The Domesticated Queer

A republican candidate for a rural district in Connecticut came out saying “Happy Straight Pride Month” and made a long rambling post about how the gays were ruining America and confusing children.

Since Panda knows his letters and phonics sounds I’m being pretty chill about learning opportunities out in the wild. With my other kids I made much more of an effort to make our activities educational but he’s picking it up naturally so I’m just letting him do his thing really.

So tell me why he’s looking at a BRAND NEW flap book, and spelling out the words like “E-X-C-A-V-A-T-O-R …excavator!” and getting them all right?

Panda and I go to a toddler tumbling time once a week. It’s a free form class at a gymnastics gym, no formal instruction just kids 1-3 throwing themselves around while caregivers follow behind them and chitchat with whoever is in the same area before your kid goes sprinting off to put themselves in mortal danger.

We’ve had a heatwave the past few days so even though today is cool, the gym was stifling. Many of the adults are grandmothers, others are heavily pregnant. The only staff there with us is a teenager just supervising timidly by the doors, occasionally vanishing to answer the phone.

Today she apologized for the lack of AC, we were sweating within 15 minutes. The kids were red cheeked. I pointed out the fans mounted in the corners of the room and asked if they worked. She’s not authorized to turn them on.

So of course I volunteer to do it. I told her I will fully take the blame. Tell them I was belligerent and you couldn’t stop me. It’s just a simple light switch hidden behind one of the fans and they all roar on. The difference is immediate. One mom jokingly says “we nominate you the leader!”

This is definitely what my high school psych teacher meant when she said I had cult leader personality traits.

Trump is here today to speak at the Coast Guard Academy and the streets lining the only way in are lined with protestors. 🥰

We’ve been through three Dexcoms today. It’s so obvious when you get a bad batch but they refuse to acknowledge it.

Something HILARIOUS has happened. The republican nominee for governor, Erin Stewart is beloved by republicans because she took a very difficult city and turned it around. They sunk their teeth into that talking point about how democrats ruin budgets blah blah blah.

Well, she was investigated for fraud and was found to be spending a shit ton of taxpayer money on herself. Not just clothes and food, things you can sort of write off even if it’s a stretch. But stuff for her kids, outlandish parties, jewelry, formula, shopping sprees, a Peppa Pig themed birthday cake, it was even hooked up to her personal Amazon account that her whole family used.

Republicans called it a witch hunt when the investigation started but then they dropped the receipts. It’s been happening for 10 years and the totals are staggering. Now EVERYONE is PISSED. She’s going to have to fucking leave the state.

There’s a few things I need to bitch to the void about this insulin pump (Tandem Mobi) so scroll past if that’s of no interest to you.

Obviously it’s a work of medical genius. A tiny robotic pancreas that talks to his glucose monitor through Bluetooth and delivers mini doses of insulin day and night to keep his blood sugar steady. All we have to do is manually input the carbs he eats for each meal about 30 minutes before he eats them. That’s tricky with a toddler but not impossible.

BUT there’s some major design flaws. The battery lasts a few days, it takes about 15 minutes to do a full charge so I stop insulin deliveries and pop it on the charger. The iPhone that runs the pump (a dedicated phone just for this purpose) freaks the fuck out. Alerts from the app every few seconds. ALL DELIVERIES STOPPED! RESUME INSULIN!

Like you (the app) SEE the pump is actively charging so no fucking shit the deliveries are stopped. Calm your tits. And no, there’s no way to turn this alert off.

The other alerts also beep/buzz on his body while he’s wearing it. I’ve been able to turn many of the useless ones off (reminders to change the sites, etc) but when his sugar gets below 80 or above 250 it buzzes him to let him know. This is very disruptive when he’s sleeping. He’s perfectly safe to be sleeping then even though he’s not in the ideal range. Mike and I have the low blood sugar alerts on our Apple Watches so we can act fast, and a Sugar Pixel alarm at night that wakes us up if he’s predicted to go too low. I don’t need the pump itself to buzz him awake, but there’s no way to turn this safety feature off.

It also buzzes for low insulin alerts in his reservoir (what holds the insulin in his pump). He’s a toddler, he only uses a few units a day. Filling the cartridge (100+ units) would be an insane waste of insulin. As instructed we only do 30 units at a time. The trouble is once you hit 15 units the pump buzzes multiple times a day to warn you you’re running low. On an adult that would be low, on Panda that’s still 3 days of insulin. So 3 days of constant buzzing and alerts.