Annual Pre-Xmas Melt Down

Normal Holiday Stress, Increased on AdoptionLand

motherhood judgment and insanitySomehow, I just can’t avoid it. I guess it’s just like the adoption birthday blues that birthmothers get around our adopted children’s birthdays. I really do expect it, but I am always so surprised by it’s intensity.

Anyway, today was the day. Yippee!

Illness is still constant in the house. My hangover, from last Saturday night, DID turn into the flu. Then it attacked Evan, Garin and Rye in that order. I ended up not really eating anything from Saturday until this Thursday and getting super dehydrated on top of that. Plus, I am still coughing like a maniac. On top of that, I think I scratched my right cornea or something, because my eye is super sensitive to light, and hurts, and leaks all damn day. I’m tired, I’m cranky. I am way behind on shopping and need for Rye’s next check to get the kids stuff done. And I think it’s PMS time too.

Cranky, Stressed and Blind

This morning, my eye hurt something awful. Now I have no way of knowing if you, dear reader, have good eyesight, but mine sucks. I have been wearing glasses since 4th grade, 100% dependent on them since 7th grade, and have had contacts since I was 12. My hand in front of my face is blurry without help. 350/20 is considered legally blind..if you see that bad with help. That’s my natural eyesight, so I am not blind, but it gives you a good idea of how bad it is. I don’t feel awake or alive if I can’t see. So it freaks me out when I have eye issues. Plus it really hurt.

And I am just really cranky and grumpy in the morning. I don’t like much of anything before I have time to have my coffee and check my internet world which I usually do together. So that, together with feeling just a bit annoyed with Rye, wasn’t all that great.

Rye was puking last night. I have mentioned how bad he is when he is sick? Yeah, I thought so. He hasn’t been as bad the last few years as when I first met him, but he was whiny last night. Which wouldn’t have been sooooo bad, since I know it is a bad sicky thing and he has been better, but when I was sick…he wasn’t all that nice to me. He was kinda curt, not nurturing. Not that nurturing is really his strongest point anyway. He’s a good soul, but he doesn’t make you think sensitive male, or being too in touch with his feminine side. Then he’ll get glassy-eyed at some weird movie..like “Family Man” or watch the re-run of ER where Lucy dies and call me at work….so it’s in there, a soft part of his heart. Plus, he’s fiercely loyal. He does great with the major big horrible things of life…really gets calm and focused, finds solutions, motivates, but the day to day challenges..eh, sometimes he’ll cop a “man” attitude..callous, gruff, primitive. Being sick is hard for him because he can’t “fix” it.

And Then I’ll Fight with My Husband Too!

Any, here I am morning crankiness with a runny eye, all weeping in the kitchen. And he tried to take my hand just as I was turning to flop in despair on the nasty yellow chair, and I pulled abruptly away. So THAT made him all feel rejected. That’s part of the problem with him wanting to “fix” everything. If I’m cranky and he acts nice, then I am supposed to get automatically un cranky. And sometimes, I just don’t feel fixable. Sometimes, I am just broken and need to cry. Usually right before my period when the trials of day to day life seem just so unending and unmanageable that all I can do is sob. I need hugs and pats on the back and baby kisses on the forehead. Don’t squeeze my boob. Don’t try to tickle me. Don’t act annoyed when I am just sitting and crying and role your eyes. And I have told him all this before so it’s not like I expect him to read my mind.

It wasn’t pretty. Nothing notable, but we were not to nice with each other..for no real reason. And instead of have a nice day, we exchanged FU’s. Sometimes, it’s just one of them days.

I was going to type out my litany of issues that made me weep this morning, but it hardly seems worthy of it now. I am definitely feeling the Christmas stress, but I am not worried. Like I know it will “be OK” because I will make it so, but the money is tighter this year. Of course, some years it seemed non existent and then, something came though…so it will be OK, again, somehow. All and all, it’s fading out like bad PMS. That’s a good thing.

I can’t check my mail from my laptop right now. Actually, I couldn’t all day. Something is up with Yahoo, but it’s isolated to my machine. I did get into it from Rye’s desktop, but it’s a bother to have to go over there. I’d have to cross the room to do that. And I do usually check my mail like 12 times a day.

You know what else?

Add Adoption Reunion Post Contact Stress

I really, really wish I would hear from Max. I haven’t since right after his birthday and I have sent him 4 “chatty” bits since then. The tension and disappointment from that begins to coil around me like a spring. The longer the time frame, the tighter I am wound. Plus, this is almost a month..or just a month rather..of no contact, but it is the month immediately following his parents finding about, kinda harshly, that we had already been in direct contact. So, I am worried.

I suppose I should write that whole story out. Not tonight though. I need to sleep.

About the Author

Claudia Corrigan DArcy
Claudia Corrigan D’Arcy has been online and involved in the adoption community since early in 2001. Blogging since 2005, her website Musings of the Lame has become a much needed road map for many mothers who relinquished, adoptees who long to be heard, and adoptive parents who seek understanding. She is also an activist and avid supporter of Adoptee Rights and fights for nationwide birth certificate access for all adoptees with the Adoptee Rights Coalition. Besides here on Musings of the Lame, her writings on adoption issue have been published in The New York Times, BlogHer, Divine Caroline, Adoption Today Magazine, Adoption Constellation Magazine, Adopt-a-tude.com, Lost Mothers, Grown in my Heart, Adoption Voice Magazine, and many others. She has been interviewed by Dan Rather, Montel Williams and appeared on Huffington Post regarding adoption as well as presented at various adoption conferences, other radio and print interviews over the years. She resides in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, Rye, children, and various pets.

3 Comments on "Annual Pre-Xmas Melt Down"

  1. You need some newsy bits from Max, that will help hugely. Hope your eye gets better too. Bah to feeling sick, that’s horrible.

  2. regarding eye pain…oy vey! i’m with you: glasses since 2nd grade (fashionable coke bottle ones, of course)..contacts since teen years (in fact, i could only have the hard ones, because they didn’t make soft lenses in strong enough prescription)…tattoos? yup. piercings..check. eye pain? wipes me out in no time flat.

    hope your family (and you too, of course) gets better soon! cheers.

  3. Thank you dears.
    The damn eye still hurts, but maybe I will get a pirate patch for it. The I can say “Arug..maties Is that apple juice you be wanting in that sippy cup!”

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