7 Quick Takes: Court Edition

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Travel. All of my flights went well other than my flight from Bellingham to Seattle being late on Monday and my flight to Bellingham on Tuesday involving horrible turbulence because of a weather system over the Whatcom County line. (I’m not a nervous flyer at all and even I was white-knuckling this one.) My hotel room was lovely and my rental car was great. I got to patronize the Qdoba in the Central Terminal off the C concourse both days even though I had a tight connection on Monday. (I was sitting next to the flight attendants for my San Jose flight who were deadheading from Bellingham. They told me I had time to grab food even though it was a tight connection and they’d make sure I got on my plane. They were right.)

— 2 —

Court. The only way I can put it was that it was brutal. The judge who was supposed to hear the case was elevated to the appellate court and we got a judge who had been on the bench for three days. It was really painful to have to sit there and listen to everything that was said about me. Nothing was conclusively decided and the case was continued to March. I had been made to fly down for this hearing, so I’m more than a little irritated at this.

— 3 —

Lenten devotional. I went straight from court to the airport on Tuesday and tried to channel my pain into editing reflections for my parish’s Lenten devotional booklet. I got quite a bit done and reading the reflections was a blessing to me.

— 4 —

My swearing. You know you might swear a little too much when you text your priest about how court went and she tells you to call her while also mentioning that she is looking forward to learning some new swear words. (She has a fouler mouth than I do so I didn’t teach her anything new.)

— 5 —

Daniel. I prepped like mad for this trip with regard to Daniel’s routine and care. My mom got an updated control journal for him and I did things like prep his lunches ahead of time and lay out his clothes so she could get him through the evening, morning, and afternoon I was gone without having to think too much. (I should add that my mom raised twins and backs me up 100% with Daniel’s care, so he was in the most capable hands with her. He also adores her which helps.) I was worried about him not sleeping but she got him to sleep just fine and handled his wake-up at 3 a.m. without a problem. She and my dad took him for “adventures” to Costco, Fred Meyer, and Haggen after school on Tuesday as well, which was fun for him. He was a happy kid while I was gone, but he was definitely relieved to see me.

— 6 —

State of the Uniom. (Yes, the misspelling is intentional. It was a typo on the tickets.) I haven’t watched it yet or read the transcripts. My life is depressing enough without reading about 45’s nonsense.

— 7 —

How I’m doing now. I’m worn out, not sleeping well, still feeling the sting of what Jon’s attorney said about me, and battling depression. Having to attend this hearing rebroke my heart, and the wound from having to file for divorce had the scab ripped off of it. I really want to crawl under the covers and curl up in a fetal position, but I don’t have that option. Instead, I’m dragging myself out of bed for class and doing what I need to do in order to parent Daniel because he needs a functional mama.

I don’t talk a lot about my divorce on here because it isn’t fair to Jon to have our dirty laundry aired, but know that it was not a decision I made lightly. Making it felt like I was being ripped in half.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The 20-Week Abortion Ban

I was asked by a couple friends to weigh in on this because I’m one of those people who would qualify for a late-term abortion because of the pregnancy endangering my life.

My take is this: If faced with the decision, I will always decide to save myself first, but I will also argue for them to save the baby if at all possible.

The quote that most accurately reflects my experience is this one from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop:

Protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for an abortion is a smoke screen. In my 36 years of pediatric surgery, I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life. If toward the end of the pregnancy complications arise that threaten the mother’s health, the doctor will induce labor or perform a Caesarean section. His intention is to save the life of both the mother and the baby. The baby’s life is never willfully destroyed because the mother’s life is in danger.

The argument for perinatal hospice has also come up on my Facebook wall and if faced with this decision, I would probably choose to carry my baby for as long as I could before it threatened my life. At that point, I would have them deliver the baby and do whatever I had to do in order to have as much time with my kid as possible.

Tommy Tighe of The Catholic Hipster went through this with his son Luke and he blogged about it.

This quote by C. Everett Koop describes my feeling on the whole issue:

The American ideal is not that we all agree with each other, or even like each other, every minute of the day. It is rather that we will respect each other’s rights, especially the right to be different, and that, at the end of the day, we will understand that we are one people, one country, and one community, and that our well-being is inextricably bound up with the well-being of each and every one of our fellow citizens.

The current pro-life view I see (which really irritates me) is that the mother must carry the child to term and then she’s on her own to raise it because doing otherwise would mean she is a leech on society. If we expect every mother to carry her child, we had better be putting things in place like WIC and early intervention and SSI to allow her to take care of her child once they are born. We need to do things to support the parents of kiddos who are premature and of kiddos who die at birth. To do otherwise is hypocritical.

I also wish people would realize that we’re not talking about an abstract issue. I am a human being as is every woman who faces this decision, so I wish people would stop the Monday morning quarterbacking and stop pretending they know exactly how things should play out. It is horrendously painful to listen to people discuss this who have never faced it and who never will.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: January 28, 2018

For Today… January 28, 2018

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… cold and windy but not bad overall. We’re supposed to get some rain tonight.

I am thinking… about my trip to San Jose for court. I have everything set up for Daniel care and I have to trust that he’ll be OK with my mom and sleep OK tomorrow night. It’s unnerving to say the least!

I am thankful… for everything falling into place for this trip.

One of my favorite things… a good Reddit thread.

I am wearing… jammies. Church clothes were a berry-colored long-sleeved shirt with black slacks and black flats. I switched the slacks out for black jeans when I got home.

I am creating… this blog post. 🙂 Also random stuff on my hooks.

I am listening to… Shawn Colvin singing “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon”.

I am hoping… court is decided in my favor on Tuesday.

I am learning… FICA tax calculations.

In my kitchen… I’ve been eating a lot of tuna subs from Subway.

In the school room… Daniel is becoming a little parrot so I’m having to start watching my language around him.

Post Script… sharing this infographic on how your cat is plotting to kill you. You’re welcome.

Shared Quote… “How, then, to imagine, the expansive heart of this God—greater than God—who takes seven buses, just to arrive at us. We settle sometimes for less than intimacy with God when all God longs for is this solidarity with us. In Spanish, when you speak of your great friend, you describe the union and kinship as being de uña y mugre—our friendship is like the fingernail and the dirt under it. Our image of who God is and what’s on God’s mind is more tiny than it is troubled. It trips more on our puny sense of God than over conflicting creedal statements or theological considerations. The desire of God’s heart is immeasurably larger than our imaginations can conjure. This longing of God’s to give us peace and assurance and a sense of well-being only awaits our willingness to cooperate with God’s limitless magnanimity.”
–Greg Boyle, S.J.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

5 Quick Takes: Reasons My Quick Takes Are Late Edition

7 Quick Takes

I’m usually one of the first to post their Quick Takes when they go live on Friday at midnight (9 p.m. PST where I am) and it’s now Saturday without a post from me! Why, do you ask, are my Quick Takes late this week? Well…

— 1 —

My bed broke. At Christmas, the SKORVA beam that goes down the middle of my IKEA bed broke. My brother had experienced something similar with his IKEA bed, so he helped me prop it with books. The new part arrived after New Year’s and I installed it… but there was another problem. The LUROY slats on which the mattress sits are in two pieces, not one and certain slats kept slipping and making part of the mattress sag. My bed will be slept in by someone else while I’m in San Jose so I had to get this fixed. I just duct-taped the two halves together in such a way that Red Green would approve.

Admittedly, I still think that the designers of the SKORVA and LUROY should be trampled by a herd of syphilitic reindeer.

— 2 —

Court. As some of you know, there’s a request for order hearing this coming Tuesday in my divorce case. I was supposed to be able to testify by phone but was informed by my attorney two weeks ago that they were demanding me to be there in person because they couldn’t handle both Jon and me phoning our testimony into the hearing.

[insert me banging my head against the wall]

So… I cleared it with my parents to have them take care of Daniel and made arrangements to fly to San Jose on Monday afternoon, stay overnight, have court in the morning, and fly back to Washington on Tuesday afternoon. I’ll be gone for a little over 24 hours and am having to put everything together for my mom so that all the Daniel care stuff is automatic. While I have things more or less in place already, I’m having to edit the Daniel care journal to update it about medication and stuff like that.

— 3 —

School. I have work for two classes due on Monday and one of those classes is an enormous time suck. I’ve got everything for the first one done and am about to dive into the calculations for the class that is the time suck.

— 4 —

Daniel had no school on Friday. It was an in-service day or something so he was home yesterday, and that makes things a bit more complicated. Thankfully, he’s a good kid and we were able to go do some of the stocking-up for my trip without a problem.

— 5 —

Health. While I’m recovering more from the respiratory crap last week, I’m still not 100% and still not sleeping well because my breathing sucks. There are a large number of naps being taken and sleeping in happening as a result.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: January 16, 2018

For Today…

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… dark. I’ve been hearing some rain hit the window and the wind blowing.

I am thinking… how miserable I feel. I’ve got bronchitis and the ER doc screwed up on Sunday night in not giving me antibiotics (or doing much of anything really) while I was there. (His bedside manner was similarly abysmal. I’m disappointed because we usually have had such good luck in the ER here.)

I am thankful… I can skip classes tomorrow and I’ve built up enough of a network of notetakers that I have people who can take care of getting them to me this week.

One of my favorite things… being able to breathe. Not happening right now!

I am wearing… jammies.

I am creating… this entry.

I am reading… Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans for the second time. I highly recommend it.

I am hoping… I can get in with my doctor tomorrow for a second opinion on this.

I am learning… how to calculate gross pay in some of the weirdest situations imaginable.

In my kitchen… I made lasagna for comfort food before my ability to breathe disappeared.

Shared Quote…

Build a mirror instead of a wall.

Closing Notes: Please pray for me that they can get me in to see my doctor tomorrow and we can get to the bottom of what this really is.

Thanks!

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: I Can’t Even Edition

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Culture of death. All of you morons who voted for Trump because he was “pro-life”:

Try to defend this. I effing dare you.

(Just for the record, THAT IS NOT PRO-LIFE BEHAVIOR, YOU WEAPONS-GRADE PLUMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

— 2 —

An annotated version. The Southern Poverty Law Center annotated the White House’s statement on 45’s remarks. You can find it here.

— 3 —

Antiquated office machine update. We had a touch addition practice test on Wednesday and I think I averaged 120 kpm with one error. I was really hoping to be over 150 and closer to 200 but that will come with practice. My instructor gave us a bunch of practice sheets and I’ve been working through those.

— 4 —

Anderson Cooper. Anderson Cooper just verbally pwned the White House for calling Haiti a “sh*thole country”. The video is here.

— 5 —

And now a word from our host… Kelly of This Ain’t The Lyceum made a list of magical resolutions and picked her word and beast for this year. I think the coolest part is her beast: a laser unicorn!

— 6 —

Lenten devotional update. The survey I created with my priest was emailed to everyone on Friday and we also had paper copies on Sunday for those who were not techies. I’m honestly pretty excited for what we’ll have, given the breadth of devotional writers. We even have a couple from Resurrección who have offered, which makes my heart sing.

— 7 —

Prayer request. If y’all could pray that my migraine goes away, I’d really appreciate it. Please and thank you!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: January 9, 2018

For Today… January 9, 2018

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… dark. We had rain on and off and lots of clouds with temps in the 40’s F. I have a headache from the weather change, but the rain is worth it.

I am thinking… about classes. It’s nothing profound as today was my first “long” day and I’m pretty sure I was asleep by 9:30. (I got woken up by something.)

I am thankful… that I was able to help people in my OFTEC 135 class today and that I was able to talk geek with a parishioner on my “coffee” break today. (Why yes, it involved working on homework at Starbucks in between classes. How did you know?!?!?!?)

One of my favorite things… the blissful feeling you get before you fall asleep.

I am wearing… jammies. Clothes were a black shirt and jeans today with a hoodie.

I am creating… Excel formulas. I’m in heaven.

I am reading… Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans. It’s a re-read and I’m loving it.

I am hoping… to do well on my test in 10-Key class tomorrow. (It’s just basic math on the calculator.) We also have a practice touch addition test tomorrow so I will probably be doing touch addition drills before class to warm up my fingers.

I am learning… how to effectively help my classmates in OFTEC 135. We were doing advanced formulas today and I was having to explain some of them to a classmate who got lost.

In my kitchen… leftover lasagna. (I made a batch of “lazy” lasagna this weekend and froze some of it for days when cooking required too much coherent thought… like today!)

In the school room… Daniel is ecstatic to be back at school.

Post Script… something I should try again.

Shared Quote… “It’s strange that Christians so rarely talk about failure when we claim to follow a guy whose three-year ministry was cut short by his crucifixion.” — Rachel Held Evans

A moment from my day… Our choir anthem from Sunday.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.