u/Aghostwillfollowyou

I had a student last year whose behavior was ridiculous. Getting into fights, bad language, disruptive in class, asking to go to the bathroom and then playing around on a different floor of the building…

He spent time in the principal’s office. He spent time with the counselor. All of us were constantly in contact with his mother, who chalked it all up to impulsiveness. We even held an SST.

This year I was approached by his teacher (new to the school) who asked if I had ever been in contact with the family last year. Apparently they had a meeting and Mom claimed she was shocked and had never been notified in the past about behavior issues.

Queensryche for me ended when DeGarmo exited. Life happened and I didn’t follow them for decades. It is really hard to believe so much time went by.

Recently I fell down an internet rabbit hole and have been catching up.

Good grief!

From Geoff’s power plays to whatever happened with Scott…

The Geoff thing isn’t too surprising. I can see how Chris leaving left a vacuum in terms of overseeing the business end and their management dropped them, having the wife of a band member take over might have seemed like a fast solution.

So the Tates are squeezing out power bit by bit over years until the other guys question it. Then it all blows up. Now he’s playing Mindcrime over and over and doing podcasts where he takes micro aggressions at the other guys.

I don’t get the Scott thing. Absent Tate who came in later, these guys were friends since high school. They seemed tight. Or…not? His work shaped their sound in a major way. A lot had to have gone down that hasn‘t been publicly acknowledged.

Was it the younger wife in Scott’s ear? I definitely question anyone having kids in their fifties. By the time that kid graduates high school, you’re in your seventies and you probably won’t ever see THEIR kids…it’s definitely a questionable life choice to limit the time of that relationship. It isn’t fair to the kid, but older men with wives decades younger aren’t necessarily planning for the future. Maybe she was demanding more and more of his time? Maybe the physicality of banging the drums so long has caused tendon or joint issues that he doesn’t want to publicly discuss?

Anyway, I’m trying to absorb the path taken by the band whose posters covered my bedroom walls.

I need someone (not Geoff though) to write a tell-all book like Sammy Hagar wrote. You know, definitely one sided, embellished for sure, but SOMETHING!

Does the growing number of pin trading influencers make the situation better or worse?

Today there was nothing on the boards at DL or DCA. However, there were a lot of people discussing whether this or that pin was real or asking CMs if they were real.

It didn’t used to be like that. I could find a few decent pins on any given day.

I took my mom to her twice-yearly visit with the neurologist. She always writes down a list of her meds and says she is going to ask if she can stop taking them. She worries about where it is, walks back and forth between the calendar and wherever she left the appointment card and asks me multiple times how to get there. Even when I say that I’m driving, she still needs reassurance that I know where it is. In the car it’s where are we going and says she doesn’t know why she has a doctor appointment. In the building, she says she doesn’t know where the office is.

Today we got there and she told me to wait in the waiting room. The last two times I went in with her, so I have no idea if the Dr. asked about me or what Mom told her. When they were done, the Dr. said she had done good and that she was renewing the Rx. I asked my mom on the way out what they had talked about and she said, “You know. She said things. I said things. I don’t even know why we came here.”

Same, Mom. Same. It is a lot of prep for 15 minutes and some pills.

I just watched her Not So Scary Halloween video and she is so much easier to tolerate when she’s just rattling off information to her camera than when she’s interacting with Alan.

One of the more inconvenient errands that has come into my life along with this disease is the requirement to take my mother to church each week. It does absolutely nothing for me and equals an hour and a half of my rare weekend time. I only do it for her. We are at a point where she vaguely remembers that there is something to do and I have to remind her what and when. If I wanted to, I could probably avoid it with some lies or redirection when it comes up, but it’s always been important to her.

I am both looking forward to the day she doesn’t care about it anymore and I’m also dreading what that will mean.

I hate this disease.

I know people see the Target pins as a cheaper entry to trading on the park boards, but I just stopped at the Target by DL the other day and quite a few went up in my collection board. There are some really cute ones!

I just watched a Fresh Baked video of a hotel review. David gives some interesting, if sometimes repetitive information. They seem to be looking for new content and they have been doing hotel stays in the Disneyland area.

Anyway, he was talking about their hotel room and his daughter was jumping on the beds.

People letting their kids jump on hotel beds, or even worse, filming themselves doing it is so disrespecful to me. That isn’t your furniture. You are renting it for the night to be used in the way in which it is intended. It is not “kids being kids” either. Letting them behave that way is teaching them they are entitled to do whatever they want to do.

What do you call that period of time where the person can’t manage everything alone, but is not yet so far gone that anyone would enact a POA?

My mother was diagnosed two years ago. The last year has been a definite decline, but this summer since I’m on break and home all day I really see it. I don’t know if I can take another summer break like this, but she is not going to agree to assisted living. I can’t believe that going back to a room full of ten year olds is going to be an easier communication challenge than one woman.

I found two villain Pink à la Mode pins on a board at Disneyland today. I wonder if there were more in the park that I missed.

I have been watching WDW Kevin for a few months now and he seems to exemplify the weird parasocial relationship viewers have with these YouTube folks.

If you don’t know him, he focuses on pin trading. That seems to be his whole jam. He doesn't rattle off park facts and often doesn’t know certain characters, and props to him for admitting he doesn’t know what he doesn't know.

He walks around with an autograph book for “Friends who watch” to sign. This is sweet, and probably indicative of the fact that trading pins requires a network that reporting on new rides and merch like a lot of influencers focus on doesn’t require.

Here’s where my inner social scientist is fascinated though—people seem to search him out to give him things. He’s always reporting that someone left something for him with someone else, or that random people on vacation found him and gave him pins or bag charms or whatever. Sometimes he captures it on camera. Perfect strangers who see him on YouTube travel with gifts intending to seek him out specifically to give him things.

Beyond that, he frequently stays at hotels courtesy of viewers who give him their DVC points.

Bro doesn’t mention a full time job, but seems to have embraced the Adam the Woo style of posting each day to keep the cash rolling in. I mean he is enthusiastic and seems kind but, still…

I am utterly fascinated.

So my mom’s bloodwork all came back just fine.

The only problem is that pesky Alzheimer’s Disease. 😞

I hadn’t been on this ride for years. I went on it today, and it’s just dumb, starting with the pre-show and all the way through.

I have been on summer break for three weeks now. The daily schedule involves my mother getting up at 8:30-ish. She has a cup of tea and something to eat and then lays back down because “(Pick the day) is my day to relax.” She gets up again after 1:00. If I try to roust her before that, she yells at me for having made her get up at the crack of dawn.

I mean, I guess it’s easy. I can usually do whatever errands I have to do and not worry that she’s waiting for me. She’s certainly safe in bed. My only worry is that she will end up flipping her body clock and being up all night.

I get it. When she gave up driving, she also lost her daily routine of the gym and the senior center. Going for a walk around the neighborhood doesn’t take up much of the day. Why not just zone out? It’s just hard to watch this complete disconnection from everything.

I keep reading that sleep and stress are probably linked to Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Caring for a lived one with the disease causes these problems, so what on Earth are we supposed to do?

Im a teacher and have been in summer break the last two weeks. I had a very difficult class this past school year and really needed the rest and reset. However, I’m finding being home with my mother all day is making my sleep worse than it was. I keep waking up and having weird dreams.

How are we supposed to control sleep and stress for our own health when our life is controlled by someone else’s needs? All I see online are sales pitches for supplements.

At my mother’s most recent PCP appointment they had her fill out a lifesaving preference form where it asked if she consented to CPR, intubation, tubal feeding, etc.

She said if any lifesaving efforts need to be made, just let her die.

Later in the appointment, I asked the doctor if they had a list of any resources, like home care or recommended care facilities. My mother got really annoyed at that point and said she didn’t need help. She’s semi-correct at this point, because she’s pretty independent and I’m here. There is a definite decline though and I want to be prepared. The doctor said she would have a case manager call.

When the case manager called, she introduced herself, asked my mother if she was depressed or suffering anxiety. Mom said no and that was the end of the call.

I guess I’m on my own.

What is the area around Long Beach Airport and LBCC like? I live in OC and work on the west side of LA. I hate the drive but I really don’t want to live up there since it’s so densely populated. I’ve really only been to the flea market at the college in LB, so I’ve only seen the industrial side. Is there a decent neighborhood over there?

I have been watching WDW Kevin and Curious Oysters pin trading videos, and after watching the more knowledgeable Disney YouTubers like AllEars, I have to appreciate that these two admit when they don’t know a character or an IP. They could quickly google and act like they know, like Molly obviously does when she’s in the larger world, but they don’t fake it.

Dani was riding the submarines at Disneyland and didn’t seem to have any clue that it was originally not Finding Nemo themed.

They stick to their pin collecting and don’t act like they’re park experts.

My admin created a system where if students get a certain number of discipline warnings, they lose out on Fun Friday. After this was communicated to students and family, admin decided they should be able to buy their way out with PBiS tickets.

So, naturally they would get the tickets when admin was around passing them out because they would line up or pick up trash, then go right into the classroom and swear, wander, steal or call each other names. Then it was, “Well, I have tickets!”

My group thus year was 2/3 the best students ever and 1/3 the worst students I’ve ever had. School just ended yesterday. I’m trying to emotionally and mentally detox do I can enjoy the break.

Has anyone gotten their own long term care insurance after a parent was diagnosed? My mom is the third generation in a row. I don’t have kids, so if I’m also in line for this thing, I’m going to have to figure it out.

How do you even start to look into it?