Friday, July 23, 2010

The First Celebratory Breakfast and the First Round of Acting Out

This morning I'm meeting a good friend for breakfast. She was Organist here at the church for several years after I arrived. I enjoyed working with her on various projects, and so when she left for a church that paid more and was closer to her home, we remained friends, meeting monthly for a meal. She's the one who introduced me to my favorite deli.
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I enjoy our monthly meals. She understands the quirks of Tiny Village, so she's a good sounding board when I need it. She has been praying for my search, and has served as a reference for me. Having an organist as a reference is a good thing-- sometimes there are struggles between the pastor and music people, so the fact that I not only work well with them but one is my reference is a plus.
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We had to reschedule this month's meal, so I called her on Tuesday to tell her I'd received the call and set up our meal. She was excited, and didn't want to wait very long to get together. I'll drop Daughter off and then meet Organist.
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Wednesday evening Daughter (again) shoveled out her bedroom. I told her if she wanted to decorate her new bedroom, she had to show me she could keep her current bedroom clean. Last night she didn't want to take care of the laundry. She put it on for more time, and I told her I knew the clothes were dry and she needed to take care of them. Very quickly after she started I heard her go upstairs and heard her closet door open and close. When she came back downstairs, I had an observation, "Either you just did the fastest job in history taking care of the clean laundry, or you hid it in a wad in your closet."
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Her response was to become very angry, telling me she had, indeed hidden the clothes in a wad in her closet. She informed me she was done, and she was going to bed without her meds. I called her down at 11:00 to take her pills and insulin. She used the back porch bathroom, and left the lights on. I told her to turn off the lights before she went back to bed. She informed me I was a bossy b***h as she stormed back upstairs.
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I also discovered that she's been coming downstairs during the night and getting into food. She insisted she's been having low blood sugars. I reminded her that when she's low, she's supposed to wake me up. I put the alarm back on her room last night. At 3:30 this morning her door alarm woke me up. She felt low, and needed to go get her meter. I told her to bring it back upstairs to check, and stay out of the food. I should have gotten out of bed and taken care of it. I'll know for sure when she checks her blood sugar this morning, but it took her long enough to get the meter and she was slow enough telling me her blood sugar that I'm pretty sure she got into food while she was up.
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It will be interesting to see if she gets up belligerent or apologetic. The car ride to Town will be more pleasant if she's apologetic.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's an idea: tell your DD that since you're moving to a new town and starting a new job you're going to be interviewing for a new daughter, one who is cooperative, pleasant and who doesn't roll her clothes into a ball and stuff it in her closet. Oh yeah, and one who doesn't sneak eat in the middle of the night, pee the bed or call you nasty names.
Tell her she's welcome to apply for the position and to get her resume and references together along with a short essay on why she is the best candidate for the job and you'll schedule an interview.
I've done this with my kids when they were being a handful and it worked very well but they were able to appreciate irony so maybe it wouldn't work in your DD's case.

Reverend Mom said...

This is a great idea, and there are times when Daughter would get it and see the humor in it. Unfortunately, I don't think this is one of them. I'm looking forward to the book Far Away Sister ordered arriving. I hope that will be another tool for helping Daughter deal with the anxiety. I hope....