It has been a week!

 

Chicken had to go to the emergency vet for another blockage in his wee wee. He had one several years ago and it was terrible, and it was just as terrible this time around. They make you pay in advance for emergency vet care, and it was another eye-watering bill, the receptionist attempting to remove the credit card from Jon’s clenched fist, Jon’s eyes growing wider and more manic by the second. I can see him doing mental calculations in his head: how many months of Junia’s preschool fees is the first payment?? Emergency vet bills are not for the faint of heart, or for the uninsured. Or, actually, I guess they are only for the uninsured. Feedback from the vets included that Chicken was “feisty,” “not very nice,” and “sedated.”

 

Junia has started preschool, and there were tears. The teachers tried to comfort me, but I bravely waved them off.

 

I had imagined that after Junia started going to preschool, even though it’s only half days right now (which is the same amount of money and more work than full days) I would have time on my hands to do things, take photos, hang laundry, read books, eat bagels. But it turns out that Naomi caught some sort of stomach bug and instead I was home with my favourite middle child watching Glitter Force and ordering congee on Uber. “This is fun!” says Naomi, the stomach bugged.

 

Naomi returned to school, but luckily for me, now Junia is down with something (the same thing?), so my vaguely delirious dreams about time to wallow anxiously in my existential thoughts about the future have been pushed to next week. What am I doing with my one wild and precious life, I keep asking myself. No answer yet. Let’s put that on the calendar for Monday.

 

So instead I’m scribbling away in my notebooks. It goes so fast, all of it. Everyone keeps telling me you blink and you’re decrepit and your children are adults living their own adventures in the world and not calling home, so I’m trying not to blink, my eyes drying up like raisins, and I’m trying to catch it all while I can, the tiny wisps of it. Tiny little fingers creeping along the kitchen counter, looking for a tasty snack and not to be chopped off along with some ginger; hot little bodies with arms wrapped up around your neck. My one wild and precious life.

 

 

 

 

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January 24, 2024 — Liz Chan

Comments

Nina

Nina said:

So happy your following is growing! Once we were only 6 readers, now a legion! I see a book in your future – or at least a short story (The Star Fiction Contest is on). Thank you Liz for taking us along on this amazing ride. When I first crossed the WP thresh hold in Little Portugal I shivered with excitement: Toronto finally had a modern ink, pen + paper store. Now I can’t imagine my life without Wonderpens, which has become an enabler of massive creativity using only paper, pen + ink. I’ve filled binders of artwork. I end every day drawing with my pen. Truly life + career altering.Thank YOU for all you do to keep pen + ink love alive.

Nerr

Nerr said:

You do write the best blog entries. Thank you. Hope everyone and fur is getting better and healthier!

Bob Morouney

Bob Morouney said:

You write the best blogs. This one had the feeling that you’ve come back to your more composed and creative self. Not so consumed — not that immersing in life’s rabbit holes isn’t necessary, or necessarily a bad thing. But it’s good to find your irrepressibility (is that even a real word?) strongly in evidence, your wit sharper than a Toronto winter wind, and your smile contagious. Thanks as always for the view from there.

Paul Lacotta

Paul Lacotta said:

Dear Liz, what a beautiful post about your family life. Such honest and genuine writing made me feel so good and I felt much empathy for you and Jon. I’m trying to plan a trip to Toronto and hope I can stop by your wonderful store and meet you two, Warm virtual hugs to all of you! Paul

Dan G.

Dan G. said:

Where can I buy that daily moon phase calendar?

Stephanie

Stephanie said:

Poor Chicken! My orange kitty Eustace Clarence Scrubb is susceptible to those cystitis blockages, and it’s never fun to watch how much it stresses him out. Our vet put him on a prescription diet, which is also crazy expensive, but so far it has prevented further blockages.

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