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poop beetle: For Blaine
7.2003
My Weekend
By Anne R.
Fri. afternoon, I picked up the children from day care, Awais had a tick attached to his chest. I plucked the tick off with my fingers. I seem to remember safe tick removal requires tweezers, but I didn't have any on me and I wasn't going to drive 1/2 hour with a tick sucking my 5 year old's blood. The tick wasn't too well attached and I got the whole thing (including head). I took it outside and lit it on fire.
My dad always set ticks on fire, so I assumed this was the right thing to do.
Back on the playground to pick up Haaris, Awais interrupted a report on the number and consistency of Harry's bowel movements to announce the tick to Harry's teacher.
Did it have a spot on its butt? The teacher asked me. I forgot to look.
She said next time I should put it in a baggy to take to the doctor to be tested for rocky-mountain spotted fever. The teacher and the assistant run through the variety of symptoms which could include fever, aching joints, a rash, perhaps flat, perhaps not, or no symptoms at all until . . . well you know. She nods at Awais who is spellbound.
The assistant goes inside to get an information sheet on rocky mountain spotted fever and returns with an information sheet on lyme's disease, which is carried by the deer tick that is much smaller and mostly does not live in this area, but of course it's always good to know what to look for and to make sure the kids don't go anywhere where deer have been.
I almost brought up the West Nile Virus, because there is yet another one now, like it, also deadly, also carried by mosquitoes but I couldn't recall its name.
But I stopped myself because it was very hot and the drawings and other kiddie stuff I'd collected from their cubbies kept slipping out of my hands every time I caught and lost Harry- who was thrilled to see me, but also happy to have me chase him down and catch him, repeatedly.
I was also too distracted to absorb any more information because I was battling disgust and outrage w. shifting overtones of stunned hopelessness.
I'd just been to see my school advisor who it turns out is not a transcript expert. (a fact might have been clued into considering I've practically lived in her office for the past year, while working on this new career thing.)
It turns out that perhaps my General Psychology won't transfer or my previous communications courses and there's some question as to whether my English composition classes really meet their requirements.
None of this is entirely hopeless if I can get a hold of some course descriptions and in case they're too vague- the course syllabi. There's still a chance I won't be required to re-take "Interpersonal Communications". God Help Me.
But wait, there's more- as it turns out my original plan for taking the nursing courses- which are not given full-time credit, so to be full-time and to be eligible for all the goodies that go along with that- like scholarships, child-care vouchers, etc.- I'll need to take additional courses and why not take this opportunity to prepare for a someday BSN? Bulk up on something like Chemistry or Statistics or Spanish? (wouldn't Spanish be handy in a health career?) - all that is a no go, because none of these courses are available to me. The school, it appears, has had massive budget cuts.
How about a humanities course? My advisor asks.
(I've got an awful lot of those.)
Well, yes, I see you do . . .how about Western Civ?
(um, done that)
How about French? Oh never mind, won't work with your schedule. A P.E. class? Ah. Nope. How about computers?
I let her register me for Nursing I/ General Psychology and two on-line courses "Basic PC Literacy" and "Intro to Computers."
All is not lost, there's still time to regroup. I just needed to get out of that office before I said or did something unpleasant.
But Blaine requested highlights, so here they are:
1. Got to explain bulls-eye to Awais (as in bulls-eye rash) Why "Bull"? Why not "Cow"- honey, I have no idea.
2. Helped Awais & Haaris' dad find an apartment in Charlotte. Dad is now local. North Carolina meet Asad!
3. Obsessed, raged, came to terms with all . . .. Asad tells Awais that "resigned" means "giving -up". I correct him.
4. Plucked my eyebrows. I think I'm getting closer to that neat, respectable, put-together look. I ironed my new back-to-school peddle pushers.
5. Searched the net for more stories to feed my disgust about the state of the country. Outrage over nation is safer and more manageable than outrage over local events. Wrote something I might post if I can make it seem less screechy and liberal.
6. Made plans to take the kids swimming today.
So there you go. Writing this has made me feel better, more my own person, more in control (thanks Blaine, Rich and all). But, I'm kind of sick of thinking about my own life . . . . looking forward to hearing about others.
