So here's the haps:
My dad had shoulder surgery, which went far better than expected and he's going to have a far shorter recovery time than expected. But for the moment, he can't lift anything or use his right arm for much of anything, which means that my mom wants me to go every where with them so that I can lift her wheelchair. It's freakin annoying and I'm tired of being dragged all over the metroplex every day.
My brother died. I'm sure anyone reading this would already know that, but it bears repeating for any strangers who have the misfortune to stumble into my little lair. I still miss him a lot. It's not cool, and I don't like him being dead one bit. I had a dream last night in which my friend Mark was working at the factory I got a job at (in my dream, not real life) and I thought he looked weird, but didn't think much of it while I was dreaming. When I woke up I realized it was because he looked like my brother when he was in the hospital. Bald, eye patch, etc. I sure wish it would be easy to substitute Mark for Joe, but he's living in Iowa, so I don't see it working out. Plus he doesn't have nearly as foul a mouth as Joe.
When I'm not hauling my parents all over God's creation, I'm looking for a job. Yeah, I got laid off. On the day of my brother's funeral. They called me especially to tell me. That's just rude. I was hoping to get a job at UPS because they have free benefits and tuition assistance, but it turns out that they're only hiring seasonal help right now, and if I do get hired for permanent, I wouldn't start receiving benefits until January of 2010. Stinky. That's a long time of low paying, back breaking work to get insurance. So I dunno. I'm considering taking it anyway just so I don't have a long gap on my work history, but I haven't decided yet. I checked the paper today, and there's a dental office in Flower Mound that's looking for a lab tech with one year's experience, and I have 5 years experience, so maybe that's the job for me! Only time will tell.
Ethan's been having troubles since Joe died. He's having break downs in class anytime the other kids get rowdy or he's having trouble with the work. He's having massive daily nosebleeds. Last week I got a call from the principle because Ethan just walked out of class and another teacher found him wandering around and brought him to the office. She had a nice long talk with him about his troubles and he asked her to call me and tell me. We're working on it. Hopefully we'll get it all figured out. I'm thinking about putting him in counselling, but there's a few adjustments in his life I'm trying to make first. Keeping a structure for him is never easy in this house! Everyone says the nosebleeds are because of his hormones changing. He had his nose cauterized about a year ago, and it worked like a charm, but I can't afford to do it again right now! He walks around with toilet paper sticking out of his nose all the time these days, and that's just annoying. Not to mention goofy.
Well, that's about it I think. The most interesting thing in my fridge is cherry-orange marmalade. :)
