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rivkaOn our way to SUUSI I started to have a scratchy, sore throat. This compounded the discomfort of the drive, which was already pretty damn awful; we left around bedtime hoping that the kids would sleep most of the way, and instead Colin cried and cried. I wound up sitting in the middle of the back seat, where there is not really enough room for adult hips to squeeze in between the two carseats, and practically dislocating my spine to hunch myself sideways over the edge of Colin's carseat and nurse him without removing my seatbelt. For, like, an hour. And then Alex woke up. And then Colin again. Meanwhile, my throat hurt.
We decided to stop for the night in Salem, Virginia, around quarter after midnight. None of the hotels had vacancies. We stopped at hotel after hotel, inevitably rousing Colin and making him cry, before a night clerk gave us a definitive answer: he'd called around, and no one had rooms. So after wasting a half-hour or so on that, we got back on the road and drove further on to Christiansburg.
I slept very poorly. Colin slept very poorly. By the time I woke up my cold was officially awful. And the worst thing about it was seeing what was coming down the pike: I'd inevitably infect Michael and the kids, and then we'd all be sick at SUUSI, and I'd be taking care of sick children at SUUSI with none of the comforts of home.
We moved into our dorm, greeted our friends, went to Ingathering. I missed the Opening Circle for the first time ever because the kids seemed so exhausted, and then neither of them went to sleep until after ten o'clock.
I slept very poorly again. Colin slept very poorly again.
On Monday we tried Colin in the SUUSI nursery. I asked someone to check on him when I dropped Alex off for the afternoon session (we are encouraged to leave two-and-unders in the nursery for lunch), and she came back to report that he was not precisely crying, but clinging to someone like a limpet with his head down on her shoulder, and had been much like that all day. So I gave up my planned afternoon of peaceful rest, and retrieved him from the nursery. He was pathetically happy to see me.
Alex keeps eating practically nothing at meals and then melting down from hunger and tiredness. We have become browbeating harridans, trying to get enough protein into her to sustain the levels of energy required for a kid at SUUSI.
Last night Colin was up every two hours all night, and he wasn't particularly easy to soothe back down. At some point, perhaps because he was rapidly succumbing to my cold and couldn't breathe, he bit me hard enough while nursing that it still hurt hours later. He woke up at 5am. I eventually got him back to sleep around 6:30, but not myself.
Both kids were too sick to go to children's programming today. Michael watched them this morning; I have them this afternoon. My plan to spread a blanket on the lawn and let them wander gently around was foiled by the fact that it's bucketing down rain in tremendous quantities. I am missing my Chocolates Around the USA tasting. I tried to go by the workshop room before it started to ask the leader to please, please set some aside for me, but she wasn't there and then it started raining and I couldn't take sick kids out in the weather.
This year the food service is appallingly bad. They keep running out of the most basic and ordinary things: no ice cream. No milk of any kind. No caffeinated tea. No juice. No cups. Also, they collected a bunch of regular household-style highchairs and supplied them in the dining hall, but didn't have any kind of a plan for cleaning off the trays. I think they are running them through the dishwasher, because if you are not first to a meal all you can find are highchairs without trays. How useful.
This morning when I went in to have my shower there wasn't any hot water.
They keep having to move all the workshops around so that no one can find where they are going.
I've been up since 5am and I'm not going to have a nap today.
I still feel fairly ill.
Because of the rain, there probably won't be Community Time - the part of the day where everyone hangs out in a mellow fashion outdoors and the children 100% entertain themselves and each other. We'll probably need to keep them inside where they will be fractious and demanding. All of them, everybody's kids - not just my own fractious, demanding, incredibly annoying sick ones.
I don't know whether the kids will be able to go to children's program tomorrow. Alex definitely feels her worst in the morning, and that's when we have to make the decision. Colin had such a hard time being there (although probably, in part, because he was getting sick) that we really shouldn't try it unless he's feeling pretty good. Not to mention the unfairness of exposing the other children to his germiness.
The one saving grace in all of this - besides my friends, who are awesome as usual - is that I am taking an absolutely wonderful morning workshop in bookbinding. So far we've made one small and simple softcover book and are partway through a wonderfully more complex version with hard covers hinged with cloth. Our teacher has promised that we will each make at least three books - maybe four if we're fast workers. I'll post pictures of everything at the end. I am loving it SO MUCH. It's fun and exciting and so very satisfying to see something beautiful come together. I am amazed that I can do this! Our workshop leader is awesome - not just incredibly skilled at making book art, but incredibly skilled at explaining procedures in a clear and detailed fashion.
Must remember I don't have the time and energy for a new hobby. Or my old hobbies, actually.
We decided to stop for the night in Salem, Virginia, around quarter after midnight. None of the hotels had vacancies. We stopped at hotel after hotel, inevitably rousing Colin and making him cry, before a night clerk gave us a definitive answer: he'd called around, and no one had rooms. So after wasting a half-hour or so on that, we got back on the road and drove further on to Christiansburg.
I slept very poorly. Colin slept very poorly. By the time I woke up my cold was officially awful. And the worst thing about it was seeing what was coming down the pike: I'd inevitably infect Michael and the kids, and then we'd all be sick at SUUSI, and I'd be taking care of sick children at SUUSI with none of the comforts of home.
We moved into our dorm, greeted our friends, went to Ingathering. I missed the Opening Circle for the first time ever because the kids seemed so exhausted, and then neither of them went to sleep until after ten o'clock.
I slept very poorly again. Colin slept very poorly again.
On Monday we tried Colin in the SUUSI nursery. I asked someone to check on him when I dropped Alex off for the afternoon session (we are encouraged to leave two-and-unders in the nursery for lunch), and she came back to report that he was not precisely crying, but clinging to someone like a limpet with his head down on her shoulder, and had been much like that all day. So I gave up my planned afternoon of peaceful rest, and retrieved him from the nursery. He was pathetically happy to see me.
Alex keeps eating practically nothing at meals and then melting down from hunger and tiredness. We have become browbeating harridans, trying to get enough protein into her to sustain the levels of energy required for a kid at SUUSI.
Last night Colin was up every two hours all night, and he wasn't particularly easy to soothe back down. At some point, perhaps because he was rapidly succumbing to my cold and couldn't breathe, he bit me hard enough while nursing that it still hurt hours later. He woke up at 5am. I eventually got him back to sleep around 6:30, but not myself.
Both kids were too sick to go to children's programming today. Michael watched them this morning; I have them this afternoon. My plan to spread a blanket on the lawn and let them wander gently around was foiled by the fact that it's bucketing down rain in tremendous quantities. I am missing my Chocolates Around the USA tasting. I tried to go by the workshop room before it started to ask the leader to please, please set some aside for me, but she wasn't there and then it started raining and I couldn't take sick kids out in the weather.
This year the food service is appallingly bad. They keep running out of the most basic and ordinary things: no ice cream. No milk of any kind. No caffeinated tea. No juice. No cups. Also, they collected a bunch of regular household-style highchairs and supplied them in the dining hall, but didn't have any kind of a plan for cleaning off the trays. I think they are running them through the dishwasher, because if you are not first to a meal all you can find are highchairs without trays. How useful.
This morning when I went in to have my shower there wasn't any hot water.
They keep having to move all the workshops around so that no one can find where they are going.
I've been up since 5am and I'm not going to have a nap today.
I still feel fairly ill.
Because of the rain, there probably won't be Community Time - the part of the day where everyone hangs out in a mellow fashion outdoors and the children 100% entertain themselves and each other. We'll probably need to keep them inside where they will be fractious and demanding. All of them, everybody's kids - not just my own fractious, demanding, incredibly annoying sick ones.
I don't know whether the kids will be able to go to children's program tomorrow. Alex definitely feels her worst in the morning, and that's when we have to make the decision. Colin had such a hard time being there (although probably, in part, because he was getting sick) that we really shouldn't try it unless he's feeling pretty good. Not to mention the unfairness of exposing the other children to his germiness.
The one saving grace in all of this - besides my friends, who are awesome as usual - is that I am taking an absolutely wonderful morning workshop in bookbinding. So far we've made one small and simple softcover book and are partway through a wonderfully more complex version with hard covers hinged with cloth. Our teacher has promised that we will each make at least three books - maybe four if we're fast workers. I'll post pictures of everything at the end. I am loving it SO MUCH. It's fun and exciting and so very satisfying to see something beautiful come together. I am amazed that I can do this! Our workshop leader is awesome - not just incredibly skilled at making book art, but incredibly skilled at explaining procedures in a clear and detailed fashion.
Must remember I don't have the time and energy for a new hobby. Or my old hobbies, actually.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 08:12 pm (UTC)Hope everyone's feeling better soon, and the venue issues improve.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 08:47 pm (UTC)Here's hoping things get better soon. Looking forward to seeing your book creations.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 11:37 pm (UTC)ObPollyanna: the books you make will last, anyway, which the germs won't.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-21 01:51 pm (UTC)I hope things get better in a hurry and you're able to salvage some good vacation time.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-23 12:16 am (UTC)Hoping things are better by now, and many sympathies if it isn't.