Upsetting

I grew up in Colorado, in a suburb of Denver. My parents and I went to church about 3 miles from my house, in yet another suburb. That church was and is 2.5 miles as the crow flies from Columbine High School. When I was in high school in the late 70s and early 80s, many of the other teens at my church went to school at Columbine.

So, on April 19 20, 1999, I watched with the same profound shock and horror as the rest of the country as two boys destroyed any shards of any feeling of safety we had left about our country's schools. The acrid icing on that poisonous cake was that I knew alumni, I knew the community, I knew the places the national media was talking about: Swedish Medical Center (I was a candystriper there), Clement Park (teen hangout), Ken Caryl Ranch (lots of our church members lived there), and so on.

Knowing the area, of course, didn't make the event any more comprehensible. The explanations that the media quickly began to promote didn't make a lot of sense either. And that school's architecture is forever etched in my brain as a building I don't want to be near. Ever.

In 2001, we went to visit my family (who now live elsewhere in Colorado) and stopped in Denver for a couple of days. One of those days was a Sunday, so we went back to "my" church. There were a few discrete items in the building and moments during the service where the presence of the killings loomed large, even two years later.

The next day, we went to visit all the family graves (most of my family is in two large cemeteries on different sides of the city). As we drove through the cemetery looking for my father's burial site, we slowly approached 13 crosses standing in an "island" in the roadway. My father's resting place is about 25 feet from the official memorial for the Columbine victims. I believe those crosses were wooden at that time. They have since been replaced by 8'-tall black granite crosses. (If you watch the virtual tour here, you'll see the crosses at the end, briefly.)

Aside: my father built the original mortuary at this cemetery in the mid-1960s. He was paid, at least in part, in kind: four burial plots.

ANYWAY. I'm reading the book pictured here--Dave Cullen's "Columbine." It is very detailed, easy to read...and I've been trying hard not to read it at bedtime so that it doesn't affect my dreams too much.

I am about 2/3 through the book. I may have to stop reading it. I spent part of today compulsively Googling factoids, drawings, schematics, and photos since the book itself is all text. And I came across a photo today that I never should have embiggened. I knew when I saw it small that clicking on it would be a bad idea. And I watched my hand as the index finger banged down on the left mouse button anyway. Now I can't get the image out of my head, and it only fueled my compulsion to do more research.

I know that what I'm looking for is twofold: 1) Why did Harris and Klebold do what they did? and 2) How can I be sure that my son will never, ever, be involved in something like this? I know that reading this book is not going to answer either of those questions. It's the same quandary I had in 1999 immediately after the shootings happened, and after 9/11, and all the other times when I've wanted nothing more than to go far away from the world and protect my son from Everything Bad. The panic will pass. In the meantime, I can't help but look at every passing teenager with the thought "This could be the one. Or that one could be...."

The mission trip in a week--where I'm surrounded by 60 high school kids 24/7--could be fun if I don't get over this tout de suite. Anxiety + paranoia is not a great frame of mind to be in anyway. It makes for difficulty in concentration among other things. There are no answers, and eventually I'll get back to accepting that fact.

Weird Day

Yesterday was a strange day at work. Part--most?--of that strangeness can be attributed directed to the fact that, starting Monday, we will have two Directors for a week. There is a great deal of time being spent thinking about that, planning for the current Director's going-away party, thinking about what we need to find out from her before she's gone, tying up loose-ends of projects, etc. The staff is doing a special presentation and there was a lot of talk about that (when the boss wasn't in the room).

About midway through the day, I suddenly realized that everyone had received a 'script' for the party via email. Except, that is, me. It was inadvertent, I'm sure, but it explained the sort of low-level cluelessness I'd been experiencing all week. I knew something was percolating because people were talking about it out loud, but then they'd say something about squirrels (I kid you not) and I'd think, "What?"

Yes, part of our presentation involves squirrels.

Being aware enough to know that I was missing something is paranoia-inducing, especially since there are some other, actual, paranoia-inducing things going on at work right now as we prepare to start working for the first new Director the library has had since the early 1970s. I hasten to say that I know from prior experience that things could be MUCH MUCH worse. The last time I worked a 'regime change' was horror-inducing. This will be a breeze, no matter how angsty everyone gets!

But some other weird stuff was going on too. It is the end of the month so I was working up the cataloging stats. Weirdly, this is something I generally find very calming. I've only recently started doing this for the boss, so I still have to think through each and every step. When I got to the main stats document I was lost. Fortunately, she was nearby to ask, "Where do I put May??" Er, duh, Cat.: new budget year. New spreadsheet. New new new ... everything. I figured it out, after much faffing about. There was some intense praying that I didn't manage to delete last year's entire accounting document. In fact, I had to keep getting up and walking around to clear my head enough to ensure I wasn't jumping to conclusions before deleting/saving over docs.

[Realized as I typed this that I left out a piece--rats! Fortunately, it's a piece that I keep for my own joy, so it's not a big deal. The numbers are there; I'll just have to do it on Tuesday.]

Because of all the up-and-down, plus the Public Desk schedule, plus trying to tie of other projects including entering order records into the catalog all morning (that always makes my brain itch) and running the July Hot Books in Publishing list, I felt like I had a big case of ADD.

Did I mention the scheduled eyedrop breaks? Yeah. The eyes are better but they require constant maintenance and coddling. As, apparently, they will for the rest of my life. I will be single-handedly supporting the individually packaged Refresh et al. market. Absolutely nothing with a preservative can go in my eyes. And the Greek chorus shouts, "THANK GOD I am alive now, not 50 years ago when there was no understanding of this sort of thing, no options, and I would probably be legally blind by now."

And finally...while I was at the Reference Desk, a woman came up to me, seething with fury. She claimed that while she was away from her internet station briefly (to put money on her print account, 10 feet away), someone sat down at it and "deleted" the pages of work she was just about to print. So, yeah, I'd be furious too, but then she said something to the effect of "This is why I wish I carried a gun!"

Gulp. I suggested, strongly, that this would not solve the problem, and she should CERtainly not bring a gun to the library for this purpose.

As I got to thinking about it, I am pretty sure that she had to wait awhile for staff to put money on her account and the computer she was using timed out and shut down. The guy who came and sat down there had no way of knowing she had been using it at that point.

Eventually, I asked her if she had said anything to him. "No. I'm too angry and I might say something...." Yeah, something out of line maybe?! But on the other hand, there is a sudden stench of passive-aggressive here. I'm not either person's mom, and by the age she is she should be able to stand up for herself.

When she finally finished up she stopped at the desk and said, "That guy just left a few minutes ago. Maybe I can catch him in the parking lot and punch him." I reiterated that she shouldn't do this on library property. Now I'm wondering if I should have called the cops. Would I if she'd been a Big Scary Guy? I didn't because I rationalized that if she was too much of a wienie to talk to him, she was not likely to punch him. And had I really thought she might have a gun, I might have at least followed her to the parking lot to keep an eye on her.

That situation was exacerbated by the book I'm reading: Columbine. It's probably NOT the best book to read, as I did Thursday night, in bed before going to sleep. Definitely not if you have or know teenage kids, or have spent any quality time in a school recently.

However, it did bring about an epiphany of understanding about why a certain architectural feature at Sparky's school freaks me the fuck out. Every time I walk into the building, I shudder, and now I know why--it reminds me of a bit of the blueprint of the area in which most of the killing took place at Columbine. [The design is different enough that now that I know WHY it gives me the wobblies, I can start working on letting go of them.]

Bookending the day was a nice walk from and back to our favorite service station where I had left the Honda to have a lug nut replaced. Beast got a little carried away while fixing the brakes a couple of weeks ago. So I drove it to Bob's in the morning, left the keys, walked to work, and reversed the process at the end of the day. Both walks took place with perfect-in-every-way weather (temperature and humidity were moderate and the sun was shining), and because there was a train at the station on my way to pick up the car there was no traffic as I walked across the street, even though 5 minutes later I could barely drive out of the parking lot.

The capper to the weirdness, I think, is that Beast is the most relaxed I've seen him in months. Which is odd, considering his job situation and the uncertainty around that. On the other hand, the other shoe has dropped. And that, at least, is over.

I'm hoping for Less Weird today. Grocery shopping, weeding, dropping off Sparky's job apps, visiting an elderly friend, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms.... Boring is fun. ;-)

Weekend

May is the stupid-busiest month of the year for anyone with kids in school. I realized this about 7 years ago when I noticed all my mom-friends with multiple kids losing their minds by May 10. It doesn't help that May is also when the yard starts needing attention, several summer sports start up, and allergies kick in for those who suffer from pollen sensitivities. The good news is that April and its showers are over; the bad news is that the flowers and trees are ALL blooming.

[Aside: as someone who has year-round allergies to--as someone at work put it yesterday--"everything known to mankind," I have to say that people with seasonal allergies make me laugh, when I'm not rolling my eyes internally. Rolling them for real hurts right now. Yeah. Cry me a river, folks--this is my baseline, my starting position year-round.]

OK, bitchy aside over. I really haven't felt good all week. That's my excuse, and mostly my bitching has been internal or venting to two Very Specific People. But the allergy thing for me is kinda like me complaining about a headache to one of those people, or a backache to the other.

See how I get distracted?

I was going to talk about schedules in May. When Sparky was in Little League this was the middle of the 'season' and there were games 2-3 times each week. There always seems to be extra homework this month, and of course major projects are coming due. The end-of-year concerts, plays, and programs are in May. The pressure is on everywhere, which means time is at a premium.

There are, of course, non-kid-related activities that have to be fit in as well. The regular grind of appointments and schedules--cleaning, cooking, maintenance, etc. And, if you want to have a social life, that's always fun to try to fit in.

So this weekend, here's our schedule:

FRIDAY: I will be doing laundry all day, and tidying our Disaster Zone (i.e. house). Beast left at 7:30 to cover several appointments for himself and his dad, and he will be spending at least 2 hours in teleconferences later today. Sparky has school all day followed by football training--yeah, I haven't mentioned that heretofore, have I? We will pick him up from school and then head to a hotel for tonight. He is attending a manga/anime conference tonight and tomorrow morning and early on I volunteered to make it easier on him and get a room for us nearby so he doesn't lose so much time traveling back and forth. Beast and I will probably go see a movie (Star Trek?) tonight while Sparky is manga-ing.

SATURDAY: Conference-y stuff in the morning. We will check out late and snag him from the conference by 1:00 or so and head home, stopping for corsage pickup on the way. Sparky will shower out of his anime "persona"--I didn't mention the costume aspect, did I?--and pack up for his evening activities. There's a tux involved. And a swimsuit for later. He needs to be at his date's house by 3:30 for pictures, and then they will head to the high school to catch the bus at 5:00. They will be gone for approximately 12 hours, arriving back from post-prom about 4:45. A. M. Maybe Beast and I will go see another movie in the evening. I know we'll need to go to the grocery store at some point.

SUNDAY: One of us needs to pick up Sparky at o'dark-hundred and bring him home and pour him into bed. Maybe we'll get another hour or two as well, but Beast and I will need to be out of the house by about 11 because we have tickets to see the Broadway traveling show of Mary Poppins. We will be gone till close to 6 Sunday night. At some point during the day, Sparky will need to do his homework and get all his tux stuff back together. Oh. And it's Mother's Day.

Monday I will get back on the daily schedule stuff, but I need to take the tux back.

Sigh.

Next week is German Honor Society induction. There's another band concert on the horizon. We have fundraiser stuff we need to deliver. I need to schedule a physical for Sparky for football. Things are reaching crunch time for prep for our youth group mission trip and there is a TON of stuff to do for that. Oh, and there is a retirement party for someone at work, and the changes that will come when her replacement begins. And it seems like everyone I know over the age of 80 is ending up in the hospital and/or nursing care this spring. That could stop. Please.

So yeah. I may not be around here much.

[this took me almost two hours to write--but there is laundry in progress, and I've started to think through the rest of the day at home]

Drama

Sparky stayed after school yesterday to lift weights. He's doing that to prepare for football tryouts. Whatever. Meanwhile, I had to do a presentation for a Girl Scout troop at work so we knew he'd have to wait a bit when he finished.

He called just as I started the presentation saying he couldn't find his wallet. There was no way I could stop what I was doing, so I told him he'd have to work it out with his coach.

No dice. They looked everywhere. We finally decided that it must have fallen out when he changed pants and landed unnoticed on the floor where someone picked it up. He was devastated. Angry, upset, crying, yelling...yeah. Fun night.

Fast forward to this morning. I went with him to school to talk to the administrators. The vice principal took a report and said she'd investigate. I asked about the police and she sort of treated it as if I wanted to make an insurance claim (?!). Whatever again. I went to the cops directly from school and reported the theft.

Long story short, the officer went over and interviewed several students and eventually the wallet was recovered, minus Sparky's driving permit and yearbook receipt. He got all the cash and gift cards and library card back, though. Turns out the doofus hadn't actually closed his locker after changing; the other kid saw the wallet in the open locker and snagged it.

So what did I learn? Go to the cops first. Involve the school second. There is at least one cop in our town that is hysterically funny, and just a good guy. [He 'yelled' at Sparky for having such awful handwriting in the statement he wrote up last night.]

So at some point this week, we have to face down the licensing people and get a replacement permit. And I'll talk to the yearbook people at school about the situation--he's supposed to present the receipt to pick up his book in May. Since I volunteer with the people coordinating the yearbook, it's kinda not gonna be a problem.

We have not been told the name of the student who did this, but he has been suspended for a week (I think) and I'm sure the grapevine will pass along his name to Sparky PDQ. I feel bad for his parents, who had to stand there and watch the cop search their son's dirty laundry today. I'm very grateful it wasn't us on that side of the equation. Hopefully, Sparky learned a few lessons from this. For one thing, maybe carrying $100+ in gift cards in your wallet is kind of a stupid idea. Especially to school! d'oh

And it turned out all right, for us. Silver linings.

Motherly crowing

Mood: ok. tired
Hair: looked great when I left the house
Eyes: feh
Listening to: CT quietly wrangling with what sounds like her insurance company

We found out last night that Sparky has been placed in the county-wide honor band. They take the 'best' band students from each school and create a super-de-dooper band out of them for the state music teachers' conference kickoff in a couple of weeks. Not only did he make the band, but in spite of being the youngest player in his section, he auditioned into first chair on his instrument (ok, there are only three others in the section, but STILL!).

I am quite proud. It's shocking, really: he's only switched over to bass clarinet from 'regular' since September. And he beat out seniors and juniors? Wow.


/crowing

Bulleted

Mood: sleepy
Hair: probably a mess due to the two-hour nap in the recliner
Eyes: tried, dry and not fun
Listening to: Football (Eagles @ Vikings)

Since I have few coherent, lengthy thoughts, I'm throwing what I do have at the blog. Cuz I can. Y'know?

• Beast ran the sound and light at church today, so he had to be present at both services. He called after he arrived for first service to warn us (me) that the roads were dangerously icy, especially in our subdivision. They were insanely bad, but we all made it there and back safe and sound. About half an hour ago--5 p.m. or thereabouts--the road crew came around and salted our streets for the first time today. Nice. Thanks, guys, for being right on top of that.



• Worship this morning was the first time I've been 'at church' on Sunday since...uh...Thanksgiving? And I would manage to pick today: the first week of every month is Communion Sunday, so that lengthens the service, plus today was a baptism, which means more time. I don't begrudge the time usually, but I was awfully antsy today. And then, suddenly, as the pastor held the baby and swept water onto her head, I couldn't stop crying. I didn't leave, but I really wanted to for a minute or two. Nathanael would be two now. (And no, the mom did not breastfeed in public this morning: the baby slept through the entire service.)



• None of the teams I want to see in the Super Bowl are winning this year. Our big three main teams--Packers, Browns, Broncos--are out of the running already because they didn't make the playoffs. (Denver fired Mike Shanahan--WTF?) This weekend's games were either two teams we cared nothing about or the 'wrong' team won, not that we care that much. The one that is going on now isn't boding well for the team we sort of want to win. Next week doesn't look a lot better. The Super Bowl could be a giant Who Cares? on February 1. I may end up cheering like a girl: for the best-looking team/quarterback/coach. Oh, well, thank God for the ads!!



• I haven't decided what my 2009 Word of the Year should be. That's why it hasn't been changed in the sidebar. Maybe I'll pick one tomorrow, once the holidays are really over and school has restarted. Stay tuned.



• BIG HUGE THANKS to Betsy for passing the word on Jango!!!! I frickin' LOVE it!! And it's free. Why was I spending money on Launchcast?? 'Course, now that LC is going, Jango will probably start charging too.



• Speaking of technology, Meebo--the IM consolidator I use--recently added Facebook to the IM sites it supports. MySpace, too, if anyone cares. I can now log in to Meebo and chat with anyone who is logged into Yahoo!, Gmail, or Facebook, or looking at any of my blogs. It's not perfect, but when it works, Meebo is one of my favorite things evah.



• We had Greek burgers last night, courtesy of DinnerByDesign. They were excellent. I need to start eating better, and less, and get back on a regular scheduled meal schedule instead of snacking on junk all day every day. Then there is the whole exercise thing. Ugh. I can't tell you how much I hate pointless tasks with no immediate payoff.... Apparently, there are no WiiFit games to be had, so I'm stuck with Sports for now.



• Anybody got a good lead on a job for Sparky? Yeah, this is the perfect time of year to be looking, right? And the perfect time in the economic cycle, too.



• Speaking of which, I'm already 100% ready to eliminate the word "economy" from the language. I'm tired of hearing it, saying it, discussing it, blaming it, worrying about it, prognosticating about it. It's only going to become more omnipresent, I know, so it's not a good sign that I'm so fed up with the subject.



• We were going to take the tree down today and put away all of our Christmas stuff...but changed our (my) mind when we remembered that it's still 'officially' Christmas until January 6, Warren's birthday. So I'm not sure when we'll pack it up. Sometime this week, I guess, maybe in pieces.



• Everyone gets back to our regular schedules tomorrow: it's a full work and school week for all of us. Yuck.

I think that's enough. I should probably get myself sorted out for dinner and maybe work on the Christmas card filing.

---

Urban Word:

Presponse: To respond to a question before it is finished, often confusing the asker.

The whole concept of presponses confuses Beast. He'd rather finish one thought and spoken sentence before moving on to the next thought and speaker.

Grab Bag o' Weird Sh...Stuff

• Our entire neighborhood got tagged a couple of weeks ago. Remember, I talked about finding some grafitti in the street in May? And I mentioned that it was an odd color of pink? Well, it was an odd color...because it was landscaping paint, not regular spray paint. Last month (two weeks or so ago), one street in our subdivision awoke to find paint on the streets, on cars, on houses, everywhere. No more "Killah" stuff either. There was a lot of 'fuck' and 'bitch' stuff. Luckily, because it's landscape paint, it most came off pretty easily. The stuff on the street took some scrubbing but it's gone now, after a couple of rainstorms. And we hear that the little miscreants have been caught.



• Roomba is spinning in circles. It's discouraging; we can't figure out why. So we have a call in to the iRobot people in hopes they can diagnose the issue and fix it without having to hork around with shipping back and forth. We still love Roomie, but it's annoying.



• I had every intention to do several different kinds of shopping today. Unfortunately, I neglected to ascertain the location of my purse before I went to bed last night. Beast took it to work with him--in the glovebox of his car. So that fubar'd my day completely. I went and picked it up...but instead of continuing on the way to the shopping, I ended up coming home and going to bed with a headache again. Stupid allergies.



• I've bailed on a large number of books lately. I think my attention span and patience have left completely. Or I'm picking crappy books. Possibly both. My standards, I know, are pretty high. However, right now I'm reading Elizabeth George's latest, which is back to the main characters. I didn't get past page 25 of her last book. This one is better.



• Sparky has decided to try out for his school's golf team. This should be interesting. That will send this year's registration fees over $300. Ish. How can people afford more than one kid??



• While I don't wish Cranky on anyone, it is somehow comforting to know that I'm not the only one who gets tired of listening to Cranky Me, that others also get tired of hearing their own Cranky Voices. It makes me feel less like I'm crazy when I realize that everyone feels that way sometimes.



• So, I watched Jon & Kate Plus 8 today. Damn. Shoot me first, please. I really do love kids, but...just...wow. That much whinage, plus potty training, and general mayhem...24/7/365...wow. I wouldn't recommend this show except for its birth control potential. The parents seem like nice, normal, sensible people. It'll be interesting to see them when all 8 kids are teenagers.
  
  
• This year's bombings in the neighborhood--i.e., illegal fireworks--seem to have been slightly more contained, less scattered, and reasonable. Reasonable, that is, if you don't mind three straight nights of 9:00-10:00 p.m. fireworks shows 100 yards from your house. There were those occasional afternoon explosions, too, but in comparison to past years, it's been pretty calm. We'll see. The party usually continues all bloody summer.



• Tomorrow, it's back to the mines. Whee.

---

Urban Word:

Fourth of July: The day people light things on fire, and blame it on loving their country.

I don't think John Adams really anticipated us all blowing the roofs off our neighbors' houses or setting our own on fire on the Fourth of July.

Important Message

Last week was an exciting week for Sparky. This is from the School District from their online posting. We also received it, in slightly different form, as a paper note home from school:

Important Message for [high school] Families and Students
Th!s m0rn!ng at ab0ut 10:30 a.m., we d!sc0vered the f0ll0w!ng message 0n the wall 0f the f!rst fl00r b0y’s restr00m: “B0mb 0ff 0n Fr!day”. The p0l!ce were called and !mmed!ately began an !ndepth !nvest!gat!0n and a th0r0ugh search 0f the bu!ld!ng.

We are tak!ng th!s threat very ser!0usly and are w0rk!ng cl0sely w!th the [C!ty] P0l!ce Department t0 !nvest!gate the c!rcumstances and s0urce 0f the message. Wh!le threats 0f th!s nature are bec0m!ng m0re and m0re c0mm0n !n area h!gh sch00ls, we n0ne-the-less want t0 take all necessary measures t0 assure a safe and secure env!r0nment. T0 that end, there w!ll be a full p0l!ce presence at the sch00l b0th t0m0rr0w and Fr!day. Please welc0me them as they are there f0r every0ne’s benef!t.

After careful d!scuss!0ns w!th the p0l!ce, the dec!s!0n has been made that [the school] w!ll f0ll0w a n0rmal schedule f0r classes and act!v!t!es 0n b0th Thursday and Fr!day. We w!ll use th!s webs!te and 0ur aut0mated ph0ne call!ng system t0 keep y0u !nf0rmed 0f any further devel0pments.

Thank y0u f0r y0ur understand!ng and c00perat!0n.

[C.T.], Pr!nc!pal

The classes on Friday were at less than 75% capacity. Nothing happened, except for having lots of cops in the halls. A senior was arrested on Thursday. He's 18, and as such will be tried as an adult. Mentally, he seems to be 2--and no, he wasn't going to set off a bomb: he's apparently got a history of doing asshatted things like this, he was PO'd about something to do with Prom, or so runs the scuttlebutt.

And so far this week, the middle schools have had to go to "alert" because the same thing has happened there. This is nuts. I'm all for reinstating stocks and rotten vegetables in the center of town. Beast prefers the concept of a toothbrush and giant dirty tile floor.

Dress Rehearsal

No school today, so we're having our final dress rehearsal for Youth Sunday at 11 this morning.

I was wigging out in a huge way on Wednesday, which was supposed to be our final rehearsal. Several of the kids were beyond goofy--so was the other leader--and I was tired, but I managed not to strangle anyone. I'm calmer today. I think we're probably good to go, really, but Wednesday was so uncoordinated that we all felt like we needed another run through.

Sparky, in his own inimitable way, managed to screw up his conferences last night by not turning in a major project on Monday. Everything was going swimmingly until we found out about that. He is fortunate to have a kind-hearted science teacher who is letting him turn it in today. He had to come to the library last night to use Publisher so he could finish it. Idiot. Really, just...dodo headed twit. So we have to run him to the high school before our rehearsal at church.

My head hurts this morning, also my neck and shoulders.

We have ridiculous birds around our house who appear to be suicidal. Either that or they are blind. They keep flying into our windows, even with the shades pulled. Apparently our windows are too clean and they are seeing their own reflections and trying to knock out the competition. Even boy birds are idiots!

Ruka is still skittish and shy. He only eats when no one is around. Or maybe he's not eating at all. Anyway. Buddy's his protector, so that's a relief. No fighting in the cage.

Beast is adorable. He's working at home today. I'm not supposed to be bothering him, but of course I can't help it.

But, see, I'm not knocking boys in general. Just the idiot boys.

Oh--the sun is shining. Yay, sun!!

School

Went to school tonight on Honors Level and AP classes. They've changed the focus on how to sign up for them. Instead of requiring a teacher's signature (i.e. permission), anyone can sign up for them, with just a parent's request (i.e. permission).

So Sparky is signed up for Honors Chemistry, Algebra II, and English next year.

And then...then we took a friend home who mentioned that there was a math quiz tomorrow. (REALLY?) Once we arrived home, I quizzed Sparky on Chapter 8. I have nofuckingclue what to do with sines/cosines/tangents. He does. He's officially smarter than me now, in math. Ack.

Plus, all of this got me out of a Session meeting at church.

Life is pretty good, all in all.

Things found while wasting time exploring

I was joking around earlier on my memes site about having magnetic hands, but it occurs to me that when one surfs around sometimes the things we stumble upon feel a bit like the debris picked up by magnets. Now, some of it's junk, clearly. But some of it is worth passing along. Unfortunately, like most situations in life, I don't always remember where I found this stuff.

• EveryBlock--only available in New York, SF, and Chicago now, but really cool. So, I searched SoHo in NYC and this is what came up: current photos, building violations, crime, news, business reviews, inpections... Kinda cool if you live in the right places.



• If you stay in hotels, you probably already know that the rooms are cleaned in a somewhat superficial way. Bedspreads are not washed that frequently, and dustballs accumulate, and so forth. However, I ran across and icky thing on Snopes about the glassware in hotel rooms. Gross. BYODrinking Cup from now on!!



• Thanks to Jed at Lorem Ipsum who did a lovely post on women in fiction and movies that really struck me as critically important for so many reasons. I love the so-called Bechdel Test: Does the work (1) contain two or more women, who (2) talk with each other, (3) about something other than a man? Yeah! This could be why I don't go to the movies very often....



• Now I'll whine: Why don't the forums on Wordsmith and Word Wizard have RSS feeds? I don't want to register anyplace, and I don't want to get more stuff sent to my email address. Gimme a feed!



• Speaking of words, have you played Free Rice lately? Why not?



• Using this wonderful setup, I can now access my computer at work from anywhere else with an internet connection. That means that, in theory, I could catalog from the comfort of my house. Hee.



• Another thing that I am absolutely LOVING is having access to Sparky's current grade situation. Our school system is using Home Access Center from SunGard to provide this info for parents (and students), and it is wonderful!

OK, I think that's all the useful debris I've picked up recently. Happy surfing.

....er...?

There is an etymology blog I scan fairly regularly. Today's post is pretty funny, about the connections between science, shit and Saxons. This, in the midst of finals, when Sparky has the following tests tomorrow: biology, P.E., and world history.

Sue me; it made me laugh!

Also, the medical situation that crash-landed on our heads last week seems to be less terminal than expected. Dean sat up in a chair for a couple of hours today, having had the tube removed from his throat yesterday morning. He's eating (well, ok, I'm not sure "protein shakes" is the same as "eating") and off almost all the meds.

Ideas for someone age 34 who is trying to not drink himself into his father's state: where can he hang out where there won't be a temptation to drink. Besides church, cuz...yeah, not gonna happen.

I have a sinus headache.

Beast is home. His mom had a biopsy yesterday. His dad is not doing well. Right now, we're all holding steady.

K, I need to write the daily email to my family about Dean.

Mood: Good, but VERY tired
Hair: the less said the better
Listening to: Beast talking to his mom on the phone

Oh, and today's the Fourth Anniversary of this blog. Party hats on, y'all!!

Today

...was wonderful. Not that I have the foggiest idea where the time went, but it was wonderful. I bought 18 gallons of gas (!! I just Googled--my tank only holds 20), stopped for cream cheese and 7-Up (and dinner, and Clean Shower and so forth) at the store, picked up the mail at the p.o., and then came home and logged onto SimCity and watched the first 5 episodes of season one of Little House on the Prairie. It's only been sitting here for...what...4 months?

Beast called at one point, and we IM'd, so that was a break in the process. Sparky came home in terminal-meltdown mode ("WHY do I need to take four years of English? When will I ever need to use this stuff?? WHY?!?! I just want to get started on my life and be DONE with school!"). Sound familiar. Luckily, I was Good Mom today and just sat here and listened and hugged him and suggested maybe he hadn't had enough lunch (he forgot to deposit the check I wrote this morning, so they'd only give him a PBJ for lunch). I love that kid. I really, really do. He has NO idea. We never do, do we?

[By the way, I think the crux of this is that they are reading "Romeo and Juliet" and he's not 'getting' Shakespeare, and he's right--it's not a great play, really.]

Anyway, he's settled down and finished his homework and is currently working on the garbage and guinea pig cage. The same guinea pig that peed on me the other night while I was holding him. Eeeuw. He hasn't made it off my shit list from that!

Tonight: dinner, Survivor, CSI (rerun), cleaning for the cleaning lady and updating my book blog, finally.

School and Work = Life

My son will be driving in less than a year. Time is starting to slip away even faster than it has before. They are starting the planning process for next year's classes today, to be decided by next week. We have to haul out the course catalog and see what he's supposed to be taking for college prep. High school now is just like college used to be: you have to plan the whole four years carefully.

Meanwhile, Sparky's current English assignment is Romeo and Juliet, having read Flowers for Algernon and Of Mice and Men already. Can I take this class? I love ALL of these books!

Our living room is a mess, but in a good way: Beast got all the carpet, padding, and tack strips out yesterday and started putting in the floor at about 5. It looks like it's about 1/3 done. The kitchen is FULL of extraneous furniture, as is the front hall--getting upstairs is a little tricky.

MIL is still in the hospital, very annoyed because they didn't really do anything yesterday in terms of testing. Still in a holding pattern as far as Beast going to help out. So far, FIL is doing ok.

We are stocked for Thanksgiving either way. I'm staying away from the grocery store for the rest of the week; yesterday was a little crazy at 1 p.m. (usually a fairly quiet time to shop). I always forget that starting this week, shopping becomes a fairly intense experience for the duration of the year.

Yes, I'm alive

My sinuses are having a rough time adjusting to dry air, so I've had a nearly-constant dull headache for a couple of days now. Nothing dramatic, just vaguely there.

I took this weekend off to stay home with Sparky; they were done yesterday at noon and don't have to be back until Tuesday. So I'm home every day he is, plus Tuesday next week. I hope I don't just waste all that time!!

Last night was conferences. I think this was the first year we finally heard what we've known all along, from ALL of his teachers: he's smart, he's really having no trouble in classes, he's a good student (in the sense of not screwing around in class), etc. etc. (ad nauseum--I'll stop now). He came with us, so he was able to hear his teachers praise him, and that's good. The two downsides were his German teacher, only because he says Sparky talks in class a bit too much (but then he admitted that EVERYone in that class is very social), and his band teacher who was just...blah. She handed over his grade sheet, said he was doing fine and was attentive and that she appreciated his hard work, and then had nothing else to add.

That school is HUGE! And there are at least 15 stairwells. I'd be totally lost if I was really trying to find something in a hurry. And...old. Just...old.

OK, today Sparky has an assignment from Beast: pull up the tack strips in our bedroom and then remove all the staples in the floor. Tomorrow Beast will start putting in the new floor! He and I have slept in the spare room for two nights so far, mincing carefully around our two dressers, the queen-size mattress and springs, our bedding, Beast's C-Pap, the chairs from our room...it's a little dicey in there.

For me, today consists of a shower, a stop at the grocery store, the pharmacy and the meat locker where I will order our main course for the 22nd, and playing SimCity. Oh, and I'll make dinner, from scratch, for the first time in eons. Hope I can manange all the stress! :-)

Sparky

Haven't talked about the boy much lately.

Judging by the cranky quotient, that clearly is good news; if he were appearing more often, it would be because he was pissing me off. He hasn't been. He's been a real joy to have around for the past few weeks.

Yes. I know. The other shoe will drop, eventually. We are enjoying this period of peace and joy.

It's nearly conference-time for this semester, and we received his interim grades last week: Band, German, PE = A; Biology, English = A-; Geometry = B+. Comments? Two teachers appended attaboys, one teacher noted that he "needs to spend less time socializing." All of this, by the way, is available online, so we can track how he's doing in almost all of his classes (not gym class for some reason).

Sparky has complained about the latter class; EVERYone talks. He's frustrated because he can't hear, and although that's a class in which is grade is a solid A (although fading, I see in the online detail), he likes it. Yesterday, however, he came home quite upset: the teacher had a meltdown. A meltdown the likes of which he has apparently never seen in a teacher. It freaked him out. The guy sounds like he's had it with this class, and it also sounds as if the class has been baiting him to get him to do this (there are sophomores and freshmen in the class). I know from talking to other parents that this teacher has a bit of a reputation for being difficult.

He also let slip that he's having trouble seeing the board in Geometry, and the teacher writes small, so he's been getting the notes each day from another student. No wonder he's frustrated and not loving that class. It's been a little confusing because he's always enjoyed math, and there has been a different sort of feel to his annoyance over math homework this year. Now we know a little bit more about why. He's going to talk to his teacher today about being moved to a different desk where he can see.

Remember when talking to a teacher, asking for a little consideration or help, put the fear of God into you?


Oh, and the school district decided this week on how they are going to "load" the new high school next fall. They are doing what we figured they do: the current freshmen (next year's sophomores) will transfer if they are in the new district along with the incoming freshmen. The older kids will all stay at the Old School. So that's wonderful news for Sparky. He gets to be in the first graduating class. We were hoping they would have one class at a time start; it's a much shorter drive to the New School for us! Selfish, much? :-)

And he is leaving, so I need to say goodbye to him.

Labor Day to Schooldays

So this weekend was really relaxing. I got a fair amount of work done on Saturday, and then spent many many hours girl-talking about insane subjects ranging from shopping to boys to the intricacies of 24x fields in MARC.

Sparky went up to bed at 7:30...or really "to bed" since we keep hearing suspiciously loud thumps from the direction of his bedroom...in preparation for his first day of high school. Oooh, that reminds me: need to get out camera for tomorrow morning.

Beast did woodworking all weekend. I ... sat around, did a couple of loads of laundry, a couple of sinks of dirty dishes, and watched 9 episodes of CSI Miami with Sparky. Which might be why I'm not in a good mood tonight.

And with that thought, I'm going upstairs to check on the kid and go to bed and get an attitude adjustment. I hope.

Tech Bites

I came home from work after 2 hours yesterday: updating the server (well, not, but easier than explaining the reality) meant that there really was nothing I could do that was work-related. And my eyes were still making me crazy. They, at least, seem better today. And the computers were back online at 12:15, according to my boss. I declined going back.

At about 2 we lost electricity here, and that meant losing the TV and laptop. Sparky & I played Balderdash for an hour or so, and eventually the power returned. We finished the rest of season 2 CSI Miami, but the laptop wasn't connecting to the net. Apparently our wireless provider was having trouble with "a" (i.e. "the") tower. It seems to be back now. But it has been in and out all morning today.

More thunder and lightning overnight. We're getting very mushy.

Yesterday, Sparky got his finalized class schedule in the mail, along with his locker number & combo. Today is his school physical. Tomorrow is his first meeting with band members and teacher. We've had a short lesson on where the music lyre goes (I didn't play clarinet, so I have no earthly idea, so he'll have to ask someone else), but otherwise he's so not ready for this. ;-)

Funny story about the lyre. When I called the music store to make sure they had the lyres in stock, I asked for "a lyre for clarinet for marching band." The girl said, "A wire for clarinet...??" I spelled it. She put me on hold to ask. She came back and said, "Well, we have clarinet lyres but not for marching."

All band geeks, please hold the hysteria down to quiet giggles.

I'm posting this quickly before I lose connection again.

Family update

No, I didn't call Mom. Tomorrow. I PROMISE!

Jean and Reg have arrived in Colorado. They are here ostensibly for Elizabeth's wedding, but right now they are visiting with Mom and Marie for a few days. Seeing them is going to be...difficult. Suck it up, girl.

My brother actually emailed me asking what Sparky's tie looks like. Since the two of them are ushering, I think he wants to not clash. Sparky now has a sports coat (did I mention that before?) and a second-hand tie with purple in it. It's actually very pretty. I need to take that and Beast's sport (not "spork") coat to the cleaner's tomorrow. Details.

Just got off the phone with Katherine. I haven't talked to her in almost two months, and wanted to touch base about jewelry for the wedding since we will be standing next to each other. Her shoes are higher, she says, so I won't be totally towering over her. Speaking of which, here's my shoes:

Aren't they cute? And very Presbyterian? I will definitely need to change the nail polish, won't I?












Anyway, so yeah, I also asked how Katherine is feeling. She had the last dialysis in Colorado in March where her port crapped out on her (pun sorta intended). The nephrologist said she was probably ok to stop getting the treatments since her numbers had been dropping pretty steadily. Unfortunately, they have since leveled off, so she probably will have to have a transplant at some point in the future, within 4 or 5 years. Her doctor will make a final decision on that sometime soon and get her listed on the transplant list if he thinks it's appropriate. Her ob/gyn is recommending that she not get pregnant again, though the specialty ob/gyn is less negative. So they are talking about surrogacy, adoption, etc. That's a lot to deal with in the first two years of a marriage.

Beast is golfing tomorrow. Unless it rains. Which it seems to be likely to do all day. A good day for me to work.

Sparky's tentative schedule for high school came in the mail yesterday. He did not get into Honors English. Here's the gist of it:

Period 1 -- Concert Band -- 1st semester
Period 1 -- Concert Band -- 2nd semester
Period 2 -- Honors Geometry -- 1st semester
Period 2 -- Honors Geometry -- 2nd semester
Period 3 -- German I -- 1st semester
Period 3 -- German I -- 2nd semester
Period 4 -- Lunch -- 1st semester *
Period 5/6 -- World History -- 1st semester
Period 5/6 -- World History -- 2nd semester
Period 7/8 -- Biology -- 1st semester
Period 7/8 -- Biology -- 2nd semester
Period 9 -- Fall PE -- 1st semester #
Period 9 -- Spring PE -- 2nd semester #
Period 10 -- Freshman English -- 1st semester
Period 10 -- Freshman English -- 3rd quarter ^
Period 10 -- Freshman English -- 4th quarter ^

* I would assume that they'll let him eat lunch both semesters.... {g}
# We definitely would not want to have these reversed, would we??
^ Don't ask; I have no idea why these are split. I'm sure we'll find out.

And that's the news from my life, where all the women are slightly insane, all the men are asleep, and all the children are living in someone else's house.

Take him out of the oven...

...he's done! They handed out his grades along with a diploma: he passed everything, so he's officially in high school.

W00t!


[the kid next to our Orangeman, with his arms folded, earned a GPA of 0.92 and flunked two academic classes...doesn't that mean he shouldn't graduate? {shrug}]