Humpity Doodle

The past couple of days at work have been wonderful. I've gotten loads of cataloging done, my eyes haven't been too awful, and I'm generally healthy. Beast has been home sick and his mom is having some of those unpleasant chemo side-effects both of which suck, but otherwise things are stable.

So I was doing my hour in the kids' room yesterday just after lunch. Because school is in session, there are usually only preschoolers and their moms in there, if anyone at all. Yesterday, it was two moms with their kids using the games computers (Reader Rabbit, et al.) and one younger kid wandering around with his mom while his brother worked on a puzzle on the computer.

The younger kid was on a leash.

Yes. Really. In a library at 1:00 p.m., in a 'crowd' of 6 people.

Let me just say that as a general concept, I don't have a problem with kids on a leash. I've known enough toddlers who moved at the speed of light and had no fear in large crowds, and I see the usefulness of keeping those sorts of kids leashed at carnivals, malls at Christmas time, etc. Not so much in a virtually empty library.

So that was weird. Then Older Bro started having trouble with the puzzle and growled loudly. You know that noise people make when they are REALLY FRUSTRATED, sort of a sigh-with-a-tsk in the back of the throat like an annoyed German shepherd? Rather loud? Yeah. That was followed by "MOM! I can't do this!" and a bang of the mouse.

Mom's response: "Shhh. You have to be quiet in the library" and a little direction while Little Bro was yanking her across so he could grab stuff off the desk in front of me.

So that kind of went on for awhile. The other mom/daughter combination were quietly doing their thing next to Older Bro, who kept getting frustrated. Rather than really help him, mom would either do it for him or tell him precisely what to do, which is pretty counter-productive. And finally, after one explosion, Little Bro starts chanting something. You know how kids like to say the same thing over and over until you want to stuff them in a closet and run away? At first, I couldn't believe my ears, then I didn't want to. He was chanting the perfectly-appropriate-for-his-brother's-attitude "Fuck it fuck it fuckit fuckit fuckit..."

Mom's response: "Shhh. You have to be quiet in the library." Nothing about his choice of words, which then morphed into "take this stupid leash off me, take this stupid leash off me, takethisstupidleashoffme..."

I went in the workroom and asked Miss W if she knew this family...yes. Of course. The advice I got was "don't piss her off; she's right on the edge of freakout at all times." Great.

When I got back to the desk, I have no idea what had been going on, but the other mom was looking at me in shocked horror and her 2-year-old daughter was peering around the edge of the carrel at Older Bro.

I'm tellin' ya, 2:00 couldn't come soon enough!! Some people just shouldn't have children (and this woman apparently has 6).

And then I went to the eye doctor who didn't even ask me what was going on, but after a look in both eyes he went and got two different sample eyedrops and told me to use each of them 6 times a day and come back Monday. Then he asked if my eyes have been producing pus (by the way, how does one spell the word he really used which is "pus" followed by "y"??). Uh, no; what a thought! So see, things could have been worse. I love my eye doctor: 5 minutes and he had me diagnosed. Why did I have to dork around with other doctors before who had no fuckin' clue...?

Oh, and I need bifocals. And Sparky's eyesight and mine went completely FUBAR this year.

Funniest thing the doctor said: "When you get your bifocals, you'll need to wear them all the time to get used to them." Well, uh, since I can't see without my glasses, that really won't be a problem!

So I'm on the 3 hour cycle for eyedrops (cuz, no, I'm not getting up in the middle of the night just to dose my eyes!), but they already seem to feel a little better. I guess Monday I should ask exactly what is/was wrong with them, eh?

Sparky has a half-day of school today for some reason. Beast actually pulled himself together enough to go in to work for a few hours, though I'm sure he won't last all day. I work the 12-9 shift today, so I have time to kill this morning (ha ha ha ha). So I'm off to kill it.


Mood: OK
Hair: Feh (I haven't even looked at it yet today)
Eyes: Medicated
Listening to: Sparky belching