11/29/2007

Who's the f-ing slacker??

Here's my day in a damn nutshell:

  1. Get up at 6 ish
  2. Wake up 13 for a shower or take my shower
  3. Get dressed
  4. Baby wakes up and I change her diaper
  5. Wake up 10
  6. Feed the baby
  7. Let the dog out / feed the dog
  8. Try to get myself ready in the midst of all this
  9. Be sure there's formula made for the day
  10. Sometimes pack up a diaper bag
  11. Sometimes take the baby to daycare
  12. Take the kids to school
  13. Go to work
  14. Come home
  15. Sometimes pick up baby from daycare
  16. Usually clean dishes and kitchen mess
  17. Feed the baby
  18. Make dinner for everyone else
  19. Clean up from dinner
  20. Change the baby
  21. Feed the baby
  22. Help the kids with homework
  23. Listen to H's day
  24. Try to converse with my children
  25. Carry the baby around
  26. Sometimes bathe the baby
  27. Get her ready for bed
  28. Get the kids off to bed and supervise that process
  29. Feed the baby
  30. Get her to bed
  31. It's now 10 p.m. or later.

Here's H's day

  1. Stay in bed until 8 a.m. or later
  2. Sometimes get up earlier
  3. Take a shower
  4. Get Dressed
  5. Make a cup of coffee
  6. Sit and watch tv - news or MTV
  7. Gather my things
  8. Go to work or school
  9. Come home
  10. or Stop by friends for a beer and a chat before coming home
  11. Put my things away
  12. Bark at the kids
  13. Criticize the wife
  14. Eat dinner
  15. Retire to the tv or
  16. Retire to the cave for studying or
  17. Leave for the library for studying or
  18. Go to friends for a beer and a chat
  19. Take a shower (if he didn't take one as soon as he got home)
  20. Get pjs on
  21. Watch tv
  22. Make Cookies
  23. Eat Cookies
  24. Go to bed
  25. Watch more tv
  26. Go to sleep
  27. It's now 10 pm or later

Tell me now - who's the f-ing slacker???

My fam is mental

I thought he was crazy when he said that my sister purposely opened the drapes on a bright sunny day after he said he had a migraine and closed them. She was there watching the baby and he had just come down in the morning shortly after I left with the girls. I didn't believe that she had done that because she also had a headache that morning - so that would have surprised me.

This morning he had a migraine. He took a pill and grabbed an ice pack and went back to bed. I got the girls up as usual, got ready, took care of the baby with 13's help, etc. My sister arrived to watch the baby. We all got ready to go and I told my sister that H was upstairs with a migraine and had just taken a codeine, then I turned to go into the kitchen.

I turned back around and she had gotten up and was opening the drapes on every single window in the living room and entrance hall. I commented that H would probably close those when he came down and she said, with extreme sarcasm, "well, i guess we have different priorities." I shot back with "snarky much in the morning?" So she angrily said "I don't feel well and I can be snarky if I want. do you have a problem with that?" I was really taken aback.

Instantly I realized that she had opened the drapes specifically because I had said that H had a migraine. She did it to purposely be antagonistic and difficult. There's no disguising that.

Then she starts bawling. I ask her what's wrong and she says she "hurts" and has for a long time. She says she can't cope with all that's going on. (had surgery in the last few months and had pain in healing) So I offered that she doesn't have to be here if she's not feeling well, just go home - it's fine. She doesn't want to explain what she means about not being able to cope with all that's going on... She says she'll be fine and doesn't want to leave.

I'm thinking I don't know now if I want her taking care of the baby. She clearly has some emotional issues. She always has, but this is clearly a more agitated state. Not that I think she'd hurt the baby, but it's not a very stable situation to have her constantly exposed to someone who can't manage her emotions at all and who's going to breakdown over every little thing.

Now I'm not an idiot. I know she's resentful of H being in bed with a migraine when she functions every day with a headache, or more recently with her surgery related issues. But he gets up and gets ready and leaves shortly after the girls and I are gone every morning. He has to go to work or school every day. It's not like I'm having her there to watch the baby for absolutely no reason.

Of course I'm thankful that she does this two days a week at no cost. I know she'd like me to pay her, but I just can't. It costs $260 a month for the two days per week of daycare we send her to a center. Including that amount $500 of my net income every month goes to baby necessities - that's $500 that used to be for bills or spending money before the baby came along.

But her reaction was inappropriate and i should have told her as much. It was uncalled for and really immature. She is very immature. Sometimes I think she has the social and emotional development/level of a 13 to 15 year old. It's like she got that far - and that took her until she was 30 something - and then that was it. No further.

k-o, that's it. just had to say that.

11/27/2007

Gotta be a better way!

There's gotta be a better way to live this life! So much makes me so unhappy these days - especially work. The only thing that keeps me at all stable, that keeps me from running far and fast, are my kids. It's not even that I want to run - I'd rather just hibernate at home and never leave. It's all so darn complicated.

Oh, and I just heard that rather than hiring a new IT person here we will be going with a service that will do everything remotely: scanning our individual drives, tracking usage, updating viruses, checking trouble, etc. So I guess that will also eliminate my only releases of blogging, or e-mailing to a friend, or vegging on useless celebrity news or fashion faux pas. It was bound to happen.

Our head honcho is such a control freak. I think I kind of hate her. I feel like she is at the root of all the problems I have at work right now. Not that I'm not also at the root, but she put me there. It's an unhappy place. You can't imagine how much I wish I could get back to the place inside myself that allows me to be happy and fulfilled at work. Those days are so vivid in my memory that thinking about them actually conjures up the feelings of joy I had in going to work each day back then. But the reality is inaccessible. It seems irretrievable.

Today I felt hope and like I would somehow make mad progress, but then FM came in with his snarky attitude and his snarky way of reminding me of policies in his "duh - you oughta know that" way. Policies that were put in place this summer while I was on leave that basically stripped me (and anyone else at my level) of any authority I ever had which had been earned through demonstration of responsibility and trustworthiness over many years. But those damn "internal controls" which were instituted by our overbearing and over controlling head honcho make that all moot. Do they not realize the hit that takes on the morale and motivation of employees. That used to mean something, to be entrusted as a signatory for basic fiscal procedures. Small but meaningful. They are so over controlling. I really really need to get out of here.

You know - you go into a job and those controls already exist and that's fine. But when you have certain authority and then it's taken away for no other reason than someone needs to have sole control over everything, that's demeaning.

Yesterday I heard that I didn't get the other job that I applied for. It's like that last glimmer of hope just burned out. It hit me harder than I thought it would.

H keeps talking about how we're moving in a couple of years - probably out of state. Wherever HE needs to go for his doctoral studies or his work. He always says "well you can get a better job in 'city x' ". I'm so sick of hearing that. It makes me feel horrible to know that our family has to be uprooted to do what HE wants. HE is the only person unhappy in our current location.

The girls have a great school, wonderful friends they've known since kindergarten, it's a great small city. The kids don't want to be uprooted. He doesn't understand because the only time he was ever uprooted was in or before second grade. He doesn't know how moving affects a kid once they have a life and friends established. 13 has a lot of friends and it would probably affect her self esteem to leave this circle of friends where she's kind of the group leader and have to start over in high school. 10 has one very very good friend without whom I think she would really have a major shift in happiness.

I moved at 10 and it was hard. I went to five different schools in five years from that point forward. It was not good. Kids need stability and I want to offer that to my children. I'm seriously thinking that when it comes time to move it could be the end of our marriage unless H is willing to consider locations other than far far away. Right now he's talking about Iowa, or out west, or out of the COUNTRY!

Our home is beautiful although it's in disarray from various unfinished projects. The girls and I love our home. He hates our house because it's in disarray from his various unfinished projects which he never should have fricking started if he couldn't finish them! If we could finish those - or if he'd never torn the place apart we'd be living in an attractive and comfortable environment. I understand that seeing unfinished projects is stressful and you feel like you have to apologize to guests for the appearance. SO FIX IT!! He hates it's location. He hates our neighbors. He hates living near people. HE IS THE ONE WHO INSISTED WE BUY THIS HOUSE!!!

He wants to live far away from people, in the woods or the mountains. Neither I nor the girls have any interest in that. Only he does. Would I love to get away to the country or the mountains sometimes?? Sure. But I like living near people. I like having neighbors whose kids sometimes make too much noise, I like hearing my neighbors laughing and socializing, I like being on the main trick or treat route, I like walking to the store or the park or the school. The girls do too.

Why does he have to dictate everything. I'm going to have to tell him and he's going to be bigger ass than he's already been. I mean at some point I have to be honest and say "Honey, all this talk about moving is stressful to me and the kids. All of this negativity is overwhelming to all of us and not healthy. Uprooting the kids would not be healthy for them - I want more than anything to give them stability - so can you just do your post graduate work closer to home?"

The most depressing thing in my life right now is all of his negativity. He complains about our town, our neighborhood, our neighbors, our house, the girls school, their friends, their friends parents, the way our kids behave, the way they don't behave, my family, his own family, his health, his professors, other drivers, clerks at stores, traffic, weather, work, customers, what he can't eat, what I cook, how I cook, how often I cook...or don't cook, the laundry, the cleaning, the church, politics, tv, everything. It's so overwhelming.

Then he wonders why I'm not in the mood for sex. Hmmmm....I wonder. How romantic is our life? Yet here I am trying to figure out how I can change in order to effect change in him. Like I'm the problem. And I'm teaching this to my daughters. How can they behave to lessen his anger? What can they do to avoid his wrath? What the hell am I doing???

Sometimes I'm sorry I ever encouraged him to go back to school. I thought he could finish his degree and teach, have a stable job and a steady income. No - he won't settle for work until he gets his PhD. In the mean time he blows off work now to concentrate on his studies then stresses over not being able to pay the bills. I know he wants to finish, but he has to do less school and more work. This too I will have to tell him.

Somebody's just got to be blunt with him. So he fucked up early in life and now he's struggling to finish school. He desperately wants out of his business because he's managed it poorly and owes a kajillion dollars in taxes. But damn it that's all the income he has. So he damn well better figure out a way to do both and concentrate on selling it when he's in better shape to do so.

I'm so frustrated. This is not the life I pictured for me. I long for the simple days of renting a cheap house and living a simple life.

This is a rant. Not what I intended to write.

11/06/2007

If only.....

If only I could be more like him. If only we all could be .... more like him. I suppose then he would be happy.

We are ruining 13. It's not good and I'm not happy about it.

Today H called to say that, after going into 13's room, he decided to "have a talk" with her about the lack of cleanliness. Does she have some issues? Yes. Have we determined that they are anything different from any other 13 year old....I'm not really sure because she's the only 13 year old we have. But I do hear from some other mothers that their 13 years olds have similar struggles with cleanliness.

So today the issue was this - he thinks she needs counseling over cleaning her room...and he told her as much. WHAT A FREAKING MORON!

Then he proceeded to call me and tell me what happened and compare her to me because he goes into the babies room and sees things of the baby's that I leave around and I go to counseling....(in his mind because I apparently have a cleaning issue??)...and so 13 is probably getting this from me and should also go. GAWD! That ticked me off.

He sees things in the baby's room not put away because I don't have a freaking spare second except for a few minutes after 9:30 p.m. or 10:00 p.m. in between when the baby goes to sleep and I fall asleep totally exhausted.

True, 13 doesn't keep up with her room. She doesn't appear to know the difference between clean and cluttered. She doesn't appear to be affected by the guinea pig bedding all over her carpet....or the empty water bottles on her floor...or the laundry in piles. But, from what I hear - neither do a lot of other teenagers. Their minds are focused elsewhere and their priorities reflect that.

H doesn't recall this because his mom cleaned up after him and only worked part time. But he also had a sty of a room as a kid - his mom said so.

I'm just so tired of him acting like he has it all together and everyone else should learn from him and be more like him. He's as messed up as any of us. He's constantly lecturing people on cleanliness and I'm constantly picking up after him. Let's revisit....

He never cleans up his cookie mess - either the cooking items OR his glasses or crumbs.....

He leaves his socks and shoes everywhere...even in the forbidden "walking path" of the kitchen where nobody else is allowed to do so.....

He leaves stacks of paper, books, and mail anywhere he feels like - usually over 1/3 of the dining table......

He piles his laundry on the floor in our room rather than running down to the basement to grab the hamper he left there.....

His version of cleaning involves taking everyone else's shoes, coats, gloves, etc. and throwing them down the stairs to the basement floor AND piling up everyone else's things either on my dresser, on the stairs, or stuffing them in a paper bag for someone else to deal with. His stuff he will then put away...sort of

His desk is PILES AND PILES of crap visible to everyone who walks into our house, but he is upset over the girls school work being left out more than 5 minutes after they finish their homework........

He spits in the sink and leaves....ewwwwww....right on the sink bowl surface.....

He NEVER cleans the toilets but makes the biggest mess.....

Sometimes - oh yeah - sometimes he leaves the bath rug ON THE FLOOR instead of hanging it up......

He stacks his hunting stuff wherever it's convenient for him.....

He wants the car seat not to be kept handy in the living room, but he insists we keep his giant exercise ball by the fireplace for when he exercises (once a month).....

He NEVER folds laundry. He just throws it in a pile to get wrinkled and then complains that his clothes are wrinkled......

Get it? He's not perfect. None of us are. He just thinks, in his head, that he's perfect. That causes him to be overly judgemental about the rest of us and put undue stress on us through criticism. Not that I'm not affected by that, I am - in a BIG WAY. But the girls are still forming their personalities and their opinions of themselves and their identity - so they are WAY more susceptible to his negativity than I am.

So what the heck do I do? How can I ever make this clear to him? I don't want to support his idea that our oldest get counseling for cleaning her room. I think it's stigmatising for her. It's an out and out statement that she is not good enough and needs help to become better....psychologically.

How do I mediate this issue? I can't always be the one saving people. I can't always be the one calming him down and trying to work through every issue with the kids myself. I need a partner.

He's not a partner these days. He says he doesn't "have time." Well heck neither do I, but I do it anyway even if something else doesn't get done. They need constant guidance, support, education, encouragement. not criticism and labels.

enough

Compelled To Say....

Ok - I know this is very very weird, but I just feel like I need to get this out there because I'm always complaining about my husband.

That's just what I use this space for sometimes. I don't want to necessarily spread my toxicity to the people closest to me so I throw it out here and passers by can choose to read .....or not. Most of all it's just a way for me to get it out of my own head and heart.

Ok - so the point of that is this. I see so many stories of missing wives and moms on the news. I don't know if it's happening more often, or we just have so much more media outlets these days that it's just more publicized. But what I most notice is that it's ALWAYS the husband that they look at first, longest, and hardest. Especially if...GOD FORBID...there's any hint that the husband and wife have EVER argued. Naturally that's a precursor to murder....naturally.

Let it be known that my husband would never ever ever ever ever ever do anything to ever hurt me or any other person. He's just not that person. He would never, could never cause harm to a person. He's completely non-violent.

I know I know - nobody thinks such a thing of the people in their lives....even when people in their lives turn out to be guilty. But the fact is that in 17 years he's never even lifted a hand or finger to anyone ever for anything. Back in the day, when he would hang out at a bar, if someone were to start something with him (which has only happened once) he would walk away (which he did in that instance).

He is non-violent, non-confrontational, non-aggressive. Ask anyone. So if I die (I told you this was weird) under strange circumstances or disappear....this is not to say that I have any plans to do so .... for gosh sake it was NOT my husband!!!

Now, here's to long life and happiness with my family. Now I feel free to go ahead and write my latest complaint about H....