to decompress and wallow in my 450 thread count sheets.  I am a firm believer that small luxuries are a worthwhile investment as long as you don’t spend beyond your means.  I have two sets of plain serviceable sheets that came as a package and on sale, and my wonderful sheets de lujo.  I change my sheets regularly because not doing so would be completely disgusting, but my deluxe sheets stay out of rotation until I have a particularly bad day.  I’m hoping this way they will last longer since I can’t afford to buy anything new for a while.  I need to get another job just to support my daughter’s diaper habit, since Ms. Ashley does not want to be potty trained.

Speaking of potty training, we have a sticker chart up on the bathroom wall and she gets mad when I don’t let her put stickers on it.  So far this has not done much to motivate Ashley to use the potty, so maybe I need to get some extra special stickers.  What else could I possibly do to motivate the girl?  I will not use food as a motivator because I do not want to lead her down my path to an unhealthy weight.  She already has a bunch of toys.  Maybe I should figure out a way to use coins since she liked my coin purse so much it became Ashley’s coin purse.  She likes to go around to everyone and show them her ‘monies’.  I guess this is something I need to keep thinking about, and I’m going to try pushing for potty training this weekend again.  The problem I have with Ashley is that she is so stubborn that anytime I try to get her to do something she’s not keen on, she shuts down.  I would say she learned this tactic from her father; however she has never been around him enough to pick up this behavior.

I’m trying to juggle my schedule around so I can get to the jail every Monday to visit Alberto.  It seems to be the most reasonable day and time for my schedule.  I am so glad that I am working for such a caring company with such an understanding supervisor.  The scary thing is that I don’t know when exactly my employment will end since I am only there for the summer.  There is the possibility that they may hire me on, but then again it’s a non-profit so the income is below what I made at my last job from which I was laid off.  I am so glad that I finally have health insurance for myself and Ashley again.  It was scary those months where I didn’t have any coverage for either of us, knowing that if we went to a doctor I would be even more screwed than I already am.  As of right now I have new collectors contacting me for medical bills the crappy health insurance through my last job wouldn’t pay for.  The bills include but are not limited to: chest x-ray and labs for bronchitis diagnosis, a portion of the nebulizer that Ashley had to have a few months ago, and several visits worth of co-pays I didn’t know I had to pay because the coverage was so obscurely worded.  I need to go the doctor, but I’m afraid to go because I don’t have the money to pay those balances in collections.  At least my coverage through the state is better that I could’ve hoped for and dirt cheap because what I make is such a small for a single mother of one.  According to the county, that is how they consider me because Alberto is not a contributing member of the household nor is he residing with us.

I cringe each and every time I get an email from my bank telling me I have a new notice.  Today my notice said my EFT draft to pay my cell phone bill was return.  Thank God I get paid again on Friday so maybe I can keep the return fees down to a minimum.  I also have to pay my credit card that I’m using to help rebuild my credit history, and figure out how I’m going to manage to pay for car insurance.  I seem to go through cycles of good luck and bad luck with each lasting a few weeks.  What I really need is a second job, but then I would see Ashley even less than I do now.  There are weekends I don’t want to leave the house because I just want to spend time with my favorite girl.  I’m not above hard work, and I like manual labor as well as number crunching.  I guess if I had someone to work with I would get a contract cleaning office buildings or something like that.  I could probably work something out with Aide for just that kind of job, but then who would I get to watch Ashley for me at night?  These last few nights when she has been sick I’ve needed to be here in order to care for her.  On the other hand I apparently need someone to care for me while I care for her since last night I almost fell down the stairs.  I missed about three stairs and manage to catch myself on the railing at the last second.  The consequences were a painful shoulder for part of the day and a throbbing knee. 

I have knee problems due to two separate injuries.    You know, even my injuries are as far from cool as possible.  Maybe I should stop specifying that the injury occurred on the bunny hill, but it’s funnier this way.  My right knee was a combination too much weight over an extended period of time and a lucha libre incident with Alberto.  The coolest injury I ever received was in gym class during fencing on the last day of the tournament.  This guy from my class thought he was Zorro and so he stabbed me in the shoulder after I beat him fair and square.  The nurse’s office made me complete a three page report and sign a waiver before they would give me a Band-Aid or some ice.  The epee had a large ball of tape on the end to protect against potential stabbings, so the hit was significant because he still managed to draw blood.  Among my other significant injuries is the time I hit a car on my bike, which was not my fault!  They were sitting in a parking lot behind the sidewalk waiting for an opening.  I saw her look at me, so I thought she saw me and since she didn’t pull forward I advanced.  I wasn’t even two feet from the car when she pulled forward and I hit the passenger door at full speed.  I put a dent bigger than a softball in the car with my elbow, and I couldn’t move my shoulder properly for almost two weeks.  Then there was the time a boy who was visiting his grandparents lobbed a rock at me and put a dent in my forehead.  To be fair he was trying to throw the rock over my head only his aim was terrible, or was it really?  The phrase, “hey watch this” makes me duck and cover anytime I hear it since then.  As accident prone as I seem to be, I have never broken a bone although I have been close to it.  Just remember that if Mom tells you to spray the furniture polish on the rag and not on the wood, listen to the woman!  Furniture polish + linoleum flooring + running in socks = a near concussion and almost broken wrist.  Mother knows best, unless of course, she happens to be singing that song.

I think I’ll stop there for the night.  I could go on forever about injuries from being clumsy.  It reminds me that I need to look into ballet or something for Ashley when she’s old enough.  Maybe if we catch it in time we’ll be able to make her more graceful than her poor mother.



Ciao


Spanish words/phrases from this post:
De lujo: deluxe
Lucha libre: wrestling


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