Drama...

Wow...so it started on Monday. Emeli was in P.E. and she was backing up to catch the ball and backed up against the brick wall and smacked her head. She was very upset that her teacher had only said, "Watch for the wall..." in kind of a bored tone. So when she smacked her head, she was surprised and it really hurt. Then she was mad because no one took the time to feel sorry for her. When she got home, she was in a foul mood. She proceeded to try and take everyone with her. By the time I got home from work, she was fully in a snit. After dinner, I held her in my arms and let her cry about it for a little bit.

Emeli has been fighting a miserable cold with a lingering, hacking cough that doesn't really do anything except sound annoying. It doesn't actually come up, it just sits and tickles. Then, occasionally, she will feel crappy and headachy. So on Tuesday, she had Roberto come pick her up from school. Midway through the afternoon, it occurred to her that she would not be able to play with her friend, Alandra, and she must have been feeling better, so she asked Roberto to take her back to school. Nope. Roberto didn't buy that and told her to rest. She started to cry. Roberto didn't buy that, either. When Brett came home, Emeli was in another snit. She was watching TV. Brett thought that he would like to play the piano, so he asked Roberto if that was okay. Sometimes Roberto will sleep in the afternoons because of his weird work schedule. Roberto gave the okay, so Brett went downstairs and just turned the TV off. Of course that brought about a huge argument. Emeli called me at work. After hearing her sob in my ear, I asked her to get Brett on the phone. His opinion is that practicing a musical instrument is far more important than Emeli watching TV. I started to debate that and then Brett gave me a huge attitude. I ended up getting very attitudinal with him as well. Emeli called me back later to inform me that when Brett hung up the phone, he called her a bitch. Meanwhile, I am at work, trying to get things done. I hate being disturbed at work for trivial things. It's not professional. I look like an idiot. It reminds me of working with McKala, who used to have personal calls from her children several times a day over stupid things that could have been resolved without her.

On my home from work, I told Roberto all this drama. He was oblivious to it all. He asked me why the kids didn't involve him. He was kind of hurt that they would exclude him and go straight to me. I told him it was probably because they didn't want it resolved. They just wanted to vent and knew I couldn't do anything except say, "Now, you stop that!" If they involved Roberto, he would ground them both. They didn't want that. He agreed.

So after dinner, which Brett made ( I secretly think he was trying to make up for his stupidity in calling his sister a name), we had a nice discussion about the afternoon. It was resolved that from now on, Roberto would be the one to take care of things if he is home. They are not to call me at work unless someone is bleeding or the house is one fire. He told them that if he opens the door and comes down to deal with it, there will be crap. We all laughed. Right about now, my co-worker would do an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation of Roberto, which is hilarious. I also told them that the next person who calls the other sibling a name gets his/her mouth washed out with soap. Emeli has called Brett a fag and Brett has called Emeli a bitch. If anyone does any more name calling, they will meet me at the sink. I'm done with it.

Then Emeli tried to complain about name calling at her dad's house. I interrupted her to say that I do not have jurisdiction at her dad's home and I will not even go there. Emeli kind of slumped in her chair. I get the idea that there is not a lot of consistent discipline in that home.

Today I went to the doctor for a very painful bladder infection. This is the fourth one in two years. I have not had this many ever. I usually get one every few years. The doctor told me that there are two groups of women that get that many UTI's. Twenty-something girls who are newly sexually active and women my age whose hormones levels are lowering. I think I would prefer to be in the first group of women. I have been struggling with this UTI for almost two weeks. It has been very bad. He came in and told me that I am either very tough or very foolish. I told him I am both. He laughed. He said that I had very high levels of puss and bacteria in my urine. How nice. All I know is that it was hurting like a mother to pee and I had to pee often and had a moment's notice. It's really bad at work when the bathroom is far away. I would find myself almost running the last few feet to the bathroom. But you can't run because then you shake up your bladder and you wet your pants, so you have to do a very careful walk to the bathroom. There were a couple of close calls, let me tell you!!! But now I am on meds and should be better in no time. The doctor even gave me refills so I don't have to go to the doctor the next time I get one, because there will be a next time!!! And the meds only cost $4 at WalMart. Yeah!!!