G'day, both Sharons.
The rocket science thing - I love it, I wish we had it down here. Is it an Estes rocket? Or something simpler, like baking powder and vinegar? (you put a teaspoonful of baking powder in a twist of paper, get a bottle with a fitting cork, put a splash of vinegar in the bottle, find some pencils to rest the bottle on, drop in the twist of paper, jam on the cork real fast and rest the bottle on the pencils. And hope you didn't jam the cork in so tight that the bottle breaks.)
And Wiped, I hope you manage to get by without feeling too tired from lack of sleep.
We've got Day 1 of filming tomorrow, final day next day. And tonight easy child 2/difficult child 2 realised she had NOT told them at work that she is unavailable on Thursday as a checkout chick. I mean, she's had three weeks to get it right, I've been reminding her, but she told them Friday and not Thursday - and now has no recall of how it could have been wrong, she was swearing blind she had been told Friday.
What got me was the over-the-top tantrum, floods of tears, unreasonableness and hours of it, too. On top of tomorrow's (smaller) filming schedule we have to get her back to the local college for her enrolment. And she has vital papers to have with her for that - we had to wait until she had calmed down enough to not be screaming at people, to sort out her college paperwork (husband will have it with him for safety, and be there to support her through it all - *sigh*). Then husband reminded me - she is also on washing up duty tonight and he wasn't going to tell her because she always throws a tantrum when he does. Her boyfriend offered to wash up for her, but I reminded him - he did it for her last time it was her turn. While he's living with us I'm happy for him to be on the roster, but not to always do her job for her, that's not fair on him.
And her paediatrician doesn't think she is Asperger's!??!? She needs her hand held with stuff she should be able to manage on her own; I make her business phone calls for her (or have to sit with her while she makes them); she STILL gets me to organise her performance work. I went through a stage of not doing it for her. She went through a long stage of not working. Not good. The most recent - a contact in the film had sent her a message via the producers, "Hey, kid, how's the stiltwalking going? Send me an email, I want to catch up!" This from a past mentor who she values. But has she drafted the email yet? Only this evening, with constant urging. She's happy to make contact, she likes the bloke, she just doesn't know what to say.
I've been through all this with difficult child 1. Classic Aspie "I can't cope on my own yet" stuff, from a kid with an IQ in the stratosphere and who has held down a job for several years, and done paid performance work for another ten years. At least tomorrow on the set the kids get a meal provided. easy child 2/difficult child 2 is still working out how to tell her checkout job that she can't work on Thursday, when she should have told them weeks ago. If she calls in sick, they'll probably want a doctor's certificate. She doesn't want to lie to them or the doctor, but the truth will make her sound irresponsible and thoughtless. Still, 24 hours' notice is better than none, and Thursday is the BIG day that the kids have been rehearsing for since November. One person dropping out will kill it. It would also kill her acting prospects in the future, too.
Sometimes I wish my kids had two heads each, so I could bang them together. And the doctor says she's not Aspie? I'm going to have a serious talk with him next week and take in a copy of her recent Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) questionnaire.
Sorry to rant so early in the morning for all of you. I need to calm down, it's past bedtime here.
Marg