A good weekend!!!
Weekends seem especially tough. The last few have been ok, not bad, but not as good as the week days have been. I think much of that has to do with my son being home. As I think I have mentioned, he is "schizo-affective" (a watered-down diagnosis for "psychotic schizophrenic" given to kids before an official schizophrenic diagnosis can be given (due to age alone.) I love him, but he is the most difficult person I have ever known to be around. Melissa handles him much better than I do. She is his guardian angel and, in return, he treats her worse than anyone else. He had his 13th birthday this weekend (and how I became the father of a teenager, I have no idea.) But, Melissa and I have agreed that he seems to have reached this plateau in respect to emotional maturity, learning capacity, and even physical maturing rate (he getting bigger, but not really maturing otherwise.) So, weekends are tough, for one reason, because there are many more conflicts involving my son (during the week the bus picks him up early and drops him off just prior to dinner), which adds mucho stress to the household. In addition, Melissa and I handle his behavior and fragility much differently, which causes some conflict between she and I..more stress.
This weekend was busy! Saturday, we had a huge "Moving Sale." Two weekends ago, Melissa and I spent the weekend going through and cleaning out the garage. From that, we began the "garage sale pile" on one side of the garage. Last weekend, we tackled the basement. Amazing what you accumulate in 10 years. Stuff I had forgotten ever existed! By the end of basement cleaning, an entire half of the garage (one car-space worth) was filled (and I mean FILLED) with garage sale crap. The other half was filled with boxes and stuff we are keeping, but need out of the house for purposes of showing the house to buyers. No cars in the garage. Friday was supposed to be day 1 of the garage sale. We have sun in Colorado 360 days/year, and it almost NEVER rains. Of course, it rained all day on Friday. So, we backed-off to a 1 day sale. I am amazed at the shit people will buy for a few dollars. I think we set a new world record for garage sale revenue (not really, but we did very well considering that we were selling stuff we hadn't seen in years.) We did almost $600 in total sales on about 6 hours and sold about 90% of the stuff. I was very pleased with that result. And I had an absolute ball selling my junk and talking to people and just having a good time. All of this is something that I was unable to do just 6 months ago due to mood issues. People we have known for 10 years keep commenting to Melissa things like "I don't think I've ever met "this" Mike." and "Gosh, its great to see Mike so happy and doing so well." Those things make all the effort and pain of treatment and the fight from there to here worth while.
Sunday morning, Maggie (daughter, 11) and I ran one of the bigger 5k running races in Colorado, the Cherry Creek Sneak. It was her first 5k. I ran this race on 1999, and ran the 5 mile event then. Its grown to over 30,000 runners now. I talked her into running with me because a long time training partner of mine and his 11 yr old daughter were running also. We knoew that the other daughter would be going slow and walking some of the race. I made sore Maggie knew that there was no pressure on going fast or not walking. I let her know that she would set the pace or we could run with Dan and his daughter. We had an absolute ball. After about a mile and a quarter, Maggie had had enough of the slower pace that the other two were keeping and wanted to go faster. She has a lot of her dad in her. :) We walked some short stretches. I suggested, during mile 2, that from the 2 mile marker until the end we try to run the rest non-stop. Maggie agreed. And then as we made the last turn to the finish, I suggested that, when she could see the "Finish" banner, we finish strong and sprint the finish. She left me in the dust and finished like a real competitor. I'm very proud of her effort, and I let her know that. As we walked through the "post-race party", which is a bunch of vendors handing out samples and free stuff and info, Maggie looked up at me and said "Dad, its great to have the "old dad" back again." I had to fight back the tears to tell her "Thanks, its great for me to have him back too."
The house is dangerously close to being market ready. Shooting for May 8 to go on the market. I can't wait. This "getting ready" is hard work!
Anyway, a great weekend with some significantly positive feedback on my mood changes. One day at a time. One GOOD day at a time. Later.
This weekend was busy! Saturday, we had a huge "Moving Sale." Two weekends ago, Melissa and I spent the weekend going through and cleaning out the garage. From that, we began the "garage sale pile" on one side of the garage. Last weekend, we tackled the basement. Amazing what you accumulate in 10 years. Stuff I had forgotten ever existed! By the end of basement cleaning, an entire half of the garage (one car-space worth) was filled (and I mean FILLED) with garage sale crap. The other half was filled with boxes and stuff we are keeping, but need out of the house for purposes of showing the house to buyers. No cars in the garage. Friday was supposed to be day 1 of the garage sale. We have sun in Colorado 360 days/year, and it almost NEVER rains. Of course, it rained all day on Friday. So, we backed-off to a 1 day sale. I am amazed at the shit people will buy for a few dollars. I think we set a new world record for garage sale revenue (not really, but we did very well considering that we were selling stuff we hadn't seen in years.) We did almost $600 in total sales on about 6 hours and sold about 90% of the stuff. I was very pleased with that result. And I had an absolute ball selling my junk and talking to people and just having a good time. All of this is something that I was unable to do just 6 months ago due to mood issues. People we have known for 10 years keep commenting to Melissa things like "I don't think I've ever met "this" Mike." and "Gosh, its great to see Mike so happy and doing so well." Those things make all the effort and pain of treatment and the fight from there to here worth while.
Sunday morning, Maggie (daughter, 11) and I ran one of the bigger 5k running races in Colorado, the Cherry Creek Sneak. It was her first 5k. I ran this race on 1999, and ran the 5 mile event then. Its grown to over 30,000 runners now. I talked her into running with me because a long time training partner of mine and his 11 yr old daughter were running also. We knoew that the other daughter would be going slow and walking some of the race. I made sore Maggie knew that there was no pressure on going fast or not walking. I let her know that she would set the pace or we could run with Dan and his daughter. We had an absolute ball. After about a mile and a quarter, Maggie had had enough of the slower pace that the other two were keeping and wanted to go faster. She has a lot of her dad in her. :) We walked some short stretches. I suggested, during mile 2, that from the 2 mile marker until the end we try to run the rest non-stop. Maggie agreed. And then as we made the last turn to the finish, I suggested that, when she could see the "Finish" banner, we finish strong and sprint the finish. She left me in the dust and finished like a real competitor. I'm very proud of her effort, and I let her know that. As we walked through the "post-race party", which is a bunch of vendors handing out samples and free stuff and info, Maggie looked up at me and said "Dad, its great to have the "old dad" back again." I had to fight back the tears to tell her "Thanks, its great for me to have him back too."
The house is dangerously close to being market ready. Shooting for May 8 to go on the market. I can't wait. This "getting ready" is hard work!
Anyway, a great weekend with some significantly positive feedback on my mood changes. One day at a time. One GOOD day at a time. Later.
posted by DeMental at 9:55 PM
2 Comments:
Mike:
I finally read your blot - quite impressive as you mentioned it would be. That's quite a story, so glad you're doing better. I see your writing ability and quick wit is what it always was. Sorry to hear you're leaving town but certainly understand. I'm feeling much better now, on meds and told my world the secret. Joanne
can you write an article on how much you forgot, (apporoxx)
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