Irritated

When I come home from work in the afternoon, George and Marco are always eagerly awaiting my arrival and are so glad to see me. This is what happens every weekday at approximately 4:50pm:

George meets me in the garage, at my car door, to give me kisses before I even step foot out of the car. I open the door and wait for him--that's our routine. Then he jumps up and down about 10 times and dances around me as I walk towards the house. The only time this doesn't happen is when it's raining. George hates getting his paws wet and will wait for me on the porch on those days.

Marco starts to let out ear-splitting screams the moment walk through the door. Gregg says, "Get ready!" and covers his ears when I cross the threshold because he knows Marco can't be deterred from shrieking as loud as possible to welcome me! I have to go get him out of his cage immediately and let him ride around on my shoulder as I put my stuff down, take off my shoes, pour a drink, etc. 

It's like a hero's welcome, every single day.

And you know what? On a lot of those days (today being one of them) I'll whisper, "I'm so grateful for you!" to George and Marco. You know why?

Because human children can be real pains in the ass sometimes, that's why!!!!!!! And when they are I'm SO GLAD I don't have any of my own!

It's rare for me to get annoyed with the students at the school where I work. Usually I like them and have empathy for them and enjoy their company. I've always enjoyed kids in small doses, anyway. But I'd be lying if I told you there's not a few that I swear to god I'd like to drop-kick into the next county!

There are two young men at the moment that are driving me especially crazy. They're both big boys because they've failed a grade or two. They're always in trouble. Because the ISS (in-school suspension) room is near my desk, and the discipline in there is lax, these boys are always walking past my desk to get water from the fountain or to go to the bathroom. Or, more likely, cutting class and creeping around the halls. Any time I say anything to them they're rude and nasty and sarcastic in return. They think it's funny to be openly defiant and mouthy and generally just awful. One of these boys is a physically big fellow and a couple of times he came and hovered near my desk, smirking and laughing at me, Well, I'm not about to be intimidated by an overgrown BOY and I put him in his place and made him go sit down, and I called the principal on him and then I called his mama! He didn't like that, let me tell you! I was steaming mad when I left work. 

Speaking of irritation, have I mentioned lately that I struggle with eczema? Like, really struggle? The last time I went to the doctor she said she thought I had dyshidrotic eczema because it's mainly appearing (these days) on my ankles and the tops of my feet. She prescribed a pill that's commonly used to relax patients before surgery, but that can also help with the allergies that seem to be a factor in triggering the skin inflammation. Well, just like topical steroid creams they worked great for a while and then gradually became less and less effective.

I'm currently suffering through a terrible flare. My feet are swollen, inflamed, and will bleed at the slightest scratch (thanks to so many years of steroid creams). And not scratching at the moment is agonizing, because the itch is absolutely maddening. It's really awful and it's making getting through the day a struggle. I itch almost constantly and have to fight with myself not to scratch. Sometimes I catch myself doing it without being consciously aware of it, and my socks will have bloody patches. 

Look away if you're squeamish. I'm embarrassed to show you these, but maybe it will help you understand the misery that is eczema. I've been dealing with flares like this for over 20 years now.

My ankles and feet today:

It's painful to walk, I itch to distraction, and I can't wear sandals in public. You'd be surprised at the number of people who will comment on it when my feet and ankles look like this. I can only imagine having a real disability and the things people would say!

I guess it's no wonder that I'm especially irritated at rude children and teenagers at the moment.  At least Marco and George love me, bad skin, irritation, and all!

What day is it?

 Anyone else having trouble keeping their days straight in this weird in-between-Christmas-and-New Year's time period? Yesterday felt just like a Sunday to me. Sunday felt like Saturday. Today just feels....weird. And aggravating.

I went online this morning to check the tracking information on Gregg's replacement phone. When I put the tracking number into the UPS website it said the package had just been delivered. To my front door. I hurried out there to check. No package. No package anywhere in sight. I checked in the bushes, the door to the back porch, the mailbox.....nothing. When I went back to the UPS website to file a claim, I was informed that the sender had to file the claim. Wonderful. Sigh. So I called customer service and after being on hold for about 10 minutes I got through to a nice woman who said they'd immediately send out another phone. They seemed awfully unconcerned about what had happened to the first one! But okay, whatever. Great. I told her that would be fine. Then she said I had to have it shipped to an alternate address! What?! I don't have an alternate address, nor do I know (right off hand) any of my friends' mailing addresses, and I'm not at work this week. The call center lady was adamant: they couldn't ship a second phone to the same physical address. After thinking about what the heck to do I finally made her hold on while I walked next door and asked my sweet 81 year old neighbor, Luella, if I could have it sent to her house. Of course she said yes and after I hung up with customer service she proceeded to tell me about all of her children and grandchildren having similar problems recently and having items shipped to her house. Thank goodness for good neighbors! 

After getting all that straight I drove down to the school to feed and check on the two aquariums. All of a sudden we've lost two goldfish in the lobby tank and a third looks like he's about to go, too. This year, when the custodians are doing a deep sanitizing of the school, no staff members are supposed to go into the building at all, but we're going to sneak back in this afternoon so Gregg can test the water and administer some antibiotics. (The principal knows we have to come up there briefly to feed and check on the tanks). I'm so upset at losing two of our beloved Shubukins! And after today the custodians won't be back for the rest of the week. Who knows what will happen by the time we go back to school next Monday. The aquarium is a much loved fixture of the school already and I just feel sick over losing some of the fish. And here's another irritating thing: the beautiful planted aquarium in the library is doing fine, but the water level has dropped. It needs to be topped off, which would be the simplest thing in the world to do except.............our school shuts off the hot water when we leave on break! Cold water straight from the tap is a big NO!! Arrggghhh! I was so damn frustrated when I went to fill the tank and discovered that there was no hot water. I'm sure they do it to save money but it really made me mad after just having had to net out another dead goldfish. At least the fish in that tank are doing well. I couldn't bear it if we were losing fish there, too.

So that's my Tuesday, friends. A whole bunch of unpleasantness on top of inconvenience. Maybe it's okay to lose track of the days when they're like this one!

Is it Friday yet?

This week is dragging on and on. Friday is a half day at school; and next week is Spring Break, so after Friday we don't go back until April 9th. You'd think, with the way the days usually fly by, that this week would be a breeze. Wrong! Everyone is losing patience with being there, students, teachers, and staff alike, and tempers are short all around. Maybe it's spring fever? Who knows.

My husband has been in a funk, too. When he's got something on his mind he turns silent and withdraws and won't tell me what's wrong. It can be mildly upsetting to me, although after all these years as a couple (twenty all together) I know the best thing to do is leave him alone and let him work out whatever it is. He'll talk about it when he's ready. I suspect it's his oncologist appointment next week, possibly combined with some lingering grief for his mom. Her birthday is coming up.

The house is kind of messy, too. I didn't want to do much housework over my birthday, and Gregg has been working extra hours some evenings, so things have gotten kind of funky around here, fast. After unusually irritating days at work, I haven't felt like doing much after I get home and so dinner on the table and a maintenance load of laundry is about all I've got left in me. Sigh. I hate a messy house.

The only fun part of this week so far occurred last night when I discovered via a friend's Facebook post that the third season of Better Call Saul had landed on Netflix! I love this show, and we binge watched half the new season in one sitting. Greedy pigs, we are! It's a prequel to one of my favorite shows of all time, AMC's Breaking Bad, and has the same great directors and writers (and even some of the characters!) We'll probably finish season 3 tonight. So that's been the bright spot in this crappy week so far.

Is it Friday yet?