This is the wrong title for this blog, I didn’t title it as I wanted because I knew I would get ridiculed by some for doing so & I am too hot & tired for that. Some of our customers at The Berry Patch have tested my patience this season like no other & with this heat, I could seriously pop-off! I wanted to title it “Butthead Cycle”. I reported how well Jack has been doing in my last blog, but I did say there were times of slippage. For the last few weeks, Jack has been a butthead-plain & simple. I’m sure some of you are saying how can you call your child that, the same way you call your husband, girlfriend, wife, whatever that! Yes, he’s my flesh & blood, but he can be a butthead, too often for anyone’s liking. I could go the kinder route with a term coined by my Daddy, “illbox”. I find that term too comical to describe the irritability Jack has had the last few weeks. My Daddy was the lone man in a house of three females, he’d call us all that at times & it would tickle me so. Say the work “illbox”, it’s so funny. Of course, he said it tongue & cheek, there was no ill (pun intended) intent behind it. I’ve touched on Jack possibly having bipolar disorder before, I try to remind myself when he’s in this cycle, that this is part of his disorder(s).
This time last year, Jack was on a McDonald’s kick, only ingesting Big Macs. Thank goodness that has diminished, our local McDonald’s is the slowest place around, my car is thanking Jack for that also. He’s been through a Chiba phase-the place where I’m pretty sure the guy that works the drive-thru thinks I am madly in love with him due to my frequent visits. The frozen egg roll only phase, sausage biscuit phase, now, he’s on the grits & Funyuns kick. This is absolutely all that has touched his lips over the last few weeks-when he decides to eat. His eating is so infrequent, that he usually partakes in dining on these delicatessens once a day, twice if we’re lucky.
Back to the “butthead” phase….Jack is so irritable these days. If you ask him to repeat himself he screams it (he could get that from me, just ask Lee), if you don’t understand the sign language he is using to explain something, I get fussed at, if his drinks aren’t served to his Highness, there is hell to pay! Just a few days ago, Jack wanted grits. I happily fixed him two instant packs, served them to him & he ate them. He wanted more-terrific! I used the same bowl & spoon to prepare them. Jack had dropped his spoon on the floor prior to the second serving, but I washed it off. After serving him, he complained that the spoon had been dropped on the floor. I told him I washed it, to which he replied, “I don’t care”. After giving him a new spoon, Jack wanted to lick the alleged “dirty” spoon off (the one he didn’t want to eat his grits with) because it had grits on it. What kind of sense does this make? None! Sadly, this is the sort of thing we deal with on a daily basis with Jack. There are zero, none, null reasoning skills to be had. If he had an ounce of reasoning skills, our times with him would be much more enjoyable instead of walking on eggshells most of the time.
Last week, I took Ava & a friend to a nearby water park for the day. Of course while we were there trying to enjoy the day, Jack called the police to the house! I swear if we don’t get arrested, it will be a pure miracle…but could possibly be a vacation! He had changed his Facebook profile picture & name to someone else’s. I have no clue who this person was. His caregiver told him that was not nice or legal to do, he could get arrested for impersonating someone. While she was washing dishes, Jack called 911. It wasn’t until they knocked on the door did she realize what Jack had done. He called the police to fix his Facebook & perhaps confess on himself. Thankfully, the officer that came to the house was very understanding about the ordeal. It is so “Berry” hard to enjoy any time away from our home. Whether it may be at work, Walmart, a quick day trip, wherever, what Jack may do is a constant worry & struggle. Not only the police ordeal, I found out the day after we went to the water park that two people had been there the day after us & died from a brain eating amoeba they contracted from the very same water we were swimming in. Omg!
It takes me a good while to construct a blog because of work, my sad attempts at trying to have a social life which is only playing softball, mothering, & a little thing called sleep. Most of the time I get in a paragraph while Pokémon hunting with Jack. This particular blog has been in the works for over a week now. Today, we had an event with Jack as his caregiver was coming on her shift. He got upset with her because she was trying to teach him a lesson about jumping on my back, the potential to become violent was there because she got onto him for acting like a child. After I left for work, Jack started calling my Mama saying that his caregiver was sick, which was a total lie. Jack just didn’t want to be around her. This threw a ringer in my day. My intentions were to work at The Berry Patch & prepare for the busyness of the weekend. I had to come home to intervene what he was cooking up. Not because his caregiver couldn’t handle it, but to ease my nerves which get tore slam up when Jack gets like this. I will do whatever it takes to prevent him from fighting ever again. He is like the Incredible Hulk on steroids when he is violent. Instead of working, I spent the afternoon hunting for Pokémon’s in the next town over & at GameStop. I was trying to diffuse the situation with his caregiver & keep his mind preoccupied on other things. While parked on the side of the road in a parking spot, my Yukon was side-swiped by another Yukon. Luckily, it only hit my side mirror & no damage was caused. How could I get that lucky, I never am. After being out for several hours, we returned home & all seems to be okay…for now.
While we were parked, we were listening to Sirius XM the Garth Brooks channel & Garth was talking about the time he got a spanking from his Daddy for drawing a face on Johnny Hortons album. They then played Johnny’s song, “North to Alaska” which Jack knew every word. I find him so amazing, complex, difficult, funny, hard-headed, & at times very caring. What an anomaly he is!
Is all of this buttheadedness a result of an upcoming seizure, a bipolar cycle, or perhaps because he will be turning 18 in a few days? Only time will tell. The age Jack is turning is of upmost concern for us. This is the age he has waited the last few years for like most teens. 18 means you are officially deemed an adult. In Jack’s case, we are going to have to file for legal guardianship so that we can still have a say in the decisions he tries to make. The day he turns 18, I will be at the courthouse turning the paperwork in that states Jack is not capable of making decisions on his own behalf. Why can’t we just have a cake & ice cream like everyone else!
On the lighter side, I told Jack I was going to open a restaurant called Just Grits & make him work there. His response was, “but I don’t know how to cook grits”. He was dead serious, such a cute thing to say though. For now, I am thanking the Lord for instant grits because traditional grits are a pure pain to make & cleanup & for Jack falling out of the Chiba drive-thru phase so the guy working the drive-thru doesn’t think I’m a crazed, fried rice stalker. Funyuns & grits, I can do!
Cruel & Unusual Circumstances 
Oh my, Noah’s go to…GRITS….my heart will ache for you and Lee…the day you get guardianship…very hard…those words ….Adjudicated incompetent…..when we all know just how competent they are……keep up you hopes, keep your head up….you and Lee are doing it right!!!! (Some days are just tougher than others…) Grits and Bananas for us….
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