Friday, May. 12, 2023 - 1:30 p.m.

The forecast for Wales has improved markedly over the past week and hopefully will stay perfect, mid 60s, not too rainy. I have to work out my anxiety about the ride on the bus from the airport to my accomodations. I always am unsure about when and how to signal the stop. But it’s only about a 5 minute walk from the stop, if I manage to do it right and not have to ride all the way around Cardiff.

Was listening to this person in a transcript talk about his photography. He was describing his experience coming from a working class family, how you’d be at a thing like a wedding and you see a family member you hadn’t seen in a while and the first thing they’d ask is “Are you working?” And then questions about how everything else is. It occurred to me that my mother does that when asking how someone is or catching up. “Is s/he working?” And my in-laws… do not do that. As for me, no, I don’t either. I don’t think I ever did. I’m just not tuned to that frequency.

Q had her two front teeth extracted today, the ones that had gotten knocked out in an accident and put back in when she was 5. They’ve been steadily getting looser and worse looking. They also did all the other dental stuff that needed done. She was super anxious about the anesthesia and had to do one round of walking down the all going “I’m thinking! Give me a minute! Mommy, how can I make myself feel less scared?” But second attempt she pushed through and did it and it all went well.

It was huge, really. Most people go, oh, it’s easy, you don’t have to do anything but lay down, put the mask on, and breathe. But she’s scared of laying down (we did it sitting up and helped her lay down as she went out) and putting the mask on and the bad smell and just what might happen. But afterward she said it wasn’t that bad and that next time, if she ever had to do it again, she didn’t think she’d be so afraid. Which is huge and wonderful, because she racks up those kind of confidence-building wins so slowly.

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