the naughty corner

there's a level of awfulness i wasn't expecting to feel today, a day that started off around 3am with gd accidentally spilling fruit juice from her bedside table and then continued with a 6am wakeup by smear and his whining about which shirt he wanted to wear... he was uncooperative when i became time to leave and made me carry him to the car, then spent the entire drive to school yelling at me that he wanted his sandals on (which he'd refused to put on at the door) and to stop singing (i really hate that), and then launched into his now-usual whine of "i don't want to play with my friends". so i told him he didn't have to play with them, that if he continued to behave this way he wouldn't have any friends, and that he could spend his day by himself in the corner if he wanted to.

when i said goodbye, he was literally sitting on the floor in the corner feeling sorry for himself. i'm not sure if i did the right thing or not, but it really, really feels shitty.

---wednesday 31st october:

starting the day well, and slowly, lice drama when dropping mr smear off, driving gd to her not-hypnotherapy session and unproductively spending the hour fiddling with ssl certificates

sudden exhaustion striking on the ride home in spite of plenty of coffee, crashing for an hour, waking up feeling ill and learning that gd had been giving me decaf coffee all day without telling me we'd run out of the real thing

shopping (for coffee) on the way to picking up mr smear, finding him having an allergic reaction to something (minor, just a bit of a rash), dropping the two of them at home and heading to the coffee shop to figure out how redux works, chatting with the tattoo artist along the way (he's happy, which made me happy, although i'm beginning to be bothered by the shadow of the quill)

coming home to dinner and playing toy story 3 on the ps3, playing with mr smear for a good while and getting motion sickness (he was fine, if course), gd suddenly breaking out in a rash herself and having to rush her to the hospital, mr smear and i being forced to wait outside and entertain ourselves (fortunately he enjoyed my reading to him and playing hide and seek with a security guard)

getting home late, putting him to bed and crashing for an hour or two, then getting up with rls to care for my tattoo and create a campaign subreddit

thursday 1st november:

setting my computer to install a vm with elementaryos and going back to bed just before 1am with a sensitive neck, waking up restless with the rudimentals - soundboy killa in my head for an hour or two and then sleeping until just before 7am

[scribbling notes three days later, missing a lot and being confused by some of my phone's mis-captured words]

a good work meeting but a frustrating day at work, working out of the gym and the frontend code demoralising me, leaving the gym just after 4pm and traffic being so bad it took half an hour just to get out of the parking lot...

sailor visiting to work, too much talking but getting a little bit of sonnet comix strategizing going

friday 2nd:

a full morning of sonnet comix planning with sailor, intending to work in the afternoon but after picking up mr smear having to do a bunch of things (including shopping and take care of mr smear while gd got a haircut), then all going to the temple together

mr smear making us so proud, standing on the bimah for quite a few songs facing a packed congregation and singing at the top of his voice, then having a great time with the rabbi's kid and a bunch of other children

my mom joining us for dinner, watching daniel sloss' brilliant netflix special "dark"

saturday 3rd:

a full morning at the mall, promising mr smear a pirate ship cruise for my birthday, a really fun busking pair (and awkwardly but enthusiastically participating with a funny dance), nap time, joining hyperviper and his wife and buddies for drinks at rick's, falling asleep while waiting for sailor who never pitched

sunday 4th:

a pancake playdate for breakfast, gd helping me with a campaign video before we headed out to my sister's for a lovely afternoon braai and finally meeting my great-nephew (awesome little guy), shopping and gummi bears and a pleasant bedtime, crashing for a bit, working for half an hour,

monday 5th:

writing these notes for half an hour then returning to work (study) until 1.45am

a pretty decent sleep, a bit of difficulty waking up, mr smear waking up in good spirits but being really shitty when we arrived at school, being rude and not wanting to go to his classroom, then eventually (after i carried him over my shoulder from the playground) giving up once his teacher got hold of him

stressed for my meeting, but sharing my frustrations and receiving support, a little bit of sloss' dark with gd before heading to the gym for a miserable couple of hours (both the work and my sinuses), a really nice moment picking up mr smear who jumped into my arms, then a sad one as we arrived home and he got sulky...

a really good (virtual) meeting at the coffee shop, working while listening to joe rogan stand-up, coming home to dinner and half playing with mr smear and half working on my next tattoos, with gd giving me a hand

showertime ending in tears, followed by a surprising and sad conversation with mr smear who told us he didn't have a home - apparently he was satisfied with our response, but only time will tell...

bloons, downtime, pirates of the caribbean, mindless time, bedtime