Emotions and a shard of glass-

Shawn left on Tuesday. The time he spends here speeds by so quickly that when the day for him to leave pops up, we're always surprised. That day was emotional enough- and as we all know, emotions are candy to Fibrofuckingmyalgia. "RAAAARRRRGGGH!" bellows Fibrofuckingmyalgia, "I LOVE EMOTIONS! LIKE REESE'S PIECES!! *chomp-chomp-chomp*"

Or, you know, something like that. Plus, I had to drive Shawn to the airport. Our last moments together are of me battling road-rage like a heroin addict scratching for a hit. I get twitchy and scream-y at other drivers. And when I battle the urge to swear at them, it gets worse. But I digress... It is always sad when Shawn leaves. So, the fibrofuckingmyalgia just gobbled that up like a heroin addict getting a hit.

YOU LIKE THAT!? DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE!? Yeah, I'm fucking brilliant.

Let's move on, shall we?

So, Tuesday, emotionally exhausting.

Wednesday, physically exhausting. If you know me, you know my kids are all in college now. The youngest is a freshman. She's in a school about an hour and a half a way. Same town as her sister, different school. My oldest lives in an apartment, the youngest is in the dorms. Ceej- that's the youngest if you're taking notes- has Wednesdays off. Nothing at all to do. She's been battling with the Veterans Administration to get her education benefits.

Long-story-short: This is my third kid to go through the VA education benefits bullshit. We applied early- as soon as we found out which college she was going to, we applied. "Apply early!" is what the staff says, for those benefits. We did. We got the usual automated reply: "you qualify for benefits-blah-blah-blah-due to a high volume of applications, it may take ten weeks to complete your process..."

That was when she had four months till the start of her school year. FOUR MONTHS. The boy- that's my middle child, for you note-takers (don't worry, there won't be a test on this later- got his first check at the end of August, because he started school in mid-August. And the VA pays in arrears. End of September comes, Jase and Kat get their checks, but Ceej doesn't. She contacts her VA rep at her school.

Needless to say, she didn't get her first check till November 8th. Yeah. She started school on September 1st. Same day as her sister. And she didn't get her check till this week. Luckily, she has generous grandparents (they gave her cash), a part-time job, a sister who lives in town (took her shopping, lets her do laundry at her apartment), and a brother (who also slipped her some cash to keep her from starving after the cafeteria closed).

So, back to the long-story-that-was-supposed-to-be-short-but-wasn't-short-at-all: Wednesday I spent almost six full hours driving. I had to drive out to get Ceej, bring her home so she could do her banking (there isn't a branch in her town). She wanted to pay her grandparents (that's my parents- you should know that, just because they're awesome) back some of the help they gave her. She gave me gas money- which was nice. Then I had to drive her back to school.

That put me at nearly six hours driving. I was a little tired from that. No worries, as I didn't have anything to do on Thursday. Wednesday night, I went upstairs to change from my jeans into my giant yoga pants and huge T-shirt. In walking from my bedroom to the bathroom, I stepped on an unseen shard of glass. I have callouses on my heels and I didn't feel it till the shard was embedded deep into my foot.

Slight ouch. It was a tiny shard, like a splinter. I tried to get it out with a pair of tweezers (which is when I found out it was glass and not wood). A needle didn't work either. I tried again this morning after my shower (hoping the water would soften up the callous). No luck. If I can't get it out by tomorrow, I'll have to go to "urgent care" and let the medical professionals handle it.

But, I can't put weight on my heel. Its right where the bulk of my weight hits when I step. So, I'm walking on my tiptoes on that foot. My calf is killing me and my right hip (that's the "hot spot" I have) is screaming a symphony of pain. I feel like I'm going to have a flareup caused by a tiny fucking shard of glass. (we assume one of us tracked it upstairs on our shoes)

Don't worry too much, I had a tetanus shot sometime in late September. I knew you were asking yourself about that. Really, I did.

If I ever get this shard of glass out of my goddamn foot, maybe I'll be able to get back to walking. Walking for exercise, that is.

Hey, look at this-

That's me with all three of my kids and Shawn.