Dealing with my mother
I went with her to her doctor
I've got a complete list of her medications
And she had called me I'm not sure which day it was either the day she got out of the hospital or the day after that she called me and her blood pressure was really low and normally that's not the issue but they had given her an extra blood pressure medication and so you know her blood pressure was like 84 over 49 and she was wanting to know if she should take the blood pressure medication and she'd called the doctor and she'd called the cardiologist and she couldn't get anybody to call her back and you know 84 over 49 is pretty low but I looked it up and it said that was low but it wasn't like dangerous in and of itself and I'm like well no don't take it because you know if you take your medication and you go to bed if your blood pressure goes any lower s*** you know
so when we went to the doctor I asked her I'm like you know look this happened and she couldn't get in touch with anybody what should she do and so now we've got a rule of thumb that if the top number is under 120 or the bottom number is 50 or under she doesn't take the medication she waits a few hours and takes it again to check and see what it is and she's supposed to eat something salty or drink some caffeine to bring it up a little bit which I don't like all this b******* take medicine to bring it down then if it's too low then each salt to bring it up
But you know I can't just put her in old people jail and she at the doctors
There was like a shielding around everything and there was like one little gap in the shielding because it was like one desk and it kind of curved or bent or something and so they had one little gap and she walks up and just sticks her face in the hole to talk to the nurse at the counter and it's like the whole point of the shielding is so that you don't do that but she just walks up and sticks her face into the thing and she touches everything she touches everything and then she rubs her mask she rubs her face and her mask like compulsively while she's sitting waiting so I really don't know how she hasn't gotten sick yet
It is super hard and I ask her if she had any hand sanitizer in the studio and she said yes and what she had was Lysol wipes which isn't exactly the same thing
but I've been cutting the paintings out of they're all wrapped up in boxes and bags and there's one single edged razor that is the cutting implement so I've been cutting them all out and she keeps reminding me not to cut the canvases and not to set the canvases wear anywhere the wire or the eyelet things are going to gouge into the paintings and I'm not saying anything but you know I mean I learned that stuff when I was 10 or 11 so I didn't forget but I understand why she's doing it because I always do that with anybody too because people don't do it they just stock the stuff and don't realize that it's going to f*** things up
So we impact everything except I'm sure that isn't all of her paintings so I think some of them are still at home I don't know but I mean this is enough I think and she really wants to have some kind of like open studio where people can come and look at her artwork maybe not like open studio maybe by appointment but I'm not really sure how that's going to happen or how that's going to be safe
I really don't want to do this but she is super happy about it
And I know you don't agree but I think this is just something I have to do
She doesn't have any other kids
So there's nobody else to do this stuff and I need to get my s*** together
But I also need to know what I need to know for when things go bad
She's 76 or 77 77 I think so she's already 12 years older than her mother she's had a pacemaker for 5 or 6 years she's got congestive heart failure
And maybe I just listened to too many people talking about their parents died in the hospital with them having to FaceTime them
But also just the idea of her dying and my going into that house and have it to start going through boxes and boxes to find whatever it is that I'm supposed to use for probate and be trying to do that while I was working some s***** job
And she is working so hard at being agreeable and not being pushy and she still being pushy but she's trying really hard not to she's so happy
This is not something I'm going to do forever
When I went to the grocery store I stocked up again for all the things that I thought might go away if they shut it down again or if there's a run on the grocery stores
I think I have about 30 rolls of toilet paper and a lot of sanitizer and hydrogen peroxide and Pop-Tarts and Cheetos not enough Cheetos though also off-branch Cheetos but they're okay
And they didn't have any alcohol at the grocery store and then they've got limits on things again so you can only have two alcohol products or two hydrogen peroxide products so I got some alcohol wipes You know the little kind that come in the foil that you tear open because I thought those might be handy if you just need a little bit of alcohol to rub a wound or a thermometer or something and you don't want to use up a lot of alcohol then I went on Amazon and I found a cord of alcohol for like I don't know 10 bucks that seems reasonable so I bought that and the baby wipes that I use to clean my face I put the cleanser on and then I use those wipes to take it off I've been using the same packet you know one of those big packets I've been using the same one since the quarantine started but I'm on the last packet so it turns out Amazon has those two they didn't have it at the store
So I'm all loaded for bear
She had a therapy session today and she does those on FaceTime their therapist so I was going to go down and shop in the art supply because her studio is in the art supply building they have studios and they have several apartments so I went downstairs and to be honest with you it's not overly impressed I think they just reopened those so they may not have everything unpacked but they only had a few brands of watercolors and they didn't have the whole line and they were very expensive
Now I get it it's a small mom and pop type shop and they're trying to stay in business and I think really and truly that the studios is how they make their money and the apartments plus they live there so that makes it less expensive for them too then if they had to maintain a separate property and I don't know if I told you this but I don't think I did The guy who owns it Ben he fell and broke his hip over the weekend he is 90 years old but he is still in great shape his wife was very worried because his blood pressure went up and apparently he has like really freakishly normal blood pressure like 30-year-old blood pressure but his blood pressure went up and he had a fever but he's already had surgery on his hip and they were trying to release him today but she didn't want him to be released because they didn't have the results back from his blood test yet and the fact that his temperature went up that much had her really worried so I don't know that's worrisome I think she's younger than my mom by a little bit when I was a kid I mean I think I've known Ben since I was maybe three or five years old but his wife worked at the art store and then subsequently they fell in love and got married so it was you know kind of a love story and they're really really nice people
I don't think anyone came into the art shop while I was there and the studios a couple of people have moved in my mom introduced me to somebody whose name I've already forgotten He's a world-renowned artist who taught at lone Star college for years I didn't recognize his name but he seems very nice lone Star college I didn't even realize had an art program it's a community college
and then in the afternoon while we were working I thought I heard something and I was trying to figure out where it was coming from but she couldn't hear it and then when we were leaving I was like oh wait I think that's it and the studio next door there's this guy who has I mean like some sort of a clothing shop I mean it might be just regular old everyday clothing or it might be fancier than that I don't know the stuff he had in there wasn't ball gowns and stuff so I don't know I don't know what it is but he seemed intriguing in a slightly drag race sort of way although I didn't actually see him he was kind of behind something so I just heard him and he was busily sewing away
So I guess that's three of us
There are a couple of other studios that were closed up but they've got paintings hanging in the wall One of them has a nameplate on the door but I can't remember the name Rikar K I'm pretty sure that's not it but it's something like that it's super duper photorealistic and the one on the other end of the hall is like the polar opposite of that it's colors and textures and squiggles and swirls and there was another studio that got an enormous enormous canvas leaning against the wall The door was open when we were leaving but it wasn't open when we came in so somebody's probably bringing things in but it had this enormous canvas that had like some kind of I don't know it looked like Indian handblock printed something with hands on it it was all very kind of tribal and then there were strings with bells and things hung from the ceiling so I mean it seems like a very eclectic mix of things and there are there were like three studios maybe four studios that were just open and empty so those may not be rented yet
It was really good to see you
I got myself all worked up
I went to bed early
When I woke up at 3:30 I had to pee and I could not go back to sleep
And then I finally dozed off just about the time the alarm went off and I was like f***
So I decided I could sleep a little longer I said it a little later but I was laying there and at one point I could hear myself snoring and I'm like well I'm snoring I must be asleep but I was still talking to myself I did not feel like I was asleep and I'm like well I mean if you're snoring you must be asleep regardless of whatever is going on with your brain so just lay here and listen to yourself snore then and maybe your body will feel like it's getting some sleep
And then all day I was just kind of dragging
I just kept feeling like I wanted to cry
You think my cat would be upset about my leaving but no he remembers about going away he just made sure he got his going away treats and is coming home treats and I think he might have slept most of the time I was gone he sleeps a lot now He's enough older and he's not that old he's like five or six maybe which is still not that old for a cat but he just sleeps a lot He's telling me it's time to eat again even though I'm pretty sure he just ate like 45 minutes ago but he's probably down on food for the day so let me go feed him
