In true “Jot It” style, I’m jotting this down on Monday to be posted on Tuesday. With any luck I won’t be feeling it by the time this goes live, but after a little over two months of not pounding away at any major work of fiction, I’m getting squiggly to get writing.
What does getting squiggly mean, you ask? It means that the pads of my fingers are starting to tingle for the keyboard, I have the shadows of psychologically unsound characters swimming around in my head, and I have voices gurgling in unknown languages, reverberating in my ear drums.
It’s pretty crazy in here.
Before you run away and never revisit this crazy lady’s blog, tell me what kind of symptoms you experience when you want to write something but lack the opportunity. Come on! Join the crazy!
I’m at a crossroads, of sorts, in regards to my son, Alex, and his behaviour. Keeping in mind that it’s 5:46am and I’ve had two hours of sleep all night, I’m writing this here as both a way to get it in black and white so I can see the problem from a different perspective, and to put the conundrum out there in hopes that someone else has gone through something similar. My hopes aren’t too high.
First, the history: To say that Alex has a hard time making decisions is a gross understatement. When trying to choose, for instance, between staying home to play a game or come with me to the grocery store, he’ll change his mind at least a dozen times. He’ll get dressed and then completely undressed; he’ll whine, cry, scratch his head a lot – it’s utter torture. I have, however, reduced it from a half hour ordeal to, “I’m leaving, if you want to come with me, be ready before I walk out the door.” As a result the process now only takes five minutes.
He also suffers with the occasional insomnia, and for the past week he’s been combining the lack of decision-making skills with lack of sleep. The fact that there are two single beds in his room has never been a problem before. When my mother comes to visit on the weekends, she sleeps in his room and he’s quite happy with that deal. Only for a week now he can’t decide which bed he wants to sleep in. At approximately 2:30 every morning since before New Year’s Eve, he’s been doing the whining, crying, head-scratching routine. It’s torture for both of us, and it goes on for a couple of hours each night. I tried hanging a calendar in his room and striking up a deal with him that he sleeps one month in one bed and the next in the other. That worked for one night – coincidentally it was the same night he didn’t have a choice because Nanny was in the other bed.
So. I’m faced with a dilemma. Do I go to all the trouble of taking the extra bed out of his room?
On the surface it seems to be the logical thing to do.
Except: there is still the communication barrier thing going on. Not being completely fluent in my own son’s language – American Sign Language – I never really completely know if he understands the consequences of his actions before they happen. It’s always that one word I’m missing: “If you don’t get ready now, I’m leaving without you.” I will temporarily lose from my addled brain the sign for ‘without.’ Or, “If you don’t stay in one bed all night, I’m going to move the other bed out.” Is he getting that I’m going to move the bed? Or does he think I’m going to let him sleep in another room? Even if I turn the sentence around and keep it positive, I have the same problem. Aside from sleeping in his room, which is exactly what he wants me to do and will ensure that I’ll never sleep in my own bed again, I can’t keep him in bed at night. In the past I’ve been able to demonstrate what I mean. Like during the period when he decided to turn the television on in his room at 2am. I tried to explain to him that if he didn’t leave it off I’d take it out of the room, and when that didn’t work, I took it out of the room. He got it after that. Moving a bed, box spring and mattress down four flights of stairs is a rather more difficult undertaking.
So, my next thought was, tip the bed on its side and leave it where it is. Only that would be an all new brand of hell for my little darling and his OCD.
I know I need to ask his school for help. At this point his teacher is already practically living my life for me in regards to making sure he does as he’s told at home. They, unlike me, know how to explain things to him in no uncertain terms. It’s easy to see how vacations from school become nightmares at home.
Before you ask, there is no support for hearing parents to learn sign language for their Deaf children in the area.
Oh, and I just found out there’s no school today because of flash freezing. Oh joy.
Any suggestions, hugs, or paid-in-full Caribbean vacations can be left in the comment box and will be gratefully received.
I can always tell when my youngest son, Alex, is ready to go back to school after having time off – his behaviour is intolerable. Right now I’m trying to ignore him while he plays a game on his Wii U and screams and claps louder than one would think is humanly possible. The alternative is to shut him in his room until tomorrow morning, in which case he won’t get the nutrition he needs because he’ll unplug his feeding pump.
If tomorrow is a snow day I may just kill something.
Don’t let the above post scare you off! Post on your site, and join Just Jot it January. The rules are easy!
It started out with colours, when I was a small child and progressed to “…something that begins with…” a letter of the alphabet when I was old enough to spell. It was a great way to pass the time on long drives.
I have since graduated from that delightful little game however. Sure, I played it with the kids when they were little. But around the time when my eldest son was born, my ex and I started playing another game in the car. The first one to guess the name of the band playing the song on the radio got a point. The game would start when we got in the car and wouldn’t end until we arrived at our destination. New trip, new game.
Since then I’ve started playing it with my eldest. At nineteen years of age, he’s almost able to beat me, especially when the music is of the newer variety. It’s taught him to appreciate the music that is the same age as he is and older, which is great as far as I’m concerned. I thank heaven to this day he’s never been interested in rap – possibly because of years of listening to his dad and I play “The Game.” It’s amazing how far a little competition can go.
When was the last time you played a silly game with your family and/or friends, and what was it? Let’s have some fun today, and teach each other a game or two!
I wanted to post a thank you to each and every one who followed my fiction blog after last night’s post. A plate of your favourite cookies will arrive via Santa’s hungover reindeer within the week.
Also, I wanted to say thank you to everyone participating in Just Jot it January – I didn’t think it would be this popular! Don’t forget to link back to the rules post here: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/jusjojan-1-the-rules-are-easy/ for a guaranteed view from me and likely from everyone else participating. And don’t forget, it’s never too late to join. It’s a guaranteed follow from me if you do. Of course the best part of all is that it encourages us all to write! And that’s what we’re here for, right?
Frost Quakes are continuing with the rapid decline in temperatures. I didn’t actually hear one here, but I have photographic evidence that we had one.
This is what I woke up to on the ground beneath the tree and all around my hedges, here at home and all around the block on my paper route.
Frost Quake icicles
The trees are bare of their previous coating of ice, and now the icicles lay all over the ground like tiny transparent straws. Interesting, yet as slippery as sheer ice to walk on.
Unlike earthquakes, frost quakes are close to the surface and are therefore undetectable by seismic equipment.
So if you live in the widespread area of plummeting temperatures right now, and you hear a loud booming noise, it may not actually be a car hitting your home. It might be a frost quake.
I find it rather frustrating that I collect so many fewer views and followers on my fiction blog than I get on my main blog. I have been told by several people that fiction and poetry isn’t as interesting to most people as real life, so if that is indeed true, then it is to be expected. I sometimes wonder, however, if it’s a WordPress thing, in that unless you’re looking for it, you just don’t notice it.
After all, if I comment on your blog post for instance, and you get an email notification, it will include only the most viewed posts on this blog – it won’t mention my fiction blog at all.
I’m wondering if everyone finds this to be the case with their secondary blogs, or if it’s a fiction/poetry thing or if, it’s the unthinkable and my fiction simply sucks?
(Please feel free to follow my fiction blog.) <— (I put that in brackets to make it feel like a subliminal suggestion.) (Did it work?)
2013 has been a year like no other for me. It’s been a year of beginnings, and a year of finalities. From friendships to my figure, from anonymity to zealous writing, I’ve seen it all.
I’ve stayed in a house where I was haunted by my own characters, I’ve grown – not only by the twenty or so pounds I gained since Hallowe’en – but as a writer. I’ve finished two novels and have two blogs of my own, as well as having been included in two of the best sites on WordPress – The Community Storyboard, which will be up and running again in the new year, and by my dear dear friend, THE Opinionated Man on HarsH ReaLiTy as a guest.
But most of all I’ve had my dream come true. I’ve gone from a woman isolated from society by her life’s circumstances, to a blogger with connections worldwide, with people I have more in common with than I could have dreamed, and a few true friends as well.
2013 has blessed me with the discovery of community, and the privilege of having spent yet another year with the most loving three children a mother could wish for.
Every year I make resolutions which I never keep. This time around I realize their importance and will do my utmost to uphold them – not to mention this is the first time I’ve ever declared them in public. I have face to save!
To lose above mentioned twenty pounds is just the start. My intention is for this to be the year I come into my own as a writer and to get something published, whether it by my epic novel (my first choice) or an article for which I am paid. And finally, I wish to bring calm and love to those I hold dear – the one thing I strive for always.
A happy, healthy, wealthy, and peaceful 2014 to everyone!
My weekend has only one hour left, meaning the kids will be home at 6:30. I’ve spent much of it relaxing, eating far too much yesterday and making up for it today by behaving myself, reading my manuscript – I’m almost two-thirds of the way to the end – and becoming reacquainted with the music to which I wrote my novel in the first place. In all, it’s been lovely. But far too short. Then, half the weekend I spent sleeping.
I wanted to write another, longer post today, but I feel like I need to jam as much “me” time into the weekend as I can, so my other post will wait for tomorrow.
There’s no real point to this post, other than to say I wrote it, and kept up my promise to blog every damn day in December. We’ll have to have something like “Just Jot it January.” What do you think? Doable? Perhaps a post of no more than a hundred words, every day in January?
Let me know if you think it’s a good idea. I might just do it anyway.
I read an article in the paper today about something known as “Frost Quakes,” or “cryoseism.”
Apparently they are caused by the sudden freezing of ground water below the earth’s surface, and they cause the earth to shake and can make very loud noises, much like that of a tree landing on one’s house.
Anyway, it explains why all of the ice from the tree branches is on the ground today. It didn’t melt off as it usually does. It came off as though it was shaken off, still solid.
Have you ever heard of such a phenomena? It’s a first for me!
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