Bunch O' Stuff: Knitwits, school, futures, Crohn's and books
This is Opus the Octopus. I started him three years ago as a Christmas gift for a friend. Got a pretty good start but then got bogged down by the monotony of tentacles and set him aside. For two years. Dug him out, did another tentacle, set him aside. Cue this past August when I thought - I should finally finish him, so I've been slowly working on him when sitting in on my kids' therapy sessions. And now he's done!! *so proud* So - that's one Christmas gift ready, either extremely early or extremely late. ;-)
Moving on to other news:
Crohn's: Last week I got a bloodtest to see how well I was metabolizing my usual medication, which would indicate if they could up the dosage. Got the results yesterday: Nope. The acceptable metabolic range was 225 (250? something like that) to 450 of whatever-it-is they're measuring. My score was 447. Which means while the dose I'm on is acceptable, there's absolutely no way they're giving me more. Of course not - that would have been too easy. :-P
It also means that my doctor is throwing up his hands in despair and is referring me on to another gastro doc who specializes more specifically in inflammatory bowel cases. He's sending my docs on to that guy, and said doctor is supposed to call back early next week to schedule an appointment. Up for discussion: whether or not I might, MIGHT be able to take the biologic medication Stelara, after having had the extremely rare (as in, < 1%, because of course I have to be special) side effect of optic neuritis to the Humira. Because if the answer is "no" then I honestly don't know what my next step is.
Capitol Steps: Will and I got to see them live on Wed night! I actually got to see them live in Feb, but Will was sick then and had to miss out. He'd never seen them live before (I'd previously seen them live ages ago when I lived in DC) so he really enjoyed that. A bunch of the songs were the same as Feb, of course, but they'd updated some of them, and also added some new ones for more recent events (they keep really current), and at least one of the singers had been switched out, so that was enough to keep it fresh for me.
Kids: Principal gave permission for them to take their midterms the day before we leave. Phew!
MiniPlu battled a head cold this week, never feeling crummy enough to justify staying home, but bad enough to be miserable at school for the first several days. Poor kid. She did eventually kick it, at least. She also reported that Hand, Foot and Mouth disease is going around the school which - ok, at least that's not fatal or anything, but still, ick.
Two: Had a repeat argument with him over future plans or lack thereof. I was prodding him to pull up some of his grades - only his math grade is at the "I'm allowed to interfere" level, as per last year's agreement: when he gets to 80%. But I was prodding him for some of his other classes, which are firmly in the B range but *were* much higher until he bombed a recent lab/test/something. He was arguing that it shouldn't matter if he has one year of "bad grades" if the other three years are amazing, and I'm pointing out that colleges will want to see he put out effort consistently, and so why NOT put out effort now (especially as I suspect the other three years will be status quo like now :-P), and he's arguing that he won't *need* to go to college as he found out from ... someone ... about senior projects. This is a semester-long thing that can be done on a voluntary basis, and he heard that there's an English teacher who has managed to get some kids published, if their project was, say, writing a book. So now he's envisioning that he's going to write a book and become the next JK Rowling, have it *made* and won't need to go to college or have any kind of career. And I'm pointing out that that is a *fantastic* goal but he needs a backup plan in case he *doesn't* get published, because just because some kids did doesn't mean every kid does, and even then, there are plenty of authors who publish books that aren't bestsellers and therefore still need a day job. He's also 100% convinced he's going to move to New Zealand and go to college there (NZ chosen because a) There's a "One Tree Hill" and he loves the TV Show of the same name and b) it's as far away from us as he can think to go, so we can't drop in and visit him. So, again, I said that was a fantastic backup plan and he should start now, researching the universities there, what their academic requirements are, requirements for international students, etc, and that way he has a plan in place and he knows what to work towards. But that he still needs to put out more effort at school for those plans to become more likely realities. And he just refuses to accept it.
His absolute lack of reality is just terrifying sometimes. Sure, we all need to dream, but he has no grasp of just HOW much work his writing needs for him to be successful as a book author or screenplay author, given that he still struggles with basic grammar. He has no willingness to accept that schools will look at *all* his grades, not just the ones in the relevant subject(s). He doesn't want to hear that he needs to get post-high-school training in *something* and that even if he doesn't go to college, that means going to vo-tech, or hair-cutting school, or getting training to be a carpenter, or optician's assistant or anything, really, because the alternative is to work at McDonalds or retail in a low-paying job and to basically end up like several of his relatives, with no real marketable skills and no money and he already has trouble with money management. And sure, you can say he's a 14-year-old boy, and who really grasped reality back then? But it's the whole attitude, the absolute unwillingness to learn from people, and the total disinterest in taking steps to help ensure his dream that concerns us. Gah.
Books: I recently finished two! First up was The Philosopher's Flight by Tom Miller, which was a birthday gift from hamsterwoman. "Philosophy" in this case means an innate ability to use sigils and certain chemical powders, along with your own energies to create ... magic for lack of a better term. Flying, sending instant messages to others, transporting large groups of people, etc. The skill is most common to women, so this is the story of a man who fought against the odds to be trained and to prove his worth. It's set in early WWI America, some in Montana and some in Boston. The short version: I loved it! I loved the juxtaposition between what we traditionally think of as society and technology from that era and what had been altered because of the existence of Philosophy. Warfare, advances in food and drink technology, transportation, etc - mixed with wagons and trolleys and more familiar things. Women being the main carriers of the philosophical abilities meant they had better social standings than they did in the real 1917, and there was somewhat better racial equality as well, because of it. Not perfect, but better. You see this in (white) Robert's relationship with Danielle, who was part African-American, part Arab. He puts his foot in his mouth at least once because of race, but that's mostly because he's a rube from Montana who didn't mean any harm, and Danielle schools him fast. I loved how each chapter started with a quote from a "book" or a person - often a person referenced in the story - as if you were reading history. I loved the multiple layers of fights that Robert must face, from prejudiced women who think he doesn't belong there, to the anti-philosophy movement who thinks all philosophy is evil. Characters were likeable but flawed - the insane dean who still knows what's going on anyway, Danielle with her anxieties, Robert's mother and sisters who all can do philosophy and how they feel about Robert's goals, Robert's roommate who is brilliant and totally incapable of doing any actual philosophy.
The only thing I didn't like was the ending. It was just so ... abrupt. Like - that's where it's ending? Really? The book starts in the 1930s, Robert and his daughter and the implications that philosophers have been essentially kicked out of the US and are taking refuge in Mexico. Obviously there's anti-philosophy attitude going on in the story, but how do we get from there to the hiding-out-in-Mexico thing? There's an implication that this is a series, so I'm hoping that means there will be more of Robert's story and we'll make that bridge. I'm guessing he and Danielle do not make a permanent couple, which makes me sad, but at the same time, I can also see happening. At least they seem to respect each other deeply, and their relationship was important to each of their characters' development. Anyway, I really enjoyed this, and will be keeping my eye out for more in the future.
What If It's Us? by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera. This was a book I treated myself to, as soon as it came out - even scoring an autographed copy from B&N! I wasn't entirely sure what to expect here, as Becky writes happy endings and, at least as far as I've heard, Adam writes sad endings. But I'd read the opening chapter as a bonus add-on to ... I think Leah on the Offbeat and was completely smitten, so I was eager to see the rest. Two teenage boys meet by chance at a NY post office, spend the first part of the book trying to re-find each other, and the rest of the book trying to work out a relationship. So, Ben is a tall native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, struggling through summer school chem class and coming off a recent break-up with his first-ever bf. Arthur is a short Jewish kid from Georgia (hello: Albertalli's influence - she's from Georgia), spending the summer in NY while his lawyer mom works at the NY branch of her firm on a particular case; he interns at her office. He's never had a bf or any other sort of relationship before. Both are out with their families, who both wholeheartedly support them (which I liked), and both have their own quirky best friends (although Ben's BFF Dylan probably wins the prize for Quirkiest Ever).
So, once they finally reconnect again, about 1/3 of the way through the book, it takes them four tries at a first date before they really connect. I liked how they were both flawed, Arthur being too eager and with no filter and comfortable, financially with no experience otherwise, and Ben not having much confidence or money, and always running late. They have different interests, they have different academic skills, different worries going in - and yet they're both still in it to win it, willing to keep trying to make it work, willing to apologize and start over. It felt very real and adorable, although it was hard to keep reading about all the times they messed up with each other, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in larger ones. The moments where they really connected, though, over Ben's writing and Hamilton and FaceTime - those were really awesome. The dinner when both families meet was awesome, too.
The fact that their time together is limited by Arthur's summer plans - his mom's stint in NY ends in early August and the family will be returning to GA - means the boys know they must decide what to do at the end of that timeframe. Spoiler for ending: I think they chose the most realistic ending - to stay in touch and be friends but not to try the long-distance thing. Which is why I felt like this book lived up to both authors' reputations - it's both happy and sad. You can want them to have their happily ever after, and they clearly love each other, yet the entire premise of the book, with Arthur not being local, means that's going to be complicated.
Yet they clearly still mean a LOT to each other, as the epilogue implies, and I wonder why Arthur - who ends up in college in CT - doesn't make any attempt to visit Ben (still in NYC) in person. Definitely think there could be a lot of fanfiction exploring that, as more people read the book. (Currently AO3 has ... 2 stories.)
Now I'm on to the sequel to Jade Dragon Mountain, another 18th-century mystery set in the China/Mongolia region. Maybe I'll finally manage to finish all my birthday books by Christmas, lol!