Happy Mother's Day! Yesterday I joined my family for the day, and as always my mother was funny, gracious, and kind. My father managed to insult/backhand insult her at least ten times but at least she fights back now.
And from a totally selfish perspective, wow it sucked in a lot of ways. After a long day of showing them around Battery Park (since even though my sister's been in the city for about 5 years and works downtown she hasn't been there), and other areas, I realize that unfortunately most of the normal street vendors have fled because of the massive construction in the area. Long story short, I'm hot, becoming sunburned, and extremely dehydrated since my body does not tolerate heat as well as most people.
We adjourn to Stone Street (sidebar: did not know this exists as a permanent street food fair; awesome!), and sit outside to get dessert. At this point, possibly because of the heat and dehydration, my tremor has become much more noticeable to me. I ask for water from a waitress and after 10 minutes of nothing appearing, I notice there's a tray outside with glasses & water sitting there so I just pour myself one. Except that I can only pour about 3/4 of a glass since I'm shaking so badly.
I drink that while realizing I'm shaking even more, so I ask my family "Can someone get me another glass? I'm shaking too badly to do it myself." I get glances of confusion and then my dad and sister reply with "Oh yeah, we forgot about that."
REALLY? You forgot about the possibly permanent movement disorder I told you about over Easter that I've tried so hard to control and conceal the whole day despite my noticing it, but when I mention it because it's become so out of of control you only THEN remember it when I specifically ask for help even though when I was drinking the first 3/4 full glass I was very obviously shaking?
From 14 years old I've had chronic conditions, mental and recently physical and yet it seems that there's no sympathetic recognition of these. I think my family just wants things nice and neat. If someone has cancer, they undergo treatment and then receive endless sympathy that it might recur, yet they don't have to deal with an active disease indefinitely. Now I have two diagnoses, both of which require daily vigilance and maintenance, with varying degrees of success, and their reaction is to forget about it because they don't want to believe some things can't be fixed. They actually require a lifelong struggle on a day to day basis.
I love my family, but sometimes they infuriate me with the inability to accept that I'm a flawed human being or the selective attention I get whenever they're trying to "fix" me, or conveniently forget that I have these "small" problems.
And they wonder why I don't come to them for advice.
And from a totally selfish perspective, wow it sucked in a lot of ways. After a long day of showing them around Battery Park (since even though my sister's been in the city for about 5 years and works downtown she hasn't been there), and other areas, I realize that unfortunately most of the normal street vendors have fled because of the massive construction in the area. Long story short, I'm hot, becoming sunburned, and extremely dehydrated since my body does not tolerate heat as well as most people.
We adjourn to Stone Street (sidebar: did not know this exists as a permanent street food fair; awesome!), and sit outside to get dessert. At this point, possibly because of the heat and dehydration, my tremor has become much more noticeable to me. I ask for water from a waitress and after 10 minutes of nothing appearing, I notice there's a tray outside with glasses & water sitting there so I just pour myself one. Except that I can only pour about 3/4 of a glass since I'm shaking so badly.
I drink that while realizing I'm shaking even more, so I ask my family "Can someone get me another glass? I'm shaking too badly to do it myself." I get glances of confusion and then my dad and sister reply with "Oh yeah, we forgot about that."
REALLY? You forgot about the possibly permanent movement disorder I told you about over Easter that I've tried so hard to control and conceal the whole day despite my noticing it, but when I mention it because it's become so out of of control you only THEN remember it when I specifically ask for help even though when I was drinking the first 3/4 full glass I was very obviously shaking?
From 14 years old I've had chronic conditions, mental and recently physical and yet it seems that there's no sympathetic recognition of these. I think my family just wants things nice and neat. If someone has cancer, they undergo treatment and then receive endless sympathy that it might recur, yet they don't have to deal with an active disease indefinitely. Now I have two diagnoses, both of which require daily vigilance and maintenance, with varying degrees of success, and their reaction is to forget about it because they don't want to believe some things can't be fixed. They actually require a lifelong struggle on a day to day basis.
I love my family, but sometimes they infuriate me with the inability to accept that I'm a flawed human being or the selective attention I get whenever they're trying to "fix" me, or conveniently forget that I have these "small" problems.
And they wonder why I don't come to them for advice.
posted by AnonymousX at 7:42 AM
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