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"In this tempestuous, havoc-ridden world of ours, all real communication comes from the heart."

- Etty Hillesum

January 25, 2007

In-laws and outlaws.

Possible Zantac solution:

Having the compounding pharmacist mix up a new batch and add a yummy sweet flavor to it.

I say possible solution because I haven�t picked it up yet, so we haven�t tried it, so I don�t know if it�ll make the medicine go down better.

But I decided to go to three times a day with the medicine, and there�s no way I�m doing that with yucky tasting stuff.

So I�ll pick up the new medicine (grape flavor! Yum! Ergh.) later this morning and we�ll see if it makes a difference.

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My in-laws have been here for the past two days. They hadn�t yet seen the baby, so they drove down to visit.

They�re nice people. Really. Let me start by saying that. And I�m being honest about that. (This is an anonymous journal � I would tell the truth, here.)

But having said that � they�re also kinda tough to have around � for the simple fact that they just sort of sit around all the time. They sit around for hours and they just talk about people from their small town.

The conversation goes something like this: �Did we tell you that Joseph Tenudo died? Oh, we did?� Then there�s a pause in the conversation. �Judy Philpot came over yesterday to drop off some cookies and she asked about you.�

Blue: �Who�s Judy Philpot?�

�She was a Smith but married the youngest Philpot boy. She works at the bank. Her daughter just got a divorce for the second time, tsk tsk, from a Mexican. He was nice enough, for a Mexican.�

Blue: (Silence after the Mexican comment.)

�Jack Hasenpfuss got a new dog, did we tell you that? He ran over his old dog in his driveway with his truck. Shame. The new dog�s name is Butch.�

Imagine that conversation for two days straight. This person, that person, the other person. None of whom I�ve ever met, and most of whom Blue apparently doesn�t care much about. But we hear all about them, ad nauseum. And we hear about the same people at least twice, because Blue�s father will tell a story about Jim Wilbanks at the pizza parlor, and then twenty minutes later his mother will tell the same Jim Wilbanks story (either having not heard the story when the father told it, or wanting to tell it her way).

I know more about the goings-on in their small town than some of the townies probably do.

So it�s kind of a long day. They�re really nice people (I emphasize again), and I do enjoy spending some time with them � but it�s a long day.

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The one other thing that kind of bugged me about their visit was that they seemed a little rough with the baby. Just jiggled her around a bit much, didn�t give her as much head support as I would liked to have seen � that kind of thing. Also, when she�d fuss or start to cry, they�d just chuckle in that old-people way, like, �Heh-heh-heh, isn�t that cute, the baby is crying �� and then just keep doing whatever it was they were doing � (when my instinct is to GIVE HER WHAT SHE NEEDS SO SHE STOPS CRYING).

Both nights of their visit, after we�ve gone �to bed,� the baby has been pretty agitated. Almost as if to say, �Hey, the day was just too much for me.�

Thing is, I can�t really say anything. They raised five kids. They�ve got twelve grandkids and five great-grandkids. They�re not dangerous around babies. They�re just not quite as gentle as I wish they�d be. Does that make sense? I mean, I�d never let anyone hurt my baby � but in this case, I just sort of had to bite my tongue and let them jostle her around more than I�d like. There was no harm done to her (other than making her a bit cranky). My only bird-dogging moments were when she was crying and they were just doing the �ho ho ho, she�s crying� thing � I�d jump in and say, �Oh, she needs to eat now,� or �Oh, time for a diaper check,� or �Oh, she�s saying she wants to be more upright �� to get them to fix things.

I need a nice valium with a margarita chaser now that they�re gone � I think the baby would benefit from that, too!

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Last Few Entries

Back? - November 10, 2007
Just a break. - June 19, 2007
Caddy day in the pool. - June 05, 2007
Sleep! And sleep, and sleep! - June 01, 2007
Happy days are here again ... - May 30, 2007

� More about Etty Hillesum, the woman in the photo.�