The Swamp

This is gonna sound whiny, but oh well

since monday ive had a friend tell me they have huntingtons, an uncle get diagnosed with cancer, and a friend swallow 2 bottles of pills in a suicide attampt and call me in the middle of it to say goodbye. I managed to say and do enough stuff to keep her alive, bringing my lifetime record of phone calls with people mid suicide to 8-2 and the fact that there has been 10 of them seems ridiculous now that i type that out. why do people call me when they are dying? Its a lot and im tired.

Officially hit my math limit this year. I can go back and relearn geometry and some is intuitive but I'm pretty useless. Good thing that one is really quick. Gonna be some ugly screaming nights when the boy comes along virus or not.

Pretty solid batting average. Phone though, right. Walking up on a scene has to set your mental health back a lot. I'd take it as a compliment. No one would call me.

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:20 am Pretty solid batting average. Phone though, right. Walking up on a scene has to set your mental health back a lot. I'd take it as a compliment. No one would call me.

most of the time it starts with a call to spending a night in person trying to unfuck whatever slow way they've fucked themselves. this was no exception. Its not really hard in the moment. I don't know how to explain it except that im pretty good at dealing with shit in the moment and then breaking down afterwards...im just hitting the afterwards right now and it kind of sucks. It feels like super high stakes gambling in a way that i can't explain unless you've ever gambled for super high stakes.

TT2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:17 am This is gonna sound whiny, but oh well

since monday ive had a friend tell me they have huntingtons, an uncle get diagnosed with cancer, and a friend swallow 2 bottles of pills in a suicide attampt and call me in the middle of it to say goodbye. I managed to say and do enough stuff to keep her alive, bringing my lifetime record of phone calls with people mid suicide to 8-2 and the fact that there has been 10 of them seems ridiculous now that i type that out. why do people call me when they are dying? Its a lot and im tired.

Jesus, TT, you are not having an easy month. Fuck. Don't ever feel bad unloading here, that's what semi-anonymous internet friends are for. But Jesus, 10th call? You should at least get a free tote bag for that.

But seriously, I can't imagine the pressure and load of taking those calls, but that shows how much people love and respect you and know that you are a good dude and will be there to help in their worst time.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:30 am

TT2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:17 am This is gonna sound whiny, but oh well

since monday ive had a friend tell me they have huntingtons, an uncle get diagnosed with cancer, and a friend swallow 2 bottles of pills in a suicide attampt and call me in the middle of it to say goodbye. I managed to say and do enough stuff to keep her alive, bringing my lifetime record of phone calls with people mid suicide to 8-2 and the fact that there has been 10 of them seems ridiculous now that i type that out. why do people call me when they are dying? Its a lot and im tired.

Jesus, TT, you are not having an easy month. Fuck. Don't ever feel bad unloading here, that's what semi-anonymous internet friends are for. But Jesus, 10th call? You should at least get a free tote bag for that.

But seriously, I can't imagine the pressure and load of taking those calls, but that shows how much people love and respect you and know that you are a good dude and will be there to help in their worst time.

Im not...and i have 3 shows this weekend, the third being me opening at improv sunday night doing 10 for jesse...which is kind of a big deal and i can't even get to a place where i can think about being funny because in addition to the suicide attempt this week i also had a close friend diagnosed with huntingtons and an uncle diagnosed with cancer. Its all stacking on me and this is literally the busiest most booked most crucial 2 weeks i've had in my calendar for comedy in awhile. I feel like i'm going to make it through the weekend because I usually can keep it together long enough to do the things i need to do but my brain is already telling me that on monday its gonna get really dark in here, really fast because my coping abilities are failing.

I picked the wrong month to stop smoking cigarettes, and perhaps the wrong decade to go sober.

10 is so many too. its not like i work at a suicide hotline....its not like i hang a sign that says free therapist. its a ridiculous number. i guess its a reflection on me spending a lot of time in community-types that are high risk for suicide, and a reflection on my life being weirder than most peoples, all the time.

TT2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:36 am 10 is so many too. its not like i work at a suicide hotline....its not like i hang a sign that says free therapist. its a ridiculous number. i guess its a reflection on me spending a lot of time in community-types that are high risk for suicide, and a reflection on my life being weirder than most peoples, all the time.

They call because you mean something to them and know that they mean something to you. That's important, here. Remember that even when it's hard.

Helping 8 suicidal people get through it ok is pretty fucking great, man.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 3:12 pm Helping 8 suicidal people get through it ok is pretty fucking great, man.

I was thinking that same damn thing. I've never saved a life...you've saved 8!

I’m putting this here to give us a two-minute reprieve.

-Cases are still on the rise in NJ, including the city where the wife works and where she's being pulled into contact tracing on a regular basis for the first time in months

-My oldest daughter's HS is going from hybrid to fully remote at least through 11/9 as an individual at the school tested positive this week

-The girls soccer team at the HS in town is under quarantine as apparently someone on the team tested positive. The freshmen all played on my oldest daughter's old travel team, and she's still good friends with a bunch of them and spent Sunday afternoon at one of their houses (though definitely not patient zero)

Some more information on the school issue ...

And this week, we got a message from the Superintendent that a student in the Early Childhood Center (public school for K and 1st grade) was symptomatic and tested positive.

A student being the key. It's pretty impressive that one student triggers a note from the super. Seems like it's three here before action and one student doesn't quarantine kids outside of the class.

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 8:54 am A student being the key. It's pretty impressive that one student triggers a note from the super. Seems like it's three here before action and one student doesn't quarantine kids outside of the class.

I think the key is "symptomatic" for a 5 or 6 year old. That scares me a bit. I think the class is quarantined, school is open, but not sure about that.

Hear you. Is that unusual? I'm starting to think that kids are less contagious but didn't necessarily think that they were more likely asymptomatic.

We're now up to four of the six schools in our district that have had to act due to infected people (staff and/or students). Only ones to escape are the elementary and middle schools our kids attend. I have accepted that our kids will be doing hybrid learning for the entire school year already.

The high school, junior high and one of the four elementary schools have gone virtual through the end of next week. Reason given was to follow the contact tracing of the increased numbers in the county. This was after having hybrid students go from 2 days to 4 days a week (with Friday being virtual) on Oct 12.

Thankfully my girls are all virtual. And the wife is teaching virtual. I think most of the new cases in the school are from support staff (custodial, cafeteria, and paraprofessionals). Only 2 students have tested positive at the HS, and 1 at each of the other schools in the past month. Solidifying my opinion that kids are so much better then adults.

three weeks ago at a hs party, 32 kids were found without masks - prompted first a cancellation of one football game, then the season and much finger pointing on fb.
Two weeks ago, an adult in the office at the HS tested positive - all students and parents were notified.
last week a HS student (upper classmen) tested positive - only those students in her classes (hipa!!) and lunch period were notified. Several players from the varsity soccer team (undefeated GMC champs) were supposed to quarantine.
this week a family of four including 2 middle school kids were infected - another email to those in contact at the ms -- flag football and baseball cancelled activities.
soccer board met monday night to review issues, i spoke w the mayor before and after - as the family at the ms isn't a soccer family (heathens!) we advised all members that we were aware and monitoring - but no primary or secondary contact.. so entering game week 7 .. we continue to play
the boy's freshman team traveling to westfield today for our first (and only?) away game.. at our home games you can tell the away parents.. they don't wear masks.
work wise...
we've sent out about 20 notifications about folks infected in the building (but not our space) and my team have had one exposure (that we know off) and one illness (early on, she recovered fully). better lucky than good?

If CV19 does me in it's going to be indirectly, like getting clipped by a car when I dodge into the street to be courteous to someone else walking on a narrow sidewalk, or when I trip over some unseen fraction of something poking up from the pavement surface when I take a wide berth to be courteous to a group of people walking on a wider sidewalk.

A_B wrote: ↑Thu Oct 15, 2020 9:21 am Most every email I get form teachers have gramattical errors or aren't up to the professional level I expect. Sucks.




Unrelated Anxiety Note:

My wife has two grandmothers that require 24 hour care. Then we found out earlier this week that her mom has a progressive degenerative palsy similar to Parkinson's, but which is basically untreatable. Doctors said she can no longer drive (she's had four accidents in the past 12 months) and told my FIL that she should not be left alone to go up and down stairs. And the worst part is there is no real way to know how far along in the disease's progression. She has some signs that usually appear later but then others that usually appear early that haven't. It's something that usually you can get 10 years tops from onset but we have no idea if she's one year in or five. And the end stage is usually a bedridden situation.

The in-laws plan to buy one grandmother's house which is a ranch, but she has not passed away so the timing morbidly depends on that. So they are now preparing their home for sale and it needs a bit of work to get ready for the market. So there's a lot going on and my wife is majorly stressed out. I'll do what I can of course but it sucks that everything is hitting at once and I sometimes feel helpless.

The MIl’s mother passed today. Not unexpected but still emotional. But she was suffering.

Sorry for your loss, man

Shit, I’m sorry, AB. For you and your wife and kids.

Sorry to hear this. Even when it's not unexpected, it's always hard to deal with.

Sorry man

Sorry to hear, AB.

So sorry to hear, AB.

Sorry for the loss AB

Prayers for your family

Thanks guys. Looks like a small graveside service so some clear heads prevailing there.

Thoughts to you and your family, AB.

Sorry, AB

EdRomero wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:20 am Our staff of 16 is now down to 6. We're going to charge for virtual enrichment, homework help, and social time, but I'm still expecting we'll lose over 100 grand this school year so furlough may be coming soon. The school system is fucking us over and parents are pissed, sending kids to private schools or opting for home learning and teachers are threatening to strike because of the incompetence of the school board and superintendent. And this is supposedly one of the best school systems in Massachusetts (btw: school systems rankings are bullshit; students get good test scores here because wealthy parents pay for tutoring and more and offspring of two highly successful doctors/engineers/lawyers etc happen to be pretty smart no matter what school they go to). And a fun fact: schools are putting up tents to help with social distancing but they can't call them tents because tents require a sprinkler system in MA, so call them canopies.

Now down to 2. I'm laid off as of Dec 1. I've spent the last 3 months cleaning and organizing the laid off people's messes and leading a K-1 Zoom group every afternoon -- parents and kids loved it and I was having a good time with it, but we're losing $50k a month, so there goes that, and now we need to figure out how to tell 5 and 6 year olds that they won't be seeing me and my assistant anymore. I've been in the after school world for almost 20 straight years. A year ago I was seriously looking to leave because things were getting worse and worse but with Covid changing everything, I was appreciating the job more. Now I need to figure out if I try to continue with the out of school world (even though the type of setting I was in is probably gone for years), jump into the teaching world, or dream up something completely new.

Fuck, romero

Sorry man

Sorry, Romero.

Got an email from the HS principal this morning that there is no truth to the rumors that several students tested positive after going to a house party last weekend. This afternoon I get an email from my son's X-Country coach that the AD told him they can't hold practice today, and he doubts they can participate in the County Championship tomorrow. This afternoon get an email from the Superintendent, and she confirmed that 7 HS students tested positive and they were all in attendance at one of 3 different house parties.

So on Monday, parents from a kid on my son's team asked my wife to give their son a ride home from practice. My wife didn't feel comfortable letting giving him a ride, but we used to carpool with this kid pre-COVID for years and she felt pressured. She was making conversation and asked the kid what he did for Halloween. "I went to a party." I just texted the father, yep, he was at one of the three parties. Kid and parents all tested negative this morning, but his twin brother who was also at the party tested positive.

Sucks Ed.

and so sorry to hear AB.

I have had so much trouble sleeping with nowhere as many worries. Hope everyone is doing (reasonably) well.

What fucking parents are allowing their kids to have a party? And really amazing that three sets had the same stupid idea.

Sorry to hear, Romero.