Just Another Day

This month has been a fucking roller coaster.

My little sister had a near-fatal vehicle accident on March 1st. Or rather, the idiot who was driving did. My mom and I have spent the month coordinating with family and friends for updates and sitting with my sister, discussing test results, prognosis, long term plans if she came out of the hospital, and plans if she did not. Either way, nothing would ever be the same. She had a very serious traumatic brain injury. Multiple brain injuries, honestly. I'm not even sure she could have ever walked, spoke, or even seen again. The trauma doctor eventually said she'd never even be able breathe on her own again, but of course first this stupid git was sneering at us for being concerned about how serious her condition was and going on about how she was going to "graduate college". My sister was virtually brain dead from the moment she hit the guard rail and he was too irresponsible and unprofessional to tell us. Mom and I found out the day she died all the way. Three for three on being very unimpressed with the doctors at UAB. And this is supposed to be one of the best hospitals in the nation? We are so screwed.

I used to have a Samsung Galaxy Luna J3. When it went bad, I dug out a J2 I had bought for the office to use only for the Square card processing app. It served me faithfully for quite a while, but bear in mind the J2 was manufactured in 2015. I use my phones for several year until they misbehave and upgrade is inevitable, and it finally got to where the J2 was not functioning correctly and it was time to upgrade. I still intend to take the J2 with me on hikes because I love its camera, but, nonetheless, I finally had to upgrade. I got a Samsung Galaxy A16, for $49.88 plus tax (I am not high maintenance) and a waterproof case, shatterproof screen protector, and I even splurged and bought a $26 128 GB card to put in it. I am very happy with its camera, as well as the fact I can do more customization, such as setting banners on folks' contact profiles. I spent a week carefully going through my ebooks, music, and family photos to put on it. With all that room, I can have quite the collection in my pocket! I officially pulled out the J2's SIM card on February 28th, made sure all my data transferred correctly, and began setting photos on contact profiles and text message backgrounds.

My first text message conversation with my sister was the last I would ever have with her on my new phone, because it was an hour and a half before the wreck. My first phone call with my mother was her panicked voice informing me of my sister being in critical condition. One of the first photos I took on my new phone was of my sister in the hospital. The first group chat I made was for the closest family and friends to share hospital updates. My first public speaking engagement was at my sister's funeral. An old friend wrote an absolutely beautiful letter to me, addressing how painful it is to honour a DNR. I included it in my speech (with proper credit). It really helped everybody.

And my children had no clue any of it was going on with their aunt due to all the lies the ex has told and the outrageous lengths he has gone through to cut me off from my children, without any logical reason to do so. This is now the second death and funeral in my family that he as excluded them from in the past few months.

The day I had free from work to take my mother us go visit my sister after the wreck, I lost a client. This cunt called four times in a row within two minutes and then took an attitude with me for asking her to stop being so pushy during this situation. Her response was "I don't deserve to be treated like that, I won't be back". Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out then, you insensitive bitch. Actually, yes, do. May you be struck by the falling debris of all the bridges you burn. And as if her rotten attitude wasn't enough, that morning when Mom and I were getting the overnight briefing from the nurse, some woman wanders in, stares at us, and then starts demanding information. Turns out it was the mother of the man who murdered my sister, and she was not at all contrite about what her son did to my sister. So, yeah. Extra security precautions were put in place to protect my sister from that horrid woman and her son.

And then another woman booked two appointments for the day after my sister died, did not show up at all for the first appointment, and then demanded I do two tax returns during one appointment. I called her out on that, she stormed off, and now she's banned from the office. I am not putting up with such blatant disrespect and lack of consideration.

But things with my sister's two ex-husbands have been great. They were heavily involved from the moment we knew about the crash, including picking up my mom on their way to the ER when it first happened. We've been coordinating and delegating across various medical and legal tasks. Both were at my private memorial with their families and the first ex-husband hosted a public one at his church. The day of my memorial, they even helped my husband fix the window in his car because the motor finally gave out and wouldn't roll up anymore. Sweet little bonding moment for what is effectively all the sons-in-law. (The ex, of course, does not count as a son-in-law, because in addition to all the abuse he has put me and my children through, he has threatened to kill my entire family on multiple occasions.)

In Pyle's book, Sir Launcelot went amnesiac mad and running wild for a few years over the queen being upset with him. Sorrow also drove Sir Tristram to amnesiac madness for a long time after his wicked uncle King Mark persecuted him relentlessly. Another king just flat out dropped dead after seeing his castle raided and burned, and his wife almost joined after finding the body of her husband during their escape and then seeing her son being whisked away by fey. Such deep grief is certainly the most relatable part of the book. But, when life is good, the other most relatable part of the book is Pyle's description of the knights' love of life when they're out riding errant and admiring the mornings no matter what season it is. I do not immediately know when I will consider my life "good" again but I am very grateful to my sweet, kind husband for being as loving and supportive as he has been through this entire hellscape and kangaroo clown court I've been dealing with. The judge finally deigned to allow me a court date and I am currently set to go over six months with zero contact with my children, still without the judge asking for proof or doing due process before having cut me off in the first place.

Work

I've been trying to mentally adjust to the fact that my yard became shaggy in February and the daffodils and Japanese magnolias were not the only things blooming. I was going to do my first mow of the season on March 18th, however, it snowed on the 16th, and I was already stressed enough about my sister and tax season and court to accept the fact I would be mowing my grass while there was snow in the shady areas in March. In Alabama. I know a lot of you people closer to the poles have snow all the way to the end of spring, but snow this time of the year at this elevation and proximity to the tropical zone is weird.

In addition to the aforementioned assholes who had zero patience for my sister's death, another asshole also decided to shame me for it. "Your grandparents figured out how to hire other people, why can't you?" This bitch was seriously so stupid he couldn't understand that two retirees with multiple sources of retirement income had more financial discretion to hire people than a working mother with one job, as well as the fact that if I hire somebody I'll have to start charging more like what the chain stores charge and he would not have liked that at all. This entitled bitch also refused to make an appointment and just kept showing up during other people's appointments. You sure as hell can't do that at a one of those chain box stores. You're lucky if your appointment even starts on time.

In other news, I did my first same-sex marriage certificate notarization this month. Three days after my sister went into the neuro ICU and while she was in surgery to clean road debris out of her, actually. It was a helluva week. It's been a helluva month.

Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes added to the library:

• Found a Peanut. 1900.
• Miss Susie had a Steamboat. 1910.
• The Lady with the Alligator Purse. 1902.

Current rhyme count: 996

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