I left town, as I mentioned in a previous diary, for my high school reunion and I was stressed out about it.  Imagine how relaxed I became when, 3 nights after my departure, my husband phoned at 11:30 Eastern to inform me that he was picking nits and headlice out of "my" daughter's hair.

Yup.  DD has lice.  And now, less than 24 hours after my return, so do I.

I'm headed out west tomorrow at 0-dark-thirty to go visit my mom and grandma and to attend my 20th high school reunion.  I've been planning this trip for months and have invested a huge amount of time and energy- let alone money- into making it happen.  I've arranged my work life just so, got a new cell phone plan so I can check in with work daily (and to make myself uber-accessible), I"m all packed, my boarding passes are printed...

And I feel like I'm going to puke.  Vomit.  Hurl.  I don't want to go.  I want to cling to DH and the munchkins, huddle on the sofa, cancel this trip and all future trips that we don't take together and tattoo "Thou shalt not travel solo" on my forehead.

I'm obviously nuts.

So it was suggested somewhere that I ask this group for advice on what to do about my son's bullying problem.  It's a pretty basic situation, but one that I'm too close to for rational thought.  In fact, as I said before, there's nothing like seeing your kid threatened to turn this progressive lefty into something that can't even get its kumba ya-ya on.  I find myself thinking things like "drop that kid on a desert island" and "kids like that need a self-contained classroom.  On the moon."

I'm not proud of this response and have donated to a variety of appropriately liberal causes as penance.

Harry is 6.  He's a mix of wonderful surprises and...not so wonderful surprises (as all kids are).  Currently (well for the last 3 years) his not-so-wonderful surprise is that he simply cannot eat without getting it everywhere.

I've struggled to get to church with the kids since they were babies.  My faith is important to me and it's a gift I want to share with them.  DD loves going- loves the music, the dressing up, the getting to have some quiet time.  DS?  Not so much.  Which leads me to my problem.  He truly doesn't care that it matters to me and, at 6, I can't say that surprises me too much.  But this morning, after working really hard to try to get us there, I just gave up.  He flat refused to put his clothes on, whined and cried screamed until it was too late for us to leave.  When I tearfully announced that he'd won, that we couldn't go, he was happy.  Openly, clearly happy.  

I write for (part of) my living.  Typically I write personal and narrative essays and the like, on educational themes.  Today, though, I've had this burning need to get this other thing on paper.  Normally, I'd have gotten it down and started sending it to my normal publishers, but this is different and I wouldn't even know where to begin publishing it and I'd like some feedback on it and well...my experience has been that, if I don't get these things out in the world when they come to me then they evaporate and I  see them elsewhere later on.  It may sound crazy, but I really believe that God or Allah or some other thing whispers these ideas in my ear sometimes, and that there's a "do this or I'm going to get someone else to do it" urgency to it.  So here it is.  Hopefully, I'll be able to sleep tonight.

I have to admit- it's wicked scary to do this this way.  

My son is 7 and a bit socially awkward, so I feel like it's important for me to try to get him into social situations whenever I can.  DH and I have enrolled him in some sport or activity every season and those group situations are fine. But I've always avoided the kid-on-kid playdate.

Like many of us, I've been following the story of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints in Texas.  I feel like I'm more connected to the story because earlier this year I discovered Escape by Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer.

I know it's Super Bowl Sunday and all, but I was watching Michelle Obama speak on C-Span when -- Maria Shriver showed up to the rally! Did any of you see that??? It looks like she has broken with her husband and has publicly endorsed Barack Obama! What a bomb. Okay, I am off to find Caroline and Oprah's speeches, which I missed. -Elisa

Everyone knows I'm a Barackophile- but have you seen this?

http://www.moveon.org/...

It's this music video thing from YouTube- it rocks. Or, one might say, it Ba-rocks.

(heh)

Does it feel like this is a more stylized, MTV election than ever?  I read some place that it was because of the Writer's Strike- that people who would normally be focused on television programming have turned their attention and talents towards the election. I hope folks will give Obama a good hard look if their minds still aren't made up.  (Though, with this crowd, I doubt that's possible...)

I find myself luxuriating in the plethora of goodness right now on the DNC side.  Isn't it wonderful to be looking at both candidates as excellent choices rather than facing another "lesser of two evils" situation?  Good times, I tell you- good times...

Omigod, Laura, I can relate. Ari and Eli were both up last night at 4 a.m., laughing and giggling together. Let me assure you, this is NOT cute! I especially pleaded with Ari to go back to sleep. Not surprisingly, we were late to school this morning and I was in a foul mood. Ugh. Yes, any advice is greatly appreciated! Elisa

I know that sleep issues are mundane, trite, over-discussed and impossible to solve, but holy squash, if I don't get some sleep soon I'm not going to be responsible for my actions.

Went to the doctor today for my weird pregnancy-but-not symptoms.  Turned out the only one I could see was the one who delivered DD 4 years ago.  I hate the man.  Really.  I hate him.  Not that he was bad in the delivery room (he actually rocked, told the nurse to stop trying to make me lie on my back since I was obviously not going to do it and her nagging was just making us all crazy), his stirrup-side manner is just cold and distant.  Plus he does lyposuction on the side and that just skeeves me out.

But I digress...

So I could be pregnant.  Or not.  I mean, I'm on the pill, but missed a few when I had stomach flu in nearly November.  I also took diflucan in November, which could interact with my pill, but could not.  And I was late by a few hours on my pills a couple days late in the month.  I don't have a period because I'm on Seasonale (which I love) but I'm spotting a little (which is something that's only happened when I was pregnant the first two times) and to tell you the truth...I'm ambivalent.