Happy Winter

Have you dug out of the snow yet? We still have plenty of the parking lot mountains, but it's pretty easy to drive.

Hope you all are doing well. I think of you so often.

For those of you who don't read Facebook or even if you do, I can be more honest here! Hurrah for anonymity or at least the guise of it!

My art is going very well. I had a good number of sales over the last few months as well as some awards. Both concepts are mind-boggling, considering I just began my "Let's Turn Professional" journey a year ago. I didn't anticipate that I would come this far this fast, but I have worked very hard on the business of art. I should probably paint even more, but I work on showing, volunteering, and doing some contests.

According to his teachers during our meeting last week, puberty hit J full force during school's second quarter. Yeah, it was that specific. I was actually glad to hear it wasn't all just him hating on me. I absolutely love him hating on others, too. heh

You may remember he had an ADHD battery done four, count 'em, four years ago. J isn't hyper; he's the inattentive version. I chose the wrong child psychiatrist, who didn't believe in ADHD, and ex took that morsel and ran. So now we're paying. Now, though, J's teachers strongly support his getting help for his inattention and I'd been trying to find a good-to-premier child psychiatrist for a while. Then I tried to just find one on ex's plan. (Why do they not return phone calls?) Now I've got an appt with a ped who specializes in it. Whatever. Whomever. He comes recommended.

Once the teachers were involved, ex hopped on board, as absolutely reluctant as he's been with me for years. It's been harder with J, but I told him what's happening isn't working, so we're going to try something else. If it doesn't work, then fine. I didn't elaborate on how hard it is to get the right med at the right dosage. Alas. Of course when I told him I would be taking him whether he wanted to or not, he said he would not go and it's just like my philosophy about babies and kids being victims of the medical system, captive audiences to get treatments they don't want. He's too smart for his britches. Somehow, I was able to tap dance out of that one.

We're all excited about middle school around here. He's chosen strings orchestra as one of his electives. As his other, he's chosen shop. Ex and I find that funny and odd, but it's fine with me, as long as he gets it out of his system by the time college prep classes are available. I figure it's a Scouting influence. Speaking of which, he's doing well in Scouts. It's perhaps his favorite thing, but as with everything else, he's only so motivated. I have to stay on him for his obligations, but he generally comes through in the end.

My relationship is on track to be the grandest roller coaster ride of all time, complete with stomach churns and screams. I often wish one of us would get off the pot and do the breaking up, but we don't. We love each other and get along well, except when we don't. I still think she's cheap -with me - and I'm still sick of what she continues to give others. Further, her life's dramas spill over into mine; I can request to not hear about such, but still do and then I can't shake it and how it all influences us. Of late, the stress is getting to me and making me less than charming in the other areas in my life. I don't like my cortisol levels to maintain such a high level that I am a royal bitch all the time. It's begun to affect me physically. Her phone was out all last week and I felt a blissful measure of peace.

Another alas.

Tell me about all your alas-es.