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Walking up and down King Street
Mar. 18th, 2025 11:00 pmMy sister’s family went to McLeod Plantation, but I declined because I had some ideas for how to make better food and exercise choices for A. and I, and me leaving her alone in the hotel wasn’t part of that plan. I did NOT get her a waffle for breakfast. Instead, I fed her a banana, strawberries, carrots and celery with a little peanut butter for breakfast. She had half an apple, strawberries, carrots and celery for lunch, along with a chocolate chip cookie from Whole Foods. After a shower, we went for a walk along King Street with R. We stopped at a couple bakeries. We got a cookie for each of us at Insomnia, and we got a pain au chocolate for A.’s breakfast tomorrow and a butterscotch brioche for R.’s breakfast tomorrow. I took some pictures of the Aiken house, because it is railroad adjacent.
A. did a lot of complaining, and I’m now treating each moment of “spoiled brat” as an opportunity to identify the unmet basic need, label it, fix it and then talk to her about the feelings she is having and how fixing the problem helps her feel better. Right now, she’s responding to unmet needs like a baby or small child — emote and talk in a bratty way until someone (usually but not always me) fixes it. She obviously needs to respond to unmet needs by identifying the problem, fixing it, and then carrying on, ideally with a pleasant demeanor, and save the brattiness for people who actively thwart her efforts to meet her needs.
Efforts to get her to work on meeting these needs are consistently responded to with stories of how “at AB they”. Well, she hasn’t been there for a year now, and she was there for less than a year, so it’s time to let that go, altho when I talked to her about it, she said, but what about if it was also in jr hi. LOL. Absolute classic to use trauma from the past as an excuse for behaving badly in the present.
I’ve been doing some reading. I read “Fake”, “Lies” and “Colonist’s Wife” by Kylie Scott. They are all on Kindle Unlimited. “Fake” was really good. “Lies” was excessively violent in ways that felt weird and uncomfortable to me. “Colonist’s Wife” didn’t even feel like Kylie Scott; it’s from 2013 or so and was for Ellora’s Cave. But it was still surprisingly enjoyable.
I also finished “Wanted: One Scoundrel” by Jenny Schwartz, first entry in the Bustlepunk trilogy. It’s a little weird, but very fun. I’m now onto the second in the trilogy, and it has a substantial Taming of the Shrew vibe which makes the connection with JAK even stronger.
We drove past the Grant Home for Aged Presbyterians, and in looking it up I found this:
https://law.justia.com/cases/south-carolina/court-of-appeals/1986/292-s-c-466-2.html
Which is kind of hilarious in a variety of ways.
Dinner was at the Iron Rose because C. wanted tuna tartare without avocado. This restaurant was ludicrously awesome. The pork came with what was basically sweet potato pie. The brussel sprouts were incredible. The broccolini was fantastic. The butter bean hummous was incredible. The manhattan under the name “Old Blush” was amazing. The orgeat drinks were tasty. Really, nothing was other than wonderful. I don’t understand, honestly, how this could have been so good. It was quiet, too. We went at 5. Also, we stopped in a restaurant called “Rebecca illustrated” and it was all pink and A. got a necklace and a mug.
Later, R. and I went for a walk and stopped in briefly at Sorelle’s and I got a coconut macaroon. We might go back for dinner. It’s so beautiful inside and out. We got him cough drops at a Walgreens. I took a bunch of pictures of buildings. I got over 16K steps for the day, and I have lovely leftovers for tomorrow. And I think that A. did not overeat so fingers crossed she doesn’t have burps or reflux or worse tonight.
A. did a lot of complaining, and I’m now treating each moment of “spoiled brat” as an opportunity to identify the unmet basic need, label it, fix it and then talk to her about the feelings she is having and how fixing the problem helps her feel better. Right now, she’s responding to unmet needs like a baby or small child — emote and talk in a bratty way until someone (usually but not always me) fixes it. She obviously needs to respond to unmet needs by identifying the problem, fixing it, and then carrying on, ideally with a pleasant demeanor, and save the brattiness for people who actively thwart her efforts to meet her needs.
Efforts to get her to work on meeting these needs are consistently responded to with stories of how “at AB they”. Well, she hasn’t been there for a year now, and she was there for less than a year, so it’s time to let that go, altho when I talked to her about it, she said, but what about if it was also in jr hi. LOL. Absolute classic to use trauma from the past as an excuse for behaving badly in the present.
I’ve been doing some reading. I read “Fake”, “Lies” and “Colonist’s Wife” by Kylie Scott. They are all on Kindle Unlimited. “Fake” was really good. “Lies” was excessively violent in ways that felt weird and uncomfortable to me. “Colonist’s Wife” didn’t even feel like Kylie Scott; it’s from 2013 or so and was for Ellora’s Cave. But it was still surprisingly enjoyable.
I also finished “Wanted: One Scoundrel” by Jenny Schwartz, first entry in the Bustlepunk trilogy. It’s a little weird, but very fun. I’m now onto the second in the trilogy, and it has a substantial Taming of the Shrew vibe which makes the connection with JAK even stronger.
We drove past the Grant Home for Aged Presbyterians, and in looking it up I found this:
https://law.justia.com/cases/south-carolina/court-of-appeals/1986/292-s-c-466-2.html
Which is kind of hilarious in a variety of ways.
Dinner was at the Iron Rose because C. wanted tuna tartare without avocado. This restaurant was ludicrously awesome. The pork came with what was basically sweet potato pie. The brussel sprouts were incredible. The broccolini was fantastic. The butter bean hummous was incredible. The manhattan under the name “Old Blush” was amazing. The orgeat drinks were tasty. Really, nothing was other than wonderful. I don’t understand, honestly, how this could have been so good. It was quiet, too. We went at 5. Also, we stopped in a restaurant called “Rebecca illustrated” and it was all pink and A. got a necklace and a mug.
Later, R. and I went for a walk and stopped in briefly at Sorelle’s and I got a coconut macaroon. We might go back for dinner. It’s so beautiful inside and out. We got him cough drops at a Walgreens. I took a bunch of pictures of buildings. I got over 16K steps for the day, and I have lovely leftovers for tomorrow. And I think that A. did not overeat so fingers crossed she doesn’t have burps or reflux or worse tonight.