Um... Hi.
Remember me?
Yep, it's me -- neither ghost writer nor literal ghost, just plain ol' me. Tired to the bone, feeling older than my years, experiencing a few more creaks & groans than perhaps absolutely necessary... but me. :-)
I have a couple of incomplete draft posts in this account that I was going to publish but somehow never got around to actually finishing, and in retrospect that's probably A Good Thing because they were far too wordy, far too long, and bored even me nearly to tears.
There has been a LOT -- and I mean a LOT -- going on since my last full post back in December of '21, but I'm going to attempt to not flood everyone with details out the wazoo. The short version is that, most days, it's been a lot less "twenty twenty-two" and a lot more "twenty-twenty, too." (Feel free to insert your own dramatic and/or silly sound effect here.) A superduper extremely fast Cliff's Notes version of the last eight (yikes!) months is as follows:
Pipsqueak news:
- Miriam
finished 7th grade with basically straight A's for the year; she had a
single "B" over the course of the entire school year (in band class, of all things) that left her both laughing
and raging but in the end she settled for the the kind of GPA that Yours Truly
would've killed for.
- There were a couple of episodes late in the year in which my niece read one or another of her schoolmates the riot act over comments made about adoptive families and adoption in general. Nothing major, but some very real "learning episodes" for the kids in question.
- Although quite a bit less pipsqueakish than in previous years, the kid's definitely not going to be a world-famous basketball player, ceiling painter, or top shelf item reacher. She comes from a region in China known for producing some of the shortest people there and her genes ran true to that... much to her anger and disgust. We've stopped joking about putting her on the Rack to stretch her because we're not sure she won't actually ask us to do that... (That's actually a joke, but you get the idea of how she feels.)
- Although she had an absolute killer solo this year (dancing to "All That Jazz"), Miriam's competitive dance season was cut short during a demo performance by the studio at the Olney Days celebration early this year. They had to dance directly on the asphalt of a parking lot so, of course, with all the karate demos & other dancers, it was my niece who encountered a very round pebble in a very bad spot & turned her ankle (complete with hairline fracture). She was a real trooper about it, but ended up missing the last couple of chances she had to strut her stuff and went to PT for several weeks.
- She has a new solo this season (and got to perform the last one in a couple of non-competitive shows & demos) so she's OK with it.
- Much to the shock of many family members, the Pipsqueak is now officially a teenager. (Run for the hills!) I figure that if I keep repeating that often enough I might finally be able to wrap my head around it at some point in the next 10 years.... <8-P
- You'll see why under "Familly News" (below) but Miri's been amazing at helping take care of her Mommy no matter how tired, busy, or hormonal she might be feeling when asked for help. (And it's usually not even necessary for AJ to have to ask.)
- Through most of last year, one of Miriam's teachers spoke repeatedly about a special science class open only to 8th graders who passed certain tests & maintained a certain average in certain classes... all of which she did, in spades. All summer long she talked about how she was looking forward to this class, the special field trips it would include, and how well it fit into her plans to become a veterinarian. This year's class schedule came out just 3 days before school started, and lo & behold some dweeb put her into a guitar class instead. After many emails & phone calls, Angry Mama Bear (aka my sister) got some things straightened out but was told in no uncertain terms that there were no openings in that class. We are all royally pissed but equally powerless... but at least the Pipsqueak was transferred into an art class (her 3rd or 4th choice) instead. >:-(
- 8th grade has so far spanned only one day, but Miriam came home with lots of good news, smiles, and a very positive feeling about her last year of middle school so we have our fingers (and eyes, and toes, and pancreas, and...) crossed that it is indeed A Good Omen.
- Never one to leave things to chance, Miriam has recently been asking what kind of computer she's going to need in college. I think the repeated talks about how it's too early to decide because most computers become obsolete in 2-3 years, along with the repeated requests to at least actually begin high school before worrying about college have had the desired effects, but I can see the gears turning in her head every time she looks at my laptop... <8-}
- This has NOT been a good year. AJ is a breast cancer survivor (around the 9-year mark now) and things were looking great... Until a regularly-scheduled oncology check-up when the doctor asked, "You're doing great, any questions before you leave?" and lil' sis mentioned an odd-looking patch on her tongue that had changed in appearance in the previous 2-3 weeks. Long story short, in early April she underwent 8-1/2 hours of surgery to remove a squamous cell carcinoma from her tongue, take tissue from one arm to rebuild the now-missing chunk of tongue, and have a large skin graft taken from her leg to cover the wounds all over her arm. (This was all done in a single unbroken procedure, with two surgeons tag-teaming to get it all done.) She was in the ICU for a week afterwards, and thankfully was discharged home with an excellent prognosis all around.
- As if the tongue surgery wasn't enough, after her wounds had healed enough (Did I mention she also had a tracheostomy tube in her throat, too?) AJ underwent seven weeks of directed radiation treatments that left her with almost no sense of taste (the surgery had already permanently removed about 1/3 of her taste buds), intense deep pain in her tongue & mouth, gum lesions, and an amazingly limited list of things she could actually eat. She is now slooooowly regaining her sense of taste and every few days is finding another verboten food that she can once again eat without excessive pain.
- Did I mention that my little sister is an absolute freakin' warrior and that we're all super proud of her?
- Both Mom and Dad came down with COVID-19 early in January. (Happy New Year -- HA! Gotcha!) We were extremely lucky that both their cases were mild enough to be treated at home (hospitalizing Dad would've been an absolute disaster, see below) and by early February both were mostly back to baseline. Amazingly, AJ, Miri and I have all continued to test negative but we all continue to take precautions.
- The situation with Dad's dementia is continuing down the expected path... which is a short way of saying things absolutely totally suck in that department, and we're all faced almost daily with finding new ways to deal with both the situation and its emotional fallout. Some complications with billing, finances, paperwork, and an ongoing need to start clearing the house haven't exactly been helpful, either. We're all leaning on each other for support and keeping an extra eye on Miriam to make sure she has all the emotional support she needs to deal with this... but it is what it is (and what it is ain't good in any way) and that's all I'm saying about that particular issue now.
Yours Truly/Blog news:
- I've been having a lot of conversations with myself about whether or not to continue this blog -- the Pipsqueak's a freaking teenager now, fer goshsakes! -- and the answer for the time being is yes, I will continue blogging.
- There are a number of adoption, identity, and racial issues (all at varying levels of severity and/or effect) that have come up in the past couple of years that I hope to address here, but I'm going to play it all by ear and make sure I have Miriam's permission to discuss those things that are more directly connected to her as an individual.
- Although I will be continuing this blog, I'm not going to be able to do so on a regular schedule because (short version) I am simply too tired and too pressed for time to do things that way now. (See "Family News" above for the Cliff's Notes version of why.)
Stay healthy out there, okay? Bye! 
