Thinking this was just some friendly coffee shop camaraderie, I turned toward him and smiled and said, yes, thank goodness.
Then he asked me if I had plans for the weekend. Idiot that I am, I respond. "Just enjoying the weather."
"Do you like to party?" he asks me. "Do you like to drink beer?"
"I have a baby," I blurt.
"You don't look like you would. Are you married? Or are you doing the single parent thing?"
"I'm married," I say.
The man is probably easily in his late fifties. He comes over to sit down at my table and talk to me. He used to be in the Navy. Tells me all about his Navy craziness, how he was eventually kicked out because of his drinking, but I shouldn't worry because he's, "sober now."
TWENTY PAINFUL MINUTES LATER I politely excuse myself to walk home. He tells me that he loves my smile and that I'm easy to talk to. I feel like I need to shower. I hope he does not follow me home.
When I joked that I could use a boyfriend so I wasn't always at home THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT. Bahahahahahahaha.
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MATTHEW CALLED ME TODAY!!
He told me in his letter to always keep my phone on me because he has been told that they can be granted phone calls at random times. I started to fret about what I would say if he called -- would I say the right things? What do I need to tell him? Ask him? I told myself I should start a list, but that never happened.
I actually thought it was the asinine LOA people calling me back because it was an 847 number, so when I answered with a very droll, "hello," I was shocked to hear, "Hi Baby!" on the other end. We got to talk for almost 15 minutes. The second Bug heard his voice on speakerphone she just lit up. She meowed for him, said "baby" when we talked about visiting Baby D, and generally acted very cute.
He sounded really sad. He doesn't like it there, but I wouldn't have expected anything different. They're not allowed to talk to each other at all. When I asked him about his bunk-mate, the only things he told me was the guy's last name and the state he was from. "We don't have first names," he told me. And he had no other information about the guy because he literally is not allowed to talk to him. Although he did somehow know that the other MU had a wife who was an English major. It's a sign!
Five weeks to go. The month of August. We can do it.
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Early Intervention came out to the house again on Thursday. They seem to think that the assessment Bug had scored her too high. I'm actually feeling more confident now that she will qualify for services. It's such a change of perspective when you have already acknowledged that something is wrong with your child and you want help. It's so different than when you don't know or are perhaps in denial about it and thus get horribly defensive when someone points out all the things your child doesn't do "right." She was pointing out all these things about Bug and I'm like, "yes, I know, and did you see that she also doesn't do this and this? And what about THIS? SEEEEEE???" My how far we have come. I don't know if I'm proud of that; it just is.
Next week the district vision specialist is coming. So far none of Bug's therapists have any good grasp of what nystagmus is, which is frustrating. It's clear they've done a few minutes of reading, but I guarantee that small bit is not adequate enough or does not really cover the uniqueness of Bug's condition. I keep meaning to call her eye doctor to see if she can prepare anything for me that I can use.
Not working has me STRESSING about money like no one's business. My leave still hasn't been approved, and while they still mull it over I sit unpaid. So there's still a chance I will get back pay, but there's a chance that I won't. But I could not imagine not being with Bug every day, so we will find a way to make it work.
Driving the car into the curb at the Wendy's drive-thru (I always F up the drive-thru) is probably not the best way to avoid unnecessary costs/repairs.
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