my busy girl, and, fuckity

[flea]

For the final hour before bed Casper started carting her dollbaby around, and its bottle, and climbing into various chairs. She'd position herself and the doll just so, feed the doll. Reposition. Feed. Get out of the chair, go around to another. Not saying much, occasionally making an unintelligible pronouncement. Eventually picked up a throw pillow and added that into the carry-it-around mix. When she started saying "bed" I invited her to come to her bedroom and nurse. She did, with the doll bottle in one hand, and the pillow and doll clutched to her chest (it was a little crowded!) Then quietly to bed, smiling.

She's started to "read" books to herself; will sit on the floor, legs spread, turning the pages and talking quietly to herself.

Today she didn't want to nap (it's my afternoon home with her) so I told her she could play in her crib if she wanted but it was quiet time. She cried briefly but then played quietly for a while and eventually fell asleep. When I went in to put a blanket over her (the heat was off again when we came home, silly furnace, and it hadn't warmed all the way up yet) I found her lying sideways in the crib, feet sticking out the rails, on top of a huge pile of stuffed toys and blankets - she'd pulled everything in or hanging on the crib into a pile and sat on it. Trying to climb out? Her head was lower than her butt. I can't even figure out how she fell asleep that way!

In fuckity news, I get so aggravated by this community's inability to deal with snow. We had half an inch - no freezing rain, no ice storm, a simple half-inch of snow. I cleared my steps and sidewalk with a broom. I thought of calling the city and suggesting they send out the street sweeper. About one in 4 of the cars that went down my street - which was indeed icy in patches for a couple of hours, and may be again by now - was sliding. You know it's the drivers, not the conditions, when some cars can cruise along at 20 mph as if the roads are fine, and others creep along, 5 mph, sliding, then revving ridiculously (and dangerously) and drifting astray.

The local news stations are in full-on crisis mode, and have interrupted regular programming. In Raleigh (where they are said to have had an inch of snow), several elementary schools have stranded kids - 20, 50, even 80. Elementary schools are usually closed by 3pm, and I think these released early. WTF? The principal they spoke to live said the parents they'd spoken to were stuck in traffic. FIVE HOURS after school closed?

I need to work on being less annoyed by this. The area will not learn to deal with snow. Maybe I can learn to be less annoyed by the lack of dealing.

In other fuckity news, self-inflicted, I am out of checks and am supposed to pay the nanny tomorrow. I ordered new checks Sunday. Hmm. Should I pay her in cash? Will my ATM let me take out that much cash, or will it assume I am being mugged?

Comments

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

I had always thought the one-day ATM limit was $500, but I did once find that not to be true. So, depending on how much $$ you need, you could potentially get it from an ATM. You could also get cash from a bank teller -- then you could get $100 bills for ease of transport....

Also, Casper = cutie, and people who can't deal with 1 inch of snow = jackholes.

[gchick.livejournal.com]

The boy has been stuck on Glenwood Ave. for the last 3 hours, trying to get home from work, and he learned to drive in New Hampshire.... Yeah, snark all you like at the local media and the idiots who run to the store for 14 gallons of milk at the first flurry, but kindly do remember that the people who are stuck may just be stuck while they clear the wrecks, and aren't all those idiots themselves. Umm. If that makes any sense at all.

(And I know that's probably not what you meant, and I should get over it myself, but in its way "these ignoramuses can't deal with snow" is as predictable a pattern as "I must get to the store in case we're iced in all week!")

[gchick.livejournal.com]

And, to clarify (because I'm afraid I came off as really asshatted in the last comment) -- I do stay in if I can when there's weather, and I do worry about it, and make a much bigger deal of it than I would've when I lived in New England. Not because it's any scary amount of weather, but because I've lived here long enough to have those skidding cars skid into me, and to know that while clearing my street is never, EVER part of the plan, my street's plan is to turn into solid ice at the merest provocation. So I'd like the city to handle it better, but the "oh, look at the quaint people who are worrying" that I see every time has really come to feel like "ha! you're too much of a hick to handle it!"

Which, again, I know isn't what you meant.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know it's predictable. That's why I'm trying not to be so annoyed. Not working well, though. I'm mostly annoyed at the civil authorities and their lack of planning for something that happens every year (we're 3 for 3 since I've lived here, anyway). Not annoyed by by innocent S. and his ilk. I've been his ilk. Freezy stuff falls from the sky. Get some frickin' salt and sand and trucks to spread it with!

My street appears to be bare and dry, FWIW. No traffic, neither.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

We xposted, btw!

[gchick.livejournal.com]

I saw! Oops...

And in my crankiness, I completely forgot that the reason I originally hit the comment button was Casper's massive stockpile of toys. SO CUTE!

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Depends on your bank--I think my one day limit is $300, from an ATM. But yeah, can't you go to an actual, like...bank? Well, unless you have to leave it for her in the morning and just realized it now, I suppose. Would she let you at least pay SOME of it in cash, and give her a check the next day?

[burrell.livejournal.com]

I love the stack of toys. Franny will do that sometimes if she wakes up and we're not around (or we're asleep). I just figure she wanted a little company.

[ste-noni.livejournal.com]

Since I was bitching last night about the road conditions, I'd just like to say that I have no hard feelings towards the innocent drivers out there.

My frustration is directed at the 10% of drivers who screw it up for the rest of us and the city officials who can't seem to get the salt/sand out on the roads. I actually heard a city official say last night "we can't salt with all the cars on the road." Surely there is some way around this problem as it happens all the time where it snows frequently.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

I'll also note that the tendency for everyone to leave work and get on the roads as soon as it starts snowing is a real problem. Once it's impromptu "rush hour" a few bad drivers and accidents can cause a serious backup. The paper reported people were in traffic jams ALL NIGHT in Raleigh. Obviously, if the cars are not moving on the roads, it's awfully hard to salt and sand! In my experience of snowy places, there isn't the mass exodus from work unless it's predicted to keep getting worse (and by worse, I mean, keep snowing indefinitely at the rate of an inch an hour or more).

mr. flea stayed at work until 8pm - his usual time, more or less - and sailed home from Raleigh. But he said I-40 was a terrible parking lot going into Raleigh.

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Love the image of Casper with her head lower than her toes, feet poking out the side of the crib.