I am sitting in B&N with Joan Didion’s new book beside my computer. Yes, I will pay full price for it -- well, minus 20% since books are rarely at full, full price anymore. I read the last page and teared up. This woman speaks to me. I am trying not to swallow it whole but I can’t wait for Julia to fall asleep tonight so I can dive in. But after I finish writing this, I should go to the Y and work out before getting Julia for riding lessons. I can do all of that if I don’t let myself get lost in Didion.
Oh, how I have missed being so excited about a book. I feel rich with the contemplation of a good read.
Julia: Three days and she has not been sent home once. It is impressive. She has picked up a few tic -- tic may not be the right word, but I am using it quite colloquially. She rubs her thumb and index finger together. She likes to do it in front of her face. Noticeable to be sure and another habit to extinguish, but it is not hurting her body. All in time, or at least we will attempt some modification when the scratching/picking has calmed down.
Julia’s two aides met me at the school door today very excited. I pick her up on Thursdays to go to attachment therapy before the end of the school day. Julia had worked on a name poem for a classmate and did it with help. What was so exciting was that she also drew a picture of the classmate and herself at the bottom of the page and the picture was of two kids. Kids, not dinosaurs! Julia has been drawing humans at home and with Marilyn but has not done it in school before this. So, is school becoming a safe place? I sure hope so.
I pick up the book beside me, read a random paragraph and hastily put it down. I must finish what I am doing and get to the Y.
While cataloguing the blog entries for 2008, I came across one that mentioned Julia’s questioning me -- Mommy, are you angry? Mommy, are you frustrated? Mommy, are you . . . I wrote how thrilling it was that she was actually aware enough to think that I possessed these feelings. That feelings were my province as well as hers. I had to laugh out loud. This is the same behavior that drives me crazy these days! She asks in the middle of being corrected or reprimanded or cleaning up the mess she had made. She asks when she should be concentrating on the task as hand. The moral here simply being that today progress is tomorrow’s worst habit!
This morning Julia came out on the front deck and slid her feet around on the wet wood. “Mommy, its slippery. Is it ice? Is it winter? Is winter coming?” Look, look, see here! Julia has future. Julia knows a season. Julia expects the change in the weather. Julia remembers what winter has looked like in previous years. All of this wonderful.
The electrician made his second, and hopefully last, visit today to install plugs and lights and outlets. One box needs to be moved which means a new cut in the drywall, but it is behind a cabinet. The shelves are being installed, the lower cabinets mounted, the range hood was going up as I left home at noon. There is a possibility that I could have a stove this weekend if I really wanted it. I will post some pictures in the house blog.
My cell phone, my only phone is dying. The phone itself works fine but the battery is no longer holding a charge consistently. It is only about 18 months old but I qualify for the trade in discount. I am eyeing and iphone but I’ve never bought a new phone. I’ve always taken the cheapest one that did what I needed. And the renovation is making me watch my pennies, let alone by $100’s. I will wait a bit but right now I am a bit pissed that I cannot text Cheshire.
Ok, time for the gym. Time to do what I must to put another check on my daily task list.
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