Busy bee, that's me

The best antidote for depression is staying busy. I've been doing that.

Yesterday, the Mister and I got ourselves fingerprinted, had the "consent for an FBI background check" notarized, went to K*inkos and copied our last tax form, signed a few more documents, threw all the paper plus a few money orders (for state and federal investigations of our sordid histories) and our second payment to the adoption agency into a big envelope, and dropped the whole thing off at the post office. Voila. We're on our way. Next step is an "intake interview," which is supposed to determine how ready we are to adopt and how comfortable we are with the concept of open adoption. (Very and quite. Next?)

Oh, and it was 100F here yesterday, which added to the fun of gathering paperwork and running around.  No, we don't have air conditioning, except in the car. The Dog and Cats spent most of the day flattened out like pancakes on the hardwood floors.

I should mention that while I was away with my girlfriends last weekend, the Mister took the Dog to be, er, fixed. Thus ensued the ultimate Guys' Weekend, with the notoriously soft-hearted Mister feeling incredibly guilty for "un-manning" his Very Best Friend, the woozy bruised Dog doing his best to lick his stitches while the Mister wasn't looking, and the Mister consoling himself by watching movies like "I am Legend," "Planet of the Apes," and the last "Rocky" movie -- the general theme being "solitary man dealing with the Apocalypse."

And speaking of Apocalypse, I've been keeping very busy tracking the Northern California fires. I grew up in that area, and know some of these places like the back of my hand. Thank god for the internet, where the most unlikely sources become founts of wisdom. The areas of the state I'm interested in are not necessarily the same areas the mainstream media is interested in, so firefighters' blogs and comments on other local sites have been the best sources of info. My friends and relatives are literally choking on smoke as thick as molasses, and in some of the small rural areas, the local economies are also being choked, as the tourist dollars flee back to relatively cleaner air. Blessings on the firefighters. It's hard hot dangerous work.  I sure as hell couldn't do it.

In much lighter news, I'm decorating. My MIL sent a lovely wreath for my birthday, which I finally got around to hanging in our bedroom.  It has a fresh scent of dried sea grasses and eucalyptus. Also, I had this old I*kea chair and ottoman that I bought on C*rai*gs*list for $65. Both pieces were originally covered with white custom-fit slipcovers that were disgusting and stained when I bought them (thus the steal price).  I bought new cream-colored slipcovers when I first got the pieces, but by now they've become just as disgusting and stained as the originals.  

So I found an online store that makes custom slipcovers for I*kea furniture -- they ship from Lithuania of all places, but they'll send you free swatches, their customer service is very responsive ... and how nice does this look?  

Alas, they don't do ottomans, so getting an ottoman cover and a new futon cover for our futon "couch" is next.  Perhaps for once all my furniture will look like it was meant to be together, as opposed to being bought in bits and pieces at yard sales ... (which it basically was).

Finally, a m/c update.  Zilch. Nada. No spotting, no cramping. If anyone out there is in a similar "waiting to miscarry" situation, some information at this website might be helpful (site seems to be down today, hm). It's mostly about misdiagnosed miscarriages (where the doc sees an empty sac and thinks you've got a blighted ovum, but a few weeks later, oops, there's a baby!) -- which is definitely not my situation -- but the stories on their "Waiting to Miscarry" message board are from women in my situation, and were both eye-opening and heart-rending.

Comments

[Almamay]

Wow, I'm impressed. I do the same thing. Run around like a headless chicken hoping the depression doesn't catch me. I figure that the negative energy might as well be used constructively. You are in my thoughts.

[luna]

busy is a good distraction.

we are waiting for our initial intake interview also. interested to hear how your process goes too...

hope your friends and family are well here in cal. the rural valleys had it extra bad because the air gets stuck there...