My Favorite Distraction

Yes, long time, let's not go there, eh?

Once again I am avoiding responsibility by messing around on the Internet. It's my favorite distraction. :) Sometimes I can even fool myself into thinking I'm accomplishing something, like now: I googled my doctor (so I wouldn't have to bother looking it up in my address book which is two feet away) and filled that information in on the Patient sheet that has to go with me in two weeks to my therapy appointment. 'Cause that's WAY more important than doing the laundry or catching up on dishes or maybe even dusting and vacuuming the house before the dust bunnies form an army and take over the world. And holy god, do not get started on washing floors.

MUCH better to fill out patient forms, and put up the kids' school pictures (now that Mark's FINALLY ARRIVED yesterday after MONTHS...nothing like having the kid's picture taken in September and finally arriving the end of January. And of course I didn't feel like I could put Kira's up without Mark's, so her picture is currently...um...somewhere on my desk, and now I'm going to even stop typing this so I can locate it.

*mad rummaging*

wow. That was faster than I thought. Less than 30 seconds. Not to be confused with thinking my desk is organized or anything, because I can assure you it is NOT. And that's something I'm avoiding, too.

Along with putting away the Christmas decorations, which are currently taking up space on several steps. Except the snowflake lights, which are on the dining room table. To my credit, they haven't been on the table for a month...I just remembered they were up and took them down. Yes, they were on the sliding glass doors that we use to exit and enter the house. You'd think I would have noticed them. But I think my attention has been diverted by the suction frog that is smack dab at face level on the door. With a taped-on word balloon. It's really quite cute.

OK, so now I have both kids' pictures. So I can put them up, and put the wallet size in my wallet (wow, original) and get my parents' copies set to give to them later today when we go to Mark's game.

Hey! Now I can segue neatly into basketball! Kira's season is almost over, she has a tournament on Saturday and the certificate ceremony or whatever you call it. She's done very well this season, she's quite a good basketball player. There's a possibility that next year the girls' busline coach will have to dip into the fifth grade to get more players (next year's sixth grade class is very tiny, and there aren't a lot of girl athletes in that class or the current sixth grade). She is VERY excited about this possibility, even though it means that she will be playing against sixth, seventh, and eighth grade girls and will get her butt kicked. But she also knows that she will learn a LOT, and she gets to practice every day, which she is incredibly excited about. She's even looking forward to the suicides. The girls' coach also usually adds something at each stop point, like pushups or jumping jacks. Kira thinks this is great. Masochist. But the coach is awesome, and he hasn't had a lot of talent to work with in recent years (not to say all the girls suck, 'cause they don't, but some do, and he hasn't had any future WNBA-ers out of the rest of them, either), so I think it will be fun for him, too.

Mark is on the freshman team at the high school, and the team is having a great season (they are 9-1). Mark's a first-string post player, and he is showing noticeable improvement since the beginning of the season. He's not a superstar player like he was for his team last year, but he's solid and with some definite skills, including being his team's top rebounder. His coach is great and really works with all of the players to help them improve. The boys also earn their play time by how hard they work in practice, which is so cool. For example, he benched their "top" player for an entire quarter for skipping practice. The boys are expected to work hard and play hard, and they do. He also cycles all the players in the game, and doesn't wait to have a lead before he does it. He doesn't have a "win at all costs" attitude (not to say he doesn't want to win, 'cause he does), but his focus is on improving -all- of the players. I like it. I like how the second string is played even when we are behind, which gives them a chance to feel full game pressure. They're not just put in when we're way ahead and have to hold on to a lead, where it's okay to slip some points. Nope, they have to bring the team ahead. As a result, they all have to work harder, and that's awesome.

Both kids are struggling a bit academically this year. Kira's not in terms of not being able to grasp the concepts, or even in the application. But she's starting to develop her brother's poor study habits, and as a result has passed homework in late, and she has been given two academic detentions this year (you get a pink slip if you don't pass homework in on time, and if you do it again in the same week, you get an academic detention). She gets terribly upset when she gets pink slips, but this has not seemed to change her behaviours. And unfortunately I haven't been mentally with it enough to keep on top of her with this.

Mark is having the same issues of not passing his homework in on time, and his grades are showing it. This quarter he has four C's (last quarter he had 1), and it was by the skin on his teeth that a couple of them weren't D's. His father is going to go ballistic. I'M not too happy either. Mark is trying to brush it off on sports, but I know better. He has poor study habits. If he passed his homework in on time, his grades would easily be at least B's, and likely even A's. I was hoping that he would be able to police himself better once he saw that his poor habits really affected his grades, but I guess I'm going to have to try to step up and get back on his ass.

If I can. Of course, I am still struggling with all of my same issues, including the huge energy drain that is Seasonal Affective. It's slightly better this year because I have increased my Wellbutrin, but by no means is it "all better." It's still an uphill climb.

I continue to feel that if I can just get myself on top of the housework and better organized, that things will vastly improve. You would think with this knowledge I would get my ass off the computer and get to the house, hey? Yeah, not so much. Sometimes I can do it, sometimes I can't. It's also terribly frustrating on the days that I AM able to pull myself together and make some real progress, that the kids, who have slipped into horrible house habits as well, come home and destroy all of my progress in a matter of minutes. And I am just too emotionally battered to handle it properly.

So, we carry on. And now that I've blathered on for awhile, I'm gonna get off and (maybe) put a load of laundry in, put away dishes, get the kids' pictures hung, and get some of the crap off the stairs. Wish me luck!! mk

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Title note: When Kira was in kindergarten, she had several boys in the class with huge crushes on her. One of my favorites was Thomas. When I first met Thomas's parents--at the skating rink--his dad said, "Ah, Kira. Thomas's favorite distraction." I loved it. :)