Well, that didn’t really work. I’m still droopy and sullen. So I will try the opposite, and we can list the things that are making us cranky or sad or droopy or sullen or upset.
1. Sundry‘s Cat still missing after several days.
2. Mother-in-law coming in 2 months, and I’m in “Pfff, I’m not even going to TRY to clean the house” mode, which I know from experience will turn magically into “OMG WHY HAVE I NOT BEEN WORKING ON CLEANING THIS HOUSE???” mode right around the time it is too late, and then I will spend eight frantic hours cleaning one small closet to perfection while the rest of the house caves in on itself in a pit of crumbs and pet hair.
3. Sick of taking children to pool.
4. Self-delusion: “We’ll get SO MUCH DONE this summer without the school schedule interfering!”
5. Coffee NOT WORKING. Why?? OH COFFEE, WHAT HAVE I DONE TO OFFEND THEE?
6. Want baked stuff. Don’t feel like baking.
7. Whole bunch of Postcrossing postcards taking too long to get to destinations. HURRY UP.
8. Female child screaming all the time, claiming “bruvvers” (brothers) are “bahvering” (bothering) her. By existing, apparently, if the scream frequency is to be believed.
9. Male children consistently misunderstanding which part of the potty the pee is supposed to go into.
10. Just heard that fluorescent bulbs have mercury in them, and that they have to be disposed of in certain ways other than tossing them in the trash, and that if they break you’re supposed to LEAVE THE ROOM and air it out. Dude, I have broken, like, three bulbs, and then I and my five small children have continued to INHALE UN-AIRED AIR. Furthermore, I have been putting the bulbs in the trash without realizing I wasn’t supposed to. I am not actually giving up on all environmental efforts because of this setback, but it’s the kind of thing I’m mentally threatening as I mentally kick over recycling cans.
“Sullen” is the perfect word for my mood today. And what’s bothering me? “Everything.”
* I have a headache, probably because I slept crappily and I ache all over and I think I’m getting sick.
* The husband is pouting because he’s sure, as always, that he doesn’t get enough of teh sex. *eye roll*
* I have to GET UP to go get a cup of coffee and why oh why can’t someone just bring it to me.
* I desperately need my prescription refilled but just can’t get over to the pharmacy.
* I feel like whining and stomping my feet.
It seriously must be catching because my morning was crummy! I left my phone at work, was 40 minutes late to work (and couldn’t call because my phone was at work), couldn’t find sandals that went with my outfit, hectic, crazy, stressed, etc.
I had some coffee. It was lukewarm. Enough said.
Hope our days go better.
Let’s see. Was up half the night with a kid who is apparently getting her 2 year molars.
Woke up late for work.
Got in my truck which I haven’t used since I got back from the road trip from hell. My husband had apparently used it while I was gone. There was not one lick of gas in it. But what it lacked in gas, it more than made up for in fast food wrappers, gravel dust, dirt, and spitters.
The good news is today is the day my cleaning lady comes. Coming home to a clean house always makes me feel happy.
Hmm, I chose to read THESE comments and not the others! Diagnosis: CRABBY.
*After 7 1/2 years of doing the EXACT SAME SHIT, I am SO OVER my job
*No vacation on the horizon
*Ate gigantic helping of peanut butter straight from the jar at 11 pm and now feel “gross” (SHOCKER)
*Service at Dunkins slow and therefore arrived at work 3 minutes after 7:30. UNACCEPTABLE.
*Could use blog comments but have NO MOTIVATION to post on blog
1. I’m TIRED OF TAKING GABRIEL TO SWIM LESSONS. They ruin the whole evening by their very existence.
2. I still haven’t unpacked anything from my move, which is becoming progressively more problematic.
3. My grandpa’s dead.
4. I had to write his obit.
5. I had to get in touch with the newspapers to publish his obit.
6. People I loathe keep wanting to hug me and I don’t really even like to be hugged by people I love unless the occasion warrants it.
7. My house is a disaster (see item 2).
8. I haven’t been grocery shopping in weeks (see item 1).
9. My rent went up in the same month that my income went down due to furloughs.
10. Fracking furloughs. Bite me.
11. Every time I send Gabriel to his dad’s for the weekend all thoughtfully packed he comes back with like, half of his stuff. APPARENTLY he now only owns two pairs of shorts? In August? Called his dad to ask about it, got chewed out for caring, and also told that with ALL MY FANCY CHILD SUPPORT, I can buy the child clothes. But…uh…I need the clothes to stay in his dresser? Sometimes?
12. My car is so messy it should be criminal.
13. I’m tired of my music.
14. I’m so tired I don’t know what to do with myself.
15. Oh god. I’m stopping now. Christ.
THREE AND FOUR….yes, I couldn’t agree more. And yet every summer I think it’ll be different this summer because _______
*clap clap*
I’m in a sh*tty mood too. Husband, kids, other family. Probably in that order.
1. I think I messed up pretty badly at work.
2. I still have to finish packing.
3. I’m going on a 4 hour flight with my toddler.
4. I’m spending the weekend with my ILs.
5. I have no hope of getting coffee this morning.
It must be going around. I have been grumping at my husband and kids, and I’m not entirely certain why. Life is generally good, and honestly pretty easy (when I step back and look from afar), but I’m still crabby. Maybe the fact that the 3yr-old keeps waking up 45 minutes early? Srsly, is there no time of day that is sacred?
I am working between 12 to 15 hours a day every day at my job, which I hate.
My employer is setting me up to fire me. I want to go into this more, but I will restrain myself.
There are no good job openings anywhere else. Plus, I hate applying for new jobs and interviewing and being rejected.
My son is 9 months old and still wakes up at least 3 or 4 times every night.
#10 is why I refuse to have those lightbulbs inside my house. We only use them outside.
Oh, thank god. I tried to be perky in the last post but this really suits my mood better. Why are we all so sullen, anyway? Is Mercury in retrograde or something?
1) Have basically been informed by my workplace that there is no place for me to go here. In other words, this job? The one that I’ve had for 3 1/2 years? Is pretty much going to be my job until I DIE. Or, you know, leave.
2) In fact, the CEO this morning basically told me this morning that I should consider quitting and consulting.
3) Which is a great idea! Except that my husband is self-employed and my job provides the wee little basics like affordable HEALTH CARE.
4) My husband worked late last night at a second job, which is fine, except that now for the next week he’s going to be lazing about moaning about how tired he is because he worked late for extra money. And the fact that I work late almost every night writing for extra money? Never gets discussed.
5) In case you can’t tell, I am feeling very put upon lately. I feel like I deserve a nice vacation on the beach with a cabana boy and a an in-room massage followed by cold beer and a fried fish sandwich. My chances of getting this? HAHAHAHA.
1. I haven’t been able to leave town on a field trip with the kids ALL SUMMER (literally, I have not left H*town), and now that we finally have a last-minute trip planned for tomorrow, I’m so glued to the house that I don’t even really want to go.
2. Damn puppy.
3. Um, Mommy? Um, Mommy? Um, Mommy? Mommy? Mommy? BAH!
4. Patrick got the only teacher I really wasn’t happy for him to get rather than the male teacher we really wanted him to have. I think a man would have been really, really good for him. Sigh.
5. WHY is it 105 outside? Have I been somehow tramsported to the Mojave Desert in my sleep?! Oh, no, wait, it’s not HUMID in a DESERT. I HATE SUMMER.
6. My mother announced that she’s coming on Columbus Day weekend because it’s LONGER. ?!?!!? What have I been doing wrong?!?!?!?
7. School supplies + dog eating Patrick’s backpack + Josie needing new frames and lenses = POORHOUSE.
Ok either my coffee isn’t working or the humidity is getting to me.
-There is crap on tv, and the radio. I’m settling for Phinneas & Ferb since Spongebob makes me want to rip my hair out! (kids are watching it…)
-I need to schedule a checkup and annual. Wee.
-I need to clean, but at least my house isn’t like the hoarder show that was on TLC last night.
-Back to school season is upon us and there is ALREADY Halloween crap in the stores. WTH people. Slow down you move to fast…
-We are going to Grandmas today, where we will make CUPCAKES. Sugar makes everything more divine. CLAP CLAP!
1. We are so unbelievable broke from vacation and then the trip for Grandma’s funeral that we can’t even afford GROCERIES or a frickin’ GALLON OF PAINT to spruce up the house because…
2. SIL and friend are coming for a visit. THAT is not the bad part–I LOVE them. The bad part is that they switched weekends on us which is interfering with a GS overnight I had planned with my co-leader–which I JUST realized that she scheduled for SUNDAY instead of Saturday when, um, I HAVE TO BE AT WORK MONDAY MORNING???
3. Husband and I are going back and forth over whether or not I should quit my horrible, no good job and take in before/after school kids (as, make no mistake, we NEED the piddly-@$$ money my job brings in). I am completely FREAKED out that I won’t get enough kids to make it worth my while. And yet…the JOB is not exactly worth my while, either. I HATE decisions like this!
4. I CAN’T AFFORD THE ENDLIST LIST OF SCHOOL SUPPLIES MY THREE KIDS NEED! NOR *GASP* SHOES! And…I’m thinking of quitting my JOB?!!!! AUGH!!!!!
Sorry…that was all more PANIC than SULLEN. *sigh*
1. It’s only Thursday, I wish it were Friday.
2. My kid keeps trying to stick his fingers in my mouth.
3. When not sticking his fingers in my mouth, he finds his way into the kitchen to scale the counters/make a mess/try to drink the olive oil.
4. I’m tired.
I am SO SAD about Cat as well. She needs to come back NOW.
However. If I had four bruvvers they’d probably be bahvering me with their existence, too.
My husband and everyone else in the world have talked me into finding out the sex of Baby2 for PRACTICAL reason with which I can’t argue. But I do NOT want to find out.
I have a headache.
I need to go shopping for maternity clothes this weekend as my work pants no longer fasten, however, I know there will be no under-the-belly pants available. Who decided elastic bands to your boobs was the only way to keep pants up while pregnant?
Oh, I have to say this is even more fun than yesterday.
So yesterday one of my happy things was that I was going to San Diego soon to visit my sister.
Here’s the cranky side of that: we (me, hubby, 3yo) have to leave the house by 3:50 AM to get to the airport for our 6am flight. Which, BTW, is taking us to New York (read: away from California) to spend FOUR HOURS at JFK before flying (bascially back over our house) out to CA. I am already mentally prepared for it to be the trip from hell.
Oy these comments made me cry partly because I’m already pretty fragile due to my own stuff but also because I hate to hear that so many people are struggling to make ends meet.
My sad news: I am supposed to be going to graduate school in September. I haven’t been able to get the loans to finance it. I am still holding on to hope that something will work out at the last minute but I am afraid that if it doesn’t happen now I’ll be stuck in jobs that I hate for the rest of my life.
After a blissful month of no pain, ear plugging-jaw pain nastiness is BACK and it is making me GRUMPY. Also, it’s making my hearing not so good, which is bringing me dangerously close to having to say, in all seriousness, “speak into my good ear, will ya?”
BUT, I have brownies. Should I express mail you some?
I think there’s something wrong w/ me in that I ignored yesterday’s comment section and eagerly gobbled up today’s.
Anyhoo. Mine are:
1) can’t drink much caffeine, and also don’t feel like having coffee anymore, but tea tastes yucky in the morning and it’s too early for diet coke and also diet pop will kill my beh-bee. So I just DON’T WAKE UP, really, until about ten am.
2) my dog is such a pain in my arse I feel I can’t even talk about it without wanting to kick him. Which, eh, would be wrong.
3) I was out of town, then I found out I was preggo, then kids are sick and so I haven’t been to the Y in almost two weeks.
4) I rearranged a bunch of stuff in the living room and I really like the effect, but now you can see a bunch of scratches and nail holes in the walls that were hidden before, and I don’t have any more of that paint to COVER the scratches and nail holes. Grump. And husband already violently shot down the idea of (him) repainting the whole room.
5) Checked bank accounts today. Wanted to puke. Oh dear husband’s employer, please reinstate full salaries. Also, dear progesterone, please stop costing me ninety dollars a bottle.
6)Last but not least, am anxious and frightened about the pregnancy sitch. I just want to know, one way or another, so I can try to adjust my expectations. Right now I just feel fat and inconvenienced, but all the joy and radiance that is also usually there is still on hold.
My dad let me know yesterday morning that our family dog had seizures all night, which the vet thinks was from a massive stroke and had to be put asleep. :(
Job searching in this job market? Enough said.
Not having a job in this economic state?
Enough said.
Oh my
1. Only a few days left of our summer vacation. booo
2. Still haven’t written thank yous for birthdays in MAY. Need to do it, but feel guilty, so don’t write them to avoid guilt. lather, rinse, repeat.
3. Last baby is outgrowing clothes, because she is rude.
4. Need anniversary present for husband, but have no ideas.
5. Start back at work next week, but work clothes don’t fit yet.
6. Postpartum weight loss is not accomplished by sitting on couch eating eating ice cream sandwiches.
7. My hair is ugly.
9 weeks pregant, so I want to vomit constantly and I get carsick on my commute home. Commute home is 45 minutes on a good day.
Air conditioning is slowly going out in my car. (I live in Atlanta.)
Rent went up this month.
My husband graduated with no job, so I’m have to work fulltime and take in freelance work when I get home/during my lunch break, while he gets to watch movies and do hobbies and hang with other unemployed friends, because there’s almost no point in even looking for a job right now. Doesn’t help that I’m constantly tired, the alarm goes off at 6.30, and he gets to sleep in.
Feel guilty for hating on my unemployed friends, who would much rather have my problems, I’m sure. At least we still make ends meet.
1. Even though we’ve terminated one, I’ve still got a mouse in my house, or as I imagine more likely many, many mice. I want to call an exterminator, by my husband is confident that we can take care of the problem on our own. Meanwhile I have to keep every area of the home spotless and all food properly stored in my overflowing cupboards and pantries (had to throw out the loaf of bread after it ate through the plastic) so not to feed the little effers and end up with mouse poop on my counters.
2. MOUSE POOP ON MY COUNTERS!!! I can’t even go there about the horror show I found behind the toaster.
3. My company is closing my current office location, and my commute each way will soon increase about an hour to get to the alternate facility.
4. My 3 year old 62” television has died. Watching a 32” while we are waiting to fix or replace the lemon, and I can’t believe how rotten spoiled I have become, because it totally sucks.
Hmph.
School cannot start soon enough. Seriously.
Yesterday my 1yo was awake from 12:30-2:45am and my 3yo got up at 6:30 so I did not get enough sleep since I didn’t plan ahead and go to bed right after dinner.
Also yesterday, my 3yo decided that we HAD to go to Ikea and it HAD to be right away. Which was fine, since I had a few things I could pick up there. But as soon as we got there and rode the escalator up to the showroom she decided that we HAD to go home and spent the whole rest of the trip asking to go home RIGHT AWAY, MOMMY! Then when I had wrestled everyone into the car and we were driving out of the Ikea garage she started sobbing, “NO! I want to go back!”
Everyone else’s troubles are so much more serious than mine that I sound like a whiny complainer. Jerks!
One of my daughters happily skips into kindergarten and the other one moans and whines and has various illnesses because she doesn’t want to go. I am fretting because I don’t know if I
1. Ignore it. It is a phase and will pass.
2. Give her a swift kick in the butt along with a lecture on how sometimes we have to do things we don’t like
3. Give her sympathy b/c she really is scared or stressed.
I feel like I’ll eff her up if I choose the wrong one.
Caffiene has been bothering my stomach SO MUCH lately that I have (moan) given it up and I miss it more than words can express.
Put on so much weight on an 8 day vacation that I can basically put nothing in my mouth for the next few weeks otherwise I’d be drowning my caffeine cravings in chocolate.
*I can no longer roll over without it being a 5 minute grunt-fest
*I went on maternity leave expecting to have, like, a baby or something. No, that would be too easy
*I cannot have the amount of coffee I want, so I have none. I have had no coffee for 9 months.
*I have cried for a good portion of the day every day this week. Feeling lonely, unloved, unappreciated for the extreme efforts it takes doing small things for Hubs and he does not notice
*There was a hurt pidgeon in my home for TWO DAYS. It also flapped around and scared me and oh god do I hate birds.
*Have gained SEVENTY pounds thus far in pregnancy. This is on top of the 50 I could have already stood to lose.
The good part: My cats love that I’m home and have been forcibly cuddling me all day long.
Pretty much just didn’t get pregnant this month. Yep.
You know what though? I’m going to Disneyland on Monday and Tuesday w/ my husband for my 30th birthday and NOW I CAN RIDE ALL THE RIDES.
So . . . silver linings, yo.
Um, am I a horribly evil person if #8 made me laugh hysterically?
Hubby is undergoing allergy testing and so far appears to be allergic to, oh, pretty much anything that smells or tastes good.
As for me, job search, job smerch. It’s bahversome, put it that way.
Hugs and brownies all ’round!
(1) I don’t drink coffee, but I do drink Diet Coke. I’ve got two left–the one I’m drinking right now and the other one that’s supposed to last me until I go to the grocery store this afternoon. At 3pm. It’s not even 10am, yet.
(2) My 6YO keeps bullying my 2YO because she’s “annoying” him. Well kid, you’re annoying me. Can I push you to the ground, now?
(3) Also very sad about Sundry’s Cat. Come home, kitty!
(4) Thank God today is payday. We’ve been living out of the change jar for a week because hubby is a dumbass and somehow, a mere four days after payday, had only $8 in his checking account. WTF?
(5) Also thank God for my mother. She took the kids shopping for gym shoes over the weekend. Apparently, I cannot afford my own children. How depressing.
(6) Been having major bouts of wanting ice cream, which I’m not supposed to eat (lactose intolerant) but I want it to badly and have been eating it anyway. Consequently, I’ve had an upset stomach quite a lot.
(7) Completely uninspired re: housework and as a result, the house is a mess. Not just a little clutter, but like CALL CPS MESSY.
Miss Grace,
I used to have the same problem with my ex-husband. He kept every single item of fair to good quality that arrived at his house with our son.
My solution: I purchased an entire wardrobe for my child from the thrift store. These were the ONLY clothes that went to ex’s house with the child. Week by week, the entire wardrobe wound up over there while I was able to hang on to the nicer stuff at my own house.
Hope that helps.
Sorry you are cranky. I am as well. Despite the fact that I don’t realy want the summer to end, I would like a teeny, tiny break from kid stuff. I don’t want to go to another playground, kid movie or sit by the baby pool.
I want to spent 5 uninterrupted hours in the company of interesting and well-dressed adults.
A girl can dream. We’re actually off to see G-Force.
1. i had Restless Leg Syndrome until nearly 3am last night
2. so i am super tired today
3. but i still have to go running because i totally failed to do so yesterday
4. GENERAL WAH.
I am mind numbingly tired. My daughter is finally sleeping through the night after a year but now I am restless and don’t sleep well. At all.
I’ve gained five pounds in two weeks since I quit breastfeeding. I have to suck it up and start working out and I HATE working out. Hate it.
Yipes! I got the Crabtastics too. Let’s pick a time and all scream out the window ‘I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore!!!”
The other day I ran into a woman who said two things about my baby.
1. “Oh, look at her! She’s cute, but so CHUBBY. A little too chubby! Too much of that good mother’s milk!”
And then because we were walking in the same direction at the same speed and I could not get away:
2. “I wonder what babies think about being taken out in heat like this?”
(80 degrees and breezy)
I thought: wow. This woman appears to have never been socialized. Perhaps she is Swistle’s mother in law!
I once broke a compact flourescent bulb when my youngest was an infant … and this was right after I placed him on the couch for just a minute and he somehow fell off onto his head.
This led to one of the most frantic fifteen minutes of my life. I ran around the house with a screaming baby, yelling, “The bulb broke! What do I do! The baby! Aaaah!” My preschooler followed me around asking, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
After I finally threw it all in the trash, I looked it up and the amount of mercury in the bulbs is very small. So, yes, you are supposed to put the piece in a jar and tape it shut, and air out the room for 15 minutes, but, depressingly, I think we are exposed to more harmful things on a daily basis than the mercury from a CFL bulb.
Feel better now? (sorry. so not helpful)
Wow, All those super sad comments made me feel kinda better. Thanks Swistle. You made my day.
Nothing seems quite as bad now that I know everyone is struggling right along with me.
I’ve been in a bad mood all day myself. It started with being late to work and ended with a bad headache. Hope your day got better.
I can play both games, esp. because at the last one, I was having a good day and today I had a bad day.
–Feel like I’m getting a sore throat. Just now. right before vacation.
–ate sandwich last night for dinner which does NOTHING and then stuffed myself with pepperoni (which I can’t spell) and cheese just before bed. FAT.
–headache also, what is up with that?
–only got 6 hours sleep last night (i know that’s prob. a lot more than a lot of people get but I’m a “must have 8 hours” person) and felt like I could fall asleep all day and now it’s bedtime and i’m not tired anymore. go figure.
–worst part of my day was virus infected my WORK computer (NOT supposed to happen) and now I can’t surf the internet and that means I have to be all productive and shit.
–my facebook page was hacked.
1: Just had bathtub re-filled underneath, re-fiberglasses and repainted. For the 4th time this year.
2: Can’t use ONLY shower for almost 3 days.
3: Bathtub paint smells like combination of nail salon and burned sugar.
4: Could really use that shower because I just spilled lukewarm coffee down my shirt. Which I didn’t feel because it’s BODY TEMPERATURE.
5: My awesome, seriously strong, coffee is luch warm and rewarmed coffee is G R O S S.
6: The air is 80F, full of smoke from unknown fire and it is 79% humid. yick.
7: Have to list 18 things on Etsy and am totally procratinating.
8: Still have to change clothes from recent coffee spill. *JUST* did laundry.
9: Have hurty spot on my head where my hair is protesting its constant up state. IE: My HAIR hurts.
Swistle…can I come whine with you? I thnk we’d make one hell of a team.
I don’t have much to say except I roared at your title, I’m pretty sure I’m going to make that my new theme song!
Hope your days are less clappy :)
Hey Swistle,
I love your crabby writing. You are so real. I heart your crabbiness.
Re: MIL visit, check out FlyLady (I feel a bit like a dufus mentioning this, because you seem so far advanced in all things that you probably already know about her site, but just in case…) I’m sure she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but her specialty seems to be de-overwhelmifying re:cleaning.
To the other commenters: you are all fantastic. I especially appreciate the woman who is being hugged by folks she can’t stand. I am a touch-deprived hugger, myself, and your comment made me laugh. I try to keep it under control, and I’ll try to do better in the future!
I’ve had a runny nose for the last two hours. So runny that I’m sitting here with tissue shoved into my nostrils and it’s still running past the tissue dam. Gross. Sorry for oversharing.
Swistle – I know this goes against the theme of todays comments however you sound like you need to hear it…
I LOVE your blog. I look forward to it every day and if there isn’t a new post I keep checking in until there is.
I think you are doing an AWESOME job of raising 5 children and retaining your sense of humour. I have 3 and they drive me completely insane.
Your posts are always fun, funny and interesting. Thank you for taking the time out of what must be insanely busy days to write them. They always make my day better.
Sarah- Come live with me. I will feed you muffins.
Are you kidding about the light bulbs? There are always new things to worry about. I totally relate to where you are coming from. Sometimes it is so hard to get out of a funk. I’m working on it.
I’m not feeling grouchy today, but I can conjure up things to be grouchy about, FOR YOU:
— This week was completely OFF ROUTINE, with 1/2 days of school, no school, baby not going to daycare, meals out. Crazy.
— I am developing another cold. My husband NEVER gets colds and blames me for being lazy and not taking Vitamin C.
— I had to use my debit card yesterday for a $1.04 purchase. Hate.
— My purse is a fricking mess. Receipts and papers tucked in everywhere, and 2 quarters swimming along the bottom.
— My coworker won’t shut up and I’m trying to proofread a 28-page document.
I feel the beginnings of period cramps. This means:
A. Our sail boat outing tomorrow, that I’ve been looking forward to all week, will now require careful wardrobe planning and feminine hygiene products. Sexy.
B. Didn’t get pregnant! Again! SHOCKER.
Those lightbulbs freak me out too. I live in fear of ours breaking. Maybe I should buy five hazmat suits just in case.