Something New

Lately, it has been rather difficult for me to think of anything to write about on this blog, or any of my blogs for that matter.  I had taken a very long hiatus from writing due both busy/hectic work schedule and finishing up college.  Neither one is a good excuse  for not writing, but when your brain is mush after dealing with people all day, one tends not to do creative things until the mushiness goes away.

Work, at the moment, is still taking most of my energy.  Trust me when I say that Money Center at any Wal-Mart is not a place to see happy customers unless there are multiple registers in use on those super busy days.  A lone cashier on a busy day is not very happy, productive, or quick and the customers do not want to wait to pay their bills, cash their checks, or send/receive money transfers.  It all must be done N-O-W!

I do what I can.  That is all that one can do.  Right?  Right.

So, about this something new the title of this post says…  I’m considering doing random blogs from the perspective of my various characters.  Granted most do not live in our reality and are furry (anthropomorphic) creatures in varying degrees of sanity and animal rating (feral to civilized).  But, to give some insight into their minds and thinking, and perhaps some humor to entertain, could help break some of my writer’s block and offer ideas into where to take a plot arc.

Black Friday, Society of Night and Lies, Test of Ascension, and my erotica compilation could benefit from this.  Maybe, allowing some of these characters to speak to the world outside of a role play forum or a book will either get them to speak or finally be quiet so others may have their spotlight.

Be warned, though, I have a lot of characters.  A LOT of characters from all walks of life.  Many are related in some way or another and others are all there is to represent their people.  There will be a short blurb before each of their posts stating who they are (some characters are shy and won’t tell), where they come from as well as the reality they hail from as well.

I didn’t see this idea anywhere so if it is a copy, sorry, I didn’t know.  It just came to me this morning while I was preparing to take my son to the bus stop.

Enjoy your day and, please, tell me what you think of this idea.  All comments, complains, and suggestions are welcome.

What a Day...

It has been a long day.  A good day to say the least, but a long one.  I had every intention of working on SoNL tonight when I got home.  But, it just wasn't meant to be.

I have the ideas to improve and raise the current word count.  Quite a few good ones to be exact.  But, after spending nearly an hour and half over at work, I am just a bit too tired to focus.  All I can really see in my head instead of the story are the many things I had put back on the shelf and the clean up I tried to do.

Being a sales floor associate, even temporary, isn't easy on a good day.  The morning return buggy is usually heaping so it has to be worked down before attempting to move it.  Plus, there's freight to work when it comes in.  To add to the normal stuff, I'm the only health and beauty aid (HBA) associate during the day until they get more people hired.  There is another, but she and the department manager are almost connected at the hip and they work together on resetting the modulars (displays and shelves), take breaks and lunches together, so there's no real teamwork except between them.

Thankfully, I don't mind working on my own, but I can only handle so much at a time.  Add onto this, I can be called up to the front line (registers) and made to run a register until the lines go down, or it's time for break/lunch/go home.

I could have stayed even longer tonight.  As I was taking everything to the back to be placed in the bins, I was asked if I could help out.  They didn't blame me for politely refusing since I was, by then, an hour over and needed to run.  More money, but they have a few rules which prevent us from getting too much overtime.  As it stands now, my one hour wiggle room is gone for the week.  I can still gather more over time, but I'll have to be careful.

When I got home, I watched a movie, Ella Enchanted, and had a few good laughs while I paid attention to the plot itself and the characters.  I do love this movie.  It plays upon the fantasy clichés in such a way, they fit beautifully and work very well.  I do need to find the book that goes with this movie.

I hope everyone has enjoyed your day.  While our jobs may be hectic, they are still worth keeping.  (Most of the time.  ;) )

Thursday is for Therapy

Not for me, oddly enough, but for my son.  He’s not your normal ADHD kid with enough energy to run a small city if he were running on a treadmill hooked to a generator.  No, he has some other issues knocking about in that blond head of his to keep things interesting.

He has behavioral issues which drive poor unsuspecting teachers mad.  These same issues make for tense parents and grandmother.  My mom, Dave, and I cringe when the phone rings during school hours.  We just know he has done something that requires them to call us to come get him.  This was very true in kindergarten, first grade, and part of second grade.  He spent time on suspension until we started poking the school faculty into following our request.

Jackson Elementary was not the school for Colin.  They were extremely slow in doing their own testing after we filled out the paperwork.  While they wandered around figuring things out, he was ostracized by not just the students in his class, but by his teacher as well.  This happened in Kindergarten.  No wonder he needs therapy now.  I mean, what teacher, in their right mind, ostracizes a child, knowing he cannot help what he is doing, and encourages the other kids to do the same.  If another kid started something, naturally Colin would react, but he would get all the blame.  The other kid is given a pat on the head and left to do what they wanted.

Colin was labeled a bad kid because the school took so long trying to get things set up.  We, his parents, had no idea who to talk to or where to go to have him tested.  The counselors could not, or would not, tell us anything.  He may not have been the best student, but he aced his academic testing at the end of the year and they gave him nothing but grief.  Jackson is a school which should be closed down and the teachers sent back to school.

My mom and I decided to put him in another school.  Skelly, his current school, is just across the street from us; a five minute walk.  First grade was rough, but the school started pointing us in the right direction once they saw what he was like.  Other circumstances also had us seeing the proper doctors and putting him on medication.

Now, almost three years later, Colin has blossomed in so many ways.  His speech is clear, he can form complete thoughts and articulate as if he had never had problems before.  His handwriting is what is difficult for him now.  We could see the changes within the first few months of speech therapy.  Each of the therapists he’s had have done a wonderful job and he enjoys these sessions.

Occupational therapy took a bit longer to get started.  The first assessment he had shown problems, but it took a bit more paperwork from not just us, his family, but observations from his teachers, too.  His OT sessions have him working on gross and fine motor skills, things we never really saw until they were pointed out.  Thanks to his first OT therapist, we were able to get him over that final hurdle of potty training.  Those last steps were the hardest and he’d use bathroom accidents as a way to go home early.

His second grade teacher, wonderful woman who did everything she could to help, would not allow him that luxury.  Unless it was a bad accident, he put on a change of clothes we kept handy and stayed the whole day.  Also, during second grade, he had a change of medication which turned out to be the right mix and dosage, which made things much easier on all of us.

Looking at him today, I can see he isn’t the child who skipped ahead of me when I’d walk him home from school back in Jackson.  He is a special little boy.  He’s made so many breakthroughs in this year alone; the one I am most proud of being the three friends that he has come looking for him almost every day.  As much as I love my boy, he needed kids his age to interact with instead of a video game or the television.

Now, we’ve added in Behavioral therapy.  This is making for a long day for me.  Long enough that I must have the day off.  It just wouldn’t be worth the effort to go in for a few hours leave for four or five hours then come back for one hour and go home.  Wouldn’t be fair to anyone.  Due to circumstances at work that have temporarily taken me out of the pharmacy, I have requested Thursdays off for therapy and doctor visits.  As much as I hate to split my days off, I need to for my little boy.

Seeing him improve, I wonder if I should seek psychological help for my own mental problems.  I’m not bipolar, or something like that, but thanks to the torture I endured in school and what my ex put me through for years, I’m not exactly the most stable person.  Working on the registers on the front end is a nightmare; one I care not to repeat for the safety of the customers.  Claustrophobia, agoraphobia, probably a few others, maybe even a dash of ADD, needs to be addressed.  With all these characters talking in my head, some more demanding than others, multiple personality disorder isn’t something I need be concerned about until they decide to take over all at once.  (Just kidding)

Where, or when, I should work those sessions in is beyond me unless they can do after hours or Sunday visits.  Somehow, both seem very unlikely.  Good thing I do have my writing to keep things straight in my head.  One day, I’ll write a story all about Colin.  Who knows, that could launch things into a whole new life for me.

Yes, therapy is good.  Very good.