Tracks to Clementine

Enthusiastic Cheer

That title is a lie. For I am not cheering at all today. I am barely cheery. Cheerful is out entirely...but I'm going to do some complaining, so maybe that will cheer me up and then I'll take a nap.

Dear Food Diary,

You're the only one who understands me.

I'm sick (that cold just pretended to go away), five people called me between 9:30-10am and left messages that I couldn't retrieve because my voice mail wasn't working, then my doctor called and said my hematocrit was lower than the last super-anemic iron results so she ordered more tests to find out why I'm not absorbing iron properly, and then my voice mail did start working and I had to call back the dentist to tell them that I'd gotten the reminder call about my appointment on Monday that I already knew about (and did I tell you that I had to go back to the endodontist to clean out the partially completed root canal again?), and then I had to talk to Eeyore. Oh, and the whole house smells like salmon and it is making me want to throw up because fish is the only thing that made me sick during my first trimester that I haven't been able to reclaim even though I keep thinking it'll be okay. Plus, I've already read all of the books in the joint.

Actually, that iron thing--maybe you don't understand me. Because if you did, why aren't you helping me? My blood was, like, Kool-aid colored yesterday (cherry, not Purplesaurus Rex or something) and I really think you should be doing something about that.

awaiting your reply,
Ida

Huh. That did actually help a little bit. But so did some of the other phone calls: one from dancer brother about Winesap apples and how they really do taste exactly like the apples from our Grandmother's orchard and another from neck brace wearing brother about Thanksgiving plans. So those things are good. Very good. (Unless you factor in that our Grandmother's orchard was plowed under by one of our uncles and that my neck brace wearing brother went rock climbing the other day and jumped off an eight-foot, uh, rock shelf as a "test" because he's excited about getting rid of the neckbrace, but I'm not counting those things, okay?)

I am grateful that in the midst of a bunch of crap that a little love always sneaks its way in. It's pretty darn nice--and I know there is just more to come on that front while all of the complain-y stuff is fleeting.

...but don't you want to know more about Eeyore? Of course you do! Get this: she got in some kind of fight with the head teacher of the preschool on the island and so is not going there anymore and instead wants to complete her hours with me at an entirely different daycare where she's never been but at which her daughter works. Is this a good idea? Uh, no...but mostly because of who she is. Did I agree to it anyway? Yes, because I cannot look away from the trainwreck and because the new place is only 1.7 miles from my house.

I was able to talk her out of taping construction paper frog flippers to the feet of the students, but who knows what she's going to end up doing at all.

Luckily, my other residencies are all with rather pleasant people and I'm done entirely as of November 21st.

And my hematocrit is going to go UP. That's just the way it is going to be. You can will yourself to absorb iron more efficiently, right? (Yes, I'm taking iron supplements and yes, I'm eating iron-rich foods...and even moreso after this morning's phone call.)

Posted by Ida at November 8, 2007 11:46 AM