Picking ones poison redux

In 11th grade, I had an English teacher who had a long list of rules. Any written violation would result in ones grade being lower. She didn't want to see the word 'get' used in any form and unless we were harvesting crops or removing nits from someone's hair, she did not want to see the word 'pick' used either when we meant select or opt. She had many other such rules too, but Ms. U is not grading this.

One of the many side effects of AC is eye irritation. For the past week or so, my eyes have been constantly running. I awake to dried tears sticking my eyes together and my eyelashes clumped together. I have to soak my eyelashes carefully to redissolve the tears. Don't want to rip my precious eyelashes out as who knows when they will be replaced. My eyes are not infected according to Dr. Henry. As she peered into my eyes, I peered into hers and noticed she had some funky eye problem herself. Bad contact day? Yes, and cats.

To prevent potential allergic reactions to Taxol, I needed a double dose of antihistamines whose side-effect would be dry eyes so I had a 24 hour break from the constant tearing. Tears are starting to form again so I guess I could take more Zyrtec but then risk a bellyache. On the whole, I feel much better than I did after being dosed with AC. All those anti-emetics needed had side effects but did prevent me from severe nausea. My Neulasta finally came to me about 5 pm which Steve needs to inject later today into my belly, unnerving for both of us. I have some vein damage from my last AC dose. The vein is turning dark and painful so it needs to be watched.

Although I was exhausted from no sleep the night before, I did go to another of Naomi's road games at Lincoln. Many years ago I had taught Adult Ed GED Math in its district at night and physics and chemistry for the high achieving and high ability students at Huron during the day. What a contrast! I had only one student whose math achievement even approached Naomi's when she was in 7th grade. I worked with him separately and he was able to score in the high 90s on the GED at the level of the average Ann Arbor 8th grade. I physically taught in a 8th grade math class where they charted all the students' progress at learning their time tables on the wall. Only one child had mastered it. In Ann Arbor, this would have been achieved way earlier by most. The rest of my GED students were at elementary school level. Since then, fairly nice subdivisions have popped up in its district along with its trailer parks that dominated 33 years ago when I was around so their schools have slowly improved. One of the moms' daughter is currently teaching history there and is appalled how ill-equipped the students in general are. To save money recently, they dialed the heat down in the gym during our big freeze 10 days ago resulting in pipes bursting and the good gym's floor buckling from water damage so we had to play in their back-up gym. Their team's star player, Crystal, is a good friend of Naomi's from their days together of AAU bball. I am good friends with Crystal's parents so it was nice to see them all last night. Crystal's dad was usually the asst coach of the AAU team and was very encouraging to Naomi. Due to Crystal's stellar play, Lincoln was actually ahead during the first quarter but it is hard to sustain that effort for long all by oneself and Huron quickly caught up and won by almost 40 pts just with the bench after a while.

News flash while I type: Josh is safe at work along with his 2 fellow 'young hotshots' as his older colleagues have identified them or in Pford's assessment; critical talent. Everyone else young is gone. Yes I know how to spell but I am trying to subvert search engines. Recently I was very alarmed to find a cookie from my former employer's corporate headquarters (where I know noone) in my Statcounter. I guess if they were really spying on me, the cookie would be blocked so I would never see them but it made me nervous nonetheless. My separation agreement included never disparaging them. When we were all let go, news reporters would stick microphones in our face wondering how we felt and everyone answered no comment. As for my former employer, they are trying to buy another big company right now which I hope will improve our personal portfolio in the long run. In the short run, they are cutting our dividend which had allowed us to accumulate alot of shares at bargain prices but if the price per share rises, our huge gamble will work out. If not....oh well.

But Josh having a job is a huge relief. Maybe he and Julia will start that family soon. Hope, hope, hope.... Also yesterday I got a notice from Huron that Naomi received an "H" in that art class I was trying to get her out of. WTF! But it actually is good news, it meant that the grade won't be used against her as I later found out. My protest seemed to have worked. She didn't need the credit anyway.
More snow today but I noticed them clearing the bike path behind my house so I could theoretically walk. Still have insurance issues to clear up.