I Am SO Not Ready For This

More good news: the surgery on Wednesday was uneventful and the doctor saw nothing that concerned her.  Fingers crossed that those biopsy results come back benign also.  Man, it stinks getting old.  

In other news, we were told this week that it is realistic for Thing One to look at playing Division III soccer in college, should he choose to do so.  Most likely not D1 (says his coach, who played D1 himself and also has a son playing D1 soccer now) but that’s okay since D1 soccer is like a job anyway.  Not much time for anything but school and soccer at that level.  At any rate, that was eye-opening.  The kid is a solid player but I don’t have the perspective that the coach does, so having the coach tell him he has the potential was a big deal.

As I type this, Thing One and Himself are sitting at the kitchen table looking at ID camps, which are summer camps held with the purpose of putting HS players in front of college coaches who may want to recruit them.  As part of this, they are discussing which colleges he would potentially like to attend, so he can get himself to the camps that their coaches are attending.

Yes, this year is mostly for practice and getting a feel for how ID camps work. Next summer and the summer after that will be much more important.  But still: my HS freshman is starting to think about college and that hurts my heart. 

One Down

Got some great news tonight: the biopsy results for the weird spot on my forehead came back and it’s benign.  Hallelujah.   Not cancer, no MOHS surgery needed, not even any follow-up to be done.  Just a little healing spot on my forehead now. I’m so relieved I could sing.

Surgery for removal of the uterine polyps is set for Wednesday afternoon.  Hopefully won’t be too big a deal.  Apparently I should even be able to teach taekwondo class on Thursday as scheduled as long as I take it easy, which can be arranged.  Looking forward to having that surgery over with though...ugh.  I take my usual good health for granted, so these bumps in the road seem bigger than they are. Maybe I should make gratefulness my lesson out of all of this??

Well, This Sucks

In the last two days, I’ve had two appointments with two different doctors.  I just scheduled surgery for removal of uterine polyps for next week and I may also have a small basal cell carcinoma on my forehead (won’t know for sure until biopsy results come back.)  If it is, I need surgery for that too.  Jesus.  Both will likely end up fine but I am not happy.  What a freaking week.  And I have a school board meeting tomorrow night (contract negotiation) that will likely go half the night too.  

Growl. Snap. Snarl. 

Smacking Myself In The Head

Things that I should *NOT* have to say to my fourteen year-old freshman:

“Please don’t shoot rubber bands at the chandelier.”  Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

This is right up there with the “No, we don’t do science experiments in broken light bulbs even if they DO look like beakers...” incident of 2016.  Is this just a boy thing???

Any of you with similar stories, please please share!  So hoping that this is not just my house.


Edited to add: I feel better already.  I told my best male friend that story.  His response was that he remembers his own mother saying, "Would you please not teach your sister to put peas in her nose??"

Poll

Ok all, question for you.

As background, a friend introduced me to his wife this evening.  She is a lovely woman, and it was a pleasure to meet her.  However, he referred to her as "the boss."  As in, "[Mama D], meet the boss.  Karen, this is [Mama D.]"

Very odd.  Best case scenario, a terrible cliché.  Worst case scenario, either she does have all the power in the relationship or he is being condescending, neither one of which I would guess is the case based on what I know of this guy.

So, the question:

1) appropriate
2) weird, or
3) just no?

I eagerly await your opinion.

Changes

After a seminar at our dojang yesterday, there was an instructor meeting.   The program head wanted to discuss some new directions and procedures, all of which sound like a good idea.  He's clearly thought this through completely.  There will be some bugs with the rollout, but whatever.  They will get handled.  I just thought it was cool that I was invited to be part of the conversation.

So much work to do still though.  I'm really understanding now why they say that the black belt is simply the first step in the journey...since people are looking at me to teach them now, I need to be a technically-correct, knowledgeable model.  No pressure there.  :)

Sometimes Being Female Is Exhausting

And I'm not even talking about divisions of labor.  I'm coming at this from a purely grooming-related standpoint at the moment.  So many things that go into being presentable, at least conventionally so.

Cut, dye and style hair.  Manicures and pedicures.  Skin: creams and lotions and potions.  Makeup (so, so many makeup options.)  Fillers?  Botox?  Shaving, plucking, waxing.  And the clothes, dear god the clothes.  And the shoes.  And other matching accessories of course.  Overwhelming.  And in my opinion at least, just not worth it.  So OK with being the woman in the woods in a ponytail, jeans and hiking boots; I can't even process having to keep up with being a woman of style.  I don't have the energy for that.

Thinking about this today because I recently received the first in a series of monthly shipments of beauty samples.  This was a Christmas present from my dear MIL, who (I should say) is not at all the high-maintenance sort either.  The idea was that it might be fun to try a few new things.  The first box contained a small mascara tube, a shampoo and conditioner set that worked just fine but weren't especially remarkable, a face cream that I actually liked a lot, and then a small tube of some serum thing that actually stopped me in my tracks because I have no freaking idea what to do with it.

I gather that it is something that is supposed to be in my daily skincare regimen.  Which would be good if I actually HAD a daily skincare regimen...but no.  Middle-aged woman fail.  Unless, of course, keeping my face clean, well moisturized, and the hell out of the sun constitutes a regimen (doubtful) in which case I'm covered.  The world of retinols, peels, masks and such is alien to me.  It takes me approximately two minutes to put on makeup, for real.  I have no idea whatsoever what could take more than about ten minutes, which again, is the measure of my ignorance, not a criticism of women who actually know what they're doing and enjoy it.

I just don't have the energy or the time to worry that much about what I look like, I guess.  And I sure don't look like any Barbie doll, but in the tradeoff I'm ok with that.