What are YOU doing?

So the Vicodin has me resting and dozing a lot. If this post is a little incoherent or disconnected, well, so am I. It's fun at first, but the novelty has worn off. My prescription says I can take one or two tablets three times a day.

I'm not in that much pain. I take half of one twice a day if I'm not driving anywhere, and then a whole one at bedtime.

It does help with the discomfort, and Monday night I actually slept all the way through without the knee flashing neon in the dark.

There's that foggy in-between stage, when I'm not really awake but not sleeping either.

While I was drifting Tuesday, I remembered the time my little nephew spent a Friday night at our house. He must have been about six or seven years old at the time.

We stayed up late, and I expected him to sleep in the next morning.

Nope.

At 5:30, there was the shuffle of little feet and a small,
sleepy voice from my bedroom door.

"Aunt Susan? I think it's time to get up."
"Huh?" (I'm really a very stunning conversationalist when I've only had about four hours of sleep.)
He pointed at the bedroom window, where the curtains showed the faintest of light starting to filter through.
"It's morning!" he said.
Shit.

I tried to take him back to his bed, but he was having none of it. I asked him if he'd like to watch cartoons, and he thought that would be a good idea. I got him a blanket and a couple pillows and got him all situated in the living room by the television, dog at his side, and told him I was going back to bed, but to wake me if he needed anything.

A couple hours later, I woke up again and went to check on him.
Maggie had been lying on the floor next to the couch the whole time, keeping him company.

I prodded her with my big toe. "What are you doing, Stupid?" I asked idly.

And Jeremy answered, "Nothing. Just watchin' cartoons."

I was quick to assure him that I would NEVER call him stupid. I still feel bad that he thought I would.

Geez. I have no idea what made me remember that. Jeremy is nearly 17 now. I doubt he remembers it.

I go back to work today, but not at my regular site. Since I can't move furniture or do much, I'm going to sit at another site and relax while someone else deals with the kids. I'll do a craft or something with them.
Then, when numbers drop to the level that means I can leave, I'll go to my regular site and let Sunshine go home. I told her that I can't put stuff away (hard to move carts when you're on crutches) but that I can hang out with the kids so she can go home.

She works at 6:30 in the morning, then goes home a little after nine, then has to be back around 2 for the afternoon shift and stay until six. That split shift crap makes for a long day.

Just one more reason I don't want to be a site director. You couldn't pay me enough.

Our new assistant isn't legally allowed to be alone with kids, so Sunshine has to close when I'm not there. It's not that Maya* has done anything wrong or weird, just that the law requires her to have spent a certain amount of supervised hours with children before being allowed to be alone with them.

Eric and the kids have taken care of everything around the house for me. Laundry's done, dishes done, groceries all taken care of... I'm beginning to think they don't need me!