Couch 236: NY PS Langston Hughes

May write up some of today's session later--was a very emotional one (about D), like crying to the point that I was having trouble catching my breath and at one point asked Dr. T if he could get me a cup of cold water (my water was room temperature) from the waiting room cooler, which he did. And which felt nice (he doesn't generally get me things).

But wanted to share a use of "Wordle" as a verb because it's been discussed on the boards. He was trying to come up with the name Temple Grandin (autistic who is known in part for developing more humane systems for handling livestock, plus some books). And he said, "Is it Grace? No, that's not it." Then some part of Temple. I was trying to pull it as well and said some other name, then we got it. He said, "It's like I was trying to Wordle her name!" Like had all the letters, just trying to rearrange them in the right order.

I'm sorry you had such an emotional session, LT...although part of me thinks you must have needed it. (This was the logic I tried to adopt during the torture of working with R virtually - there was a lot of crying then...)

I'm glad you felt able to ask for what you needed. Somehow I didn't have Dr. T down as a Wordle player.

Thanks, Lost. I do think I needed it--I feel somewhat lighter now, though at the same time exhausted. And crying with someone there to sort of witness and accept it feels healing in a way to me. Like, he can handle all my emotions. And some of the negative/dark thoughts I shared that I'm not sure I could (or should?) tell my H. It helped to hear him say that he'd be reacting similarly if he was in this situation.

We meet with the school psychologist tomorrow to discuss her results (then meet with the full team Tuesday), so I think it's good that I got all this out. Dr. T said he feels it will enable me to better focus on what she's telling us.

And I was a little surprised by the Wordle thing, too! It came up before, and he said he was familiar with it when I asked, but this suggests he plays it. I wonder what his usual starting words are?

I don't know about Wordle, but my T got me back into Pokémon Go recently. She's at level 41!

I am very happy with myself. I got my four year old niece 3 dresses for $12.86!! They are dot dot smile dresses. I'm in some sort of membership so I get 20% off when I shop on the website. Then there was an additional 40% off with a code. Then I used $50 of my gift cards that I have with the company because of the membership. (I don't know what it is called but I spend $25 per month and it goes into gift cards that you can spend on the website.) So all that was left was a dollar and change for the costs of the dresses, seven dollars for shipping, plus tax! I feel like I scored the deal of the century. I got her a solid pale yellow tank dress (she loves the tank dresses), a red and white striped dress with short sleeves that will be fun for Memorial Day/Fourth of July, and a mint green dress with flowers on it that has sleeves. And I managed to remember to ship direct to my sister so I don't get them at my house and have to pay for shipping again to get them to my sister! It's fun to be able to spoil my niece a little bit and it is awesome to score a deal. I know that technically I paid $62.86 since I paid for the gift cards in previous months, but since it was already out of my checking account it still feels like a score! Before all the discounts the total was more than $100!

I've never played Wordle but I am not good at word games so I don't think I would like it though I don't mind congratulating others when they post their wordle score on FB. I have never played Pokemon Go either. But I know a lot of people are really into it. The only Pokemon I know is Pikachu!

I play Pokemon Go too! I am level 44 because I have no life! Would you like to add me? My trainer code is 4011 9182 3766

Sometimes I like ROGUE. You get three vowels and a common consonant. It's not always helpful though. I also like PLAIN and STAIN. Obviously I don't use the same one everyday.

OPERA is one of my favorites. Along with STONE, STORE, and PROSE. My husband uses SUAVE, which is good for all the vowels, less so (usually!) for the V.

It's not a word game, but this is a fun little game I like to play daily.

Tiny Islands (2019) by David King Made Some Games

Good that he fetched you a cup of cold water, LT. I don't often ask my T to get me cold water, but it's nice when I've forgotten my thermal water bottle.

I'm glad the crying helped. Hopefully the meeting with the school psychologist goes well.

For word games my starting words are LOUSE and CHAIR i find these work a great deal of the time

My eye dr appointment is finally tomorrow! Right now I am wearing current broken glasses via a "necessity is the mother of invention" fix I came up with: I crocheted a short yarn-chain, one end is tied to the remaining earpiece, the other end, to a ponytail holder that's also holding my bangs back. It works spectacularly well, although looks a little funny!

I so don’t want to leave my life again in less than 48 hours and go back to my mother’s knowing what’s waiting there.

I guess one plus of all this is when it’s over new cat and loan dog will come back home with me.

I was wondering if you'd be able to get new cat and loan dog back, but I felt weird asking that. So I'm glad you will be.

Thanks, QM. That's nice your T will do that for you sometimes, too.


Forgot to mention how I had a bit of water left at the end. He said if I didn't want to drink it, I could just dump it in one of his plants so that I wouldn't have to carry the cup plus all my stuff. So the plant behind me got a bonus watering. He also took the lid off the trash can for me and held it so I could throw the cup away easily. Which also sounds like such a small thing, and it may have been that he just didn't want me touching his trash can (Covid), but was still nice.

School psychologist is in an hour and a half. I'm just glad it's a Google Meet rather than in person. And it's only a half hour (meeting next week is an hour, i think--also virtual, at my request). I'm glad I was able to get so much emotion and negative thoughts out yesterday, as I feel I'll be much better able to focus on what she's saying now.

Sounds as though you're doing your best today, LT...and doing brilliantly. I'm happy to pocket ride if needed.

I can try Small Claims for the unreasonable deductions but I don't have proof. Plus (I looked it up), landlords can get more restrictive and refuse to lower the rent. In my situation, I had to eat out, and do some chores )her responsibility!) because she changed various terms I never consented to.

She also clearly gaslit me, but that was on the balance rent, which I got back through the property agent.

So I doubt lawyers can help much, even if I can afford one.

At my new place, the landlord understood that's unreasonable. He also washes all the common areas, and doesn't live in the flat but lives elsewhere. I'm also already registered as a tenant and waiting on the government to act on my notice of having moved.

Glad I'll likely get some free groceries that would otherwise be tossed. The charity helping me with ready to eat food (when I was briefly staying in a cheap hotel) also stocks a food bank that I can access!

Most food aid here is up to 4 months, and I don't qualify for longer term help because it's tied to our version of the USA's SSI.

I'm anxious today but I was anxious Tuesday also and ended up taking too much medication (though not more than prescribed) and I ended up feeling terrible. Like I had trouble walking and everything. So I am staying away from the medication today and just doing meditation and deep breathing. I'm still anxious but at least I am NOT a zombiefied version of myself.

Also, having barbecue for lunch today. It's our monthly luncheon. It's usually on Wednesday but this month for some reason it is on a Thursday. We are also having donuts tomorrow morning and Pizza tomorrow for lunch. One good thing about my work is that they feed us well!

Thanks, Lost, I appreciate the support and pocket riding. The school psychologist confirmed that D likely has an intellectual disability. In addition to autism and ADHD. Even though I knew that was likely the case, based on her scores, what I Googled, and what Dr. T said, it was still hard to hear.

It's also difficult because H tends to be like "OK, so what do we do now?" where I end up all depressed and worrying about her future.

The school psych was trying to be positive about how it's better to know what's going on with her (while admitting it's not good news), that is can help them better make accommodations for her if they know what's going on. So next week, we have a meeting where they formally reconfirm eligibility for the IEP (obviously she still qualifies for that, as she also still met the autism criteria, which was how she qualified before). Then there will be a future meeting where they make modifications to the IEP to reflect her results from the most recent testing. Then we have to see if that helps.

There are other potential options, some better than others (like seeing if they'll approve her for a private special ed school that the county will pay for--that might involve an attorney though, or at least an advocate), but we need to go through these steps first.

HUGS LT. That sounds really difficult. You're a good mom and I know how much you love your child. Receiving news like that would be very hard to bear because of the love you have for your child. Hopefully the next IEP will be better able to help D with her academics and that she will continue to grow, develop, and learn at a pace that is good for her. I know you are trying to do everything you can for her. Make sure you take a little time this weekend for yourself too because this was a lot to take in and you need to decompress and take care of you so you can take care of D. Keep up the good work LT. You've got this.

Thanks, Kit, I appreciate your kind words.

LT, all that sounds so difficult, particularly as you're worried for D's future. I hope she can get the support she needs to thrive.

hugs all around to those who want/need and dignified head nods as appropriate.

Had eye dr appt this afternoon, my eyes are still super dilated so I can't really see very clearly what i'm typing. But overall it was good. no signs of macular dengeneration which runs in my family. my prescription has changed a good bit since last time I got glasses - and this new dr (same place i've been going, but a different dr) was GREAT!!!! He explained everything so well to me and he has one of those old-fashioned kits with all the many different lenses with the 'glasses' they can build your prescription in using different ones. Hadn't seen that since I was a little kid!! So cool So he 'built' my new prescription and when he put the thing on and I read some stuff - i swear I felt my eyes relax and sigh in relief like "FINALLY we don't have to work so hard!" I can't wait to get my new specs. My jerry-rigged old pair will have to do me another 2 weeks. He got a huge kick out of it - said it was a genius solution to the problem lol! well this is all blurry and too bright so I'm gonna log off now. Night couchies!

Hooray for eating better and more regular. For the past year i have shared my fridge with my D and her bf and i quite often didnt have room for my food or it got eaten or thrown out by mistake so i bought myself a new fridge and i am cooking again and feeling a whole lot better. Also internet reviews are weird i was researching my new fridge and people gave it 3 star review for not having a bottle rack or not having self closing doors or a door alarm, even if they bought it online, i noticed most of the reviews were from 2020 through mid 2021 there are pictures on website clearly showing it had no bottle rack and there was no mention of it having self closing doors or a door alarm. Recently i read abook review that stated the person didnt like the ending as a reason for a 2 star reciew.