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Halloween, 2015
Oct. 31st, 2015 23:31It's been an exhausting day, and I'm looking forward to turning in.
There's a huge push for dresses for the dance studio, twenty one dresses in fourteen days, and there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Brigid, whose dance school it is and who has the final say on the finished design and who no one bothers to keep in the loop; Brigid's mother, who designed the embroidery; an embroiderer, new to her trade, who also designs and builds dresses and can't separate one from the other, who insists upon making decisions based on how she'd build the dress, which she is not doing; and me, who is drafting the patterns and building the dresses.
It's gotten bad enough that in our meeting with the embroiderer this morning we (M and I) felt obliged to put our feet down and call her on her desision making, saying more than once, 'No, that's not your job. You embroider, we build." ... and, "No, Brigid didn't say that to us about that, so it wasn't said. If she doesn't say it to us, it isn't true. Period."
I'll be utterly shocked if the dresses are done on time. The deadline is November 15th. Twenty-one dresses, three vests. Vests are easy, take about ninety minutes each. Dresses...Not so much.
Today being Halloween, I've spent a good deal of time the last couple of weeks working with the kids on their costumes. Katie's "Princess Leia: Battle of Endor" was already in the works from last year. She was sick and didn't get to go. Her helmet needed some touch up, she made the poncho and pants over the last couple of days. The boots were purchased at Savers last year, over-the-calf flats in her size, bloody miracle I found them. (I buy a lot at Savers things I don't necessarily need but that I know might be hard to find when they're actually needed. I keep a mental shopping list in my head.)
The helmet is a batting helmet with a band of foam rubber, coated with latex caulk to give it a smooth surface. The poncho, simple muslin with spray paint. Pants were leggings I purchased as an experiment from our fabric supplier that I never used, dyed blue. Katie stitched on the stripes.
For Jami, who decided he wanted to be Death of the Discworld, we layered my gravedigger costume (black tabbard with shoulder cape; hooded mantle) over a choir robe ($5, Savers, again), purcahsed boney gloves and a scythe at one of the many Halloween stores. We did his makeup mid-afternoon.
The kids went out to grandma's to celebrate and trick-or-treat. Katie has friends in the neighborhood, Jami really doesn't, and he got tired of being the third wheel and asked to come home and trick-or-treat, then to go back to grandma's. We let him come home, but made him stay home, a restriction that caused a lot of crying and upset. We're trying to teach him that he can't manipulate people into keeping him happy and comfortable all the time, that decisions have to be followed-through, and that sometimes they have consequences. He's eleven, male, and autistic, so self-centeredness and narcisism are pretty much his m.o.
We got past it, and he and I went out together to trick-or-treat his home neighborhood. I hung back and let him do his thing, and we chatted as we walked house to house. He got a lot of compliments on the costume (it's all in the layers!) Later, we went together to get burgers for supper. It turned out okay, but man, what a drain.
Last week at this time, Michelle was coming down with the flu. She's done with the aching and shivering and fevering, but it's left her with a horrible cough, deep, wracking, sometimes just a spasm that needs to be a cough but won't. She is miserable. somewhat functional during the day, but at night the coughs are oh so much worse. We haven't slept in the same room for a couple of months now (I sleep too lightly to share a bed with someone as restless as she is), but I can hear the fits from across the house. I worry for her, but there's not much to do but wait it out.
There's a huge push for dresses for the dance studio, twenty one dresses in fourteen days, and there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Brigid, whose dance school it is and who has the final say on the finished design and who no one bothers to keep in the loop; Brigid's mother, who designed the embroidery; an embroiderer, new to her trade, who also designs and builds dresses and can't separate one from the other, who insists upon making decisions based on how she'd build the dress, which she is not doing; and me, who is drafting the patterns and building the dresses.
It's gotten bad enough that in our meeting with the embroiderer this morning we (M and I) felt obliged to put our feet down and call her on her desision making, saying more than once, 'No, that's not your job. You embroider, we build." ... and, "No, Brigid didn't say that to us about that, so it wasn't said. If she doesn't say it to us, it isn't true. Period."
I'll be utterly shocked if the dresses are done on time. The deadline is November 15th. Twenty-one dresses, three vests. Vests are easy, take about ninety minutes each. Dresses...Not so much.
Today being Halloween, I've spent a good deal of time the last couple of weeks working with the kids on their costumes. Katie's "Princess Leia: Battle of Endor" was already in the works from last year. She was sick and didn't get to go. Her helmet needed some touch up, she made the poncho and pants over the last couple of days. The boots were purchased at Savers last year, over-the-calf flats in her size, bloody miracle I found them. (I buy a lot at Savers things I don't necessarily need but that I know might be hard to find when they're actually needed. I keep a mental shopping list in my head.)
The helmet is a batting helmet with a band of foam rubber, coated with latex caulk to give it a smooth surface. The poncho, simple muslin with spray paint. Pants were leggings I purchased as an experiment from our fabric supplier that I never used, dyed blue. Katie stitched on the stripes.For Jami, who decided he wanted to be Death of the Discworld, we layered my gravedigger costume (black tabbard with shoulder cape; hooded mantle) over a choir robe ($5, Savers, again), purcahsed boney gloves and a scythe at one of the many Halloween stores. We did his makeup mid-afternoon.
The kids went out to grandma's to celebrate and trick-or-treat. Katie has friends in the neighborhood, Jami really doesn't, and he got tired of being the third wheel and asked to come home and trick-or-treat, then to go back to grandma's. We let him come home, but made him stay home, a restriction that caused a lot of crying and upset. We're trying to teach him that he can't manipulate people into keeping him happy and comfortable all the time, that decisions have to be followed-through, and that sometimes they have consequences. He's eleven, male, and autistic, so self-centeredness and narcisism are pretty much his m.o.
We got past it, and he and I went out together to trick-or-treat his home neighborhood. I hung back and let him do his thing, and we chatted as we walked house to house. He got a lot of compliments on the costume (it's all in the layers!) Later, we went together to get burgers for supper. It turned out okay, but man, what a drain.
Last week at this time, Michelle was coming down with the flu. She's done with the aching and shivering and fevering, but it's left her with a horrible cough, deep, wracking, sometimes just a spasm that needs to be a cough but won't. She is miserable. somewhat functional during the day, but at night the coughs are oh so much worse. We haven't slept in the same room for a couple of months now (I sleep too lightly to share a bed with someone as restless as she is), but I can hear the fits from across the house. I worry for her, but there's not much to do but wait it out.