Migraine Menace

So I was off today. Kevin, always sure that I am just lying there waiting to be awakened by some shocking statement that I am not expecting, came in and announced that two of the girls on the Y team made National times at their high school tournament meet last night. This rattled me, not only because I wasn't even thinking about national times OR expecting either of them to do it (although had I thought about it, I would have known it was quite possible), but because I know that this will increase the pressure and the stress that Megan feels going into the state meet, in a little over two weeks.

Then, to top it off, he didn't tell her. So when we talked about the times, she asked if that was a best time, and I said - well yes! She didn't have a national time before. At which point, Kevin says, "oh great. She didn't know."

Which, of course, draws more attention to the fact that there is pressure, or why wouldn't he just have told her? It's not like it won't be all over the media wires and the pool by sunrise anyway; better that she should know already than to walk in and find out at the pool.

But, that is that. So, as I cruised through my morning websites, all of a sudden I got a blind spot. I blinked. It went away. It came back. I blinked again. It got bigger. Damn!! This is the first 'aura' I have had since September! And that one represented the end of the three month long cycle. And there went my day off. I spent the day in bed, watching the History Channel. Now I am up and have showered, but must go dry my hair. I have to work all day tomorrow, and hope that this will be completely over by then. I still feel spacey.

I have to wonder what brings on all of these attacks, and this time, there is no food culprit, or lack of sleep. I've been feeling little hints of one coming on, like flashes of light here and there, or yesterday my mouth felt cold while I was drinking hot coffee. But what is is that sends me over the edge? Perhaps, this time, again, it was Brian.

Last night the school tensions came to a head again. I sat down to help him with science, he gave me nasty attitude, I yelled at him. He cried, he went up to his room and slammed the door so hard that it went to the OTHER side of the door jamb. Kevin followed him and yelled and slammed things around. Brian hyperventilated. Kevin knocked my vacuum down the stairs. I gave Brian a paper bag. Kevin left the house. Brian sat down with me and studied science.

I just don't know why it has to happen like that. We want to help him, and he doesn't want to be bothered. I guess we should just be glad that Megan never put us through this with school. It's very difficult at the middle school level, because I don't even know what the work is that they're grading. Half the time it doesn't make it home; whether it's in the locker, or if it's in the classroom; I just don't know. And then I have to wonder if his 504 plan is being followed. I feel like I need some more help in this situation, and I'm just not getting it.

That school is the biggest joke, with their Mr. Rogers principal and his Mickey Mouse cheering section. All they do is tell you how great their teachers are, how wonderful the student body is, and how everyone just has the best time at that school. Sure, that's probably true in some cases. But if you don't fit the mold they're trying to present, they don't even want to know about it. Certainly, there are exceptions, but if I hear one more time from a teacher how they have so may students that they can't do this, or remember that, for my child, I am really going to scream. And I still want to know why Brian came back from the dance with his jacket smelling like smoke.

But, at least I didn't have to work today.

Report Card Randomness

Yes, that's right. Report cards arrived on Friday. Since I was in the kindergartens all day (having quite a lovely day, who would ever think that kindergarten would be my favorite assignment, ever?), the kids got to take them out and open them before I saw them. First, once again, Megan had straight A+'s. In honors classes. She had A+'s on all midterms, except for two A's - in Spanish and Language Arts.

Allow me to dedicate an entire paragraph to Brian. Sigh. Science went up. C+ to B+. at the expense of, yes folks, everything else. Well, aside from the A+ in Computers. He had two C+'s: Social Studies and Spanish. But wait - there was an additional grade in Spanish, for the midterm, administered to all students district-wide, regardless of their grade level. Brian's grade on that exam? An A. Go figure. I just don't know how to proceed with this kid.

So I went to look through his backpack for evidence of deterioration in social studies. The teacher says he needs to work harder, but she keeps all his graded work at school. I don't see what she is talking about, and she isn't clear. Quite frankly, if that's the level of my involvement, we'll take the freaking C+ and put the year behind us. Eventually all of this has to take its toll on his conscience. Doesn't it? Anyway, I found no such evidence. What I found was his math notebook with stick figures depicting brutal shootings and suicide. Great. And he thinks this is funny, and normal. Sadly, it may be. (Normal.)

So that was the Great Tragedy of the End of the Week. Other than Buddy's voice, which is slowly coming back, and the broken seal in our kitchen window, which overlooks the pool and backyard and is now, forever, permanently, hideously filled with condensation and droplets of water running down the entire length of the glass. We replaced all of the other windows a year ago, but that one still looked good. Well. No more. The good news? The neighbors won't be able to see the cats sitting on the kitchen table and eating off of our plates anymore.

Finally, I am trying to come up with The Great President's Day Caper. I have ideas, but alas they will enter into the triple digits in terms of expense. I have considered Franklin Institute and a visit to the new cat in my parents' house. I have considered the ferry to NYC and a trip to the bodies exhibit at the Seaport. I considered, but had to reject, a trip to the Poconos to visit my college friends, who planned a trip their for the weekend. I declined because I thought Megan had to fast, but she doesn't. It's next weekend. But she did have swim practice every day, and I don't want to risk her getting hurt before states, which is now just three weeks away. And still no dog sitter.

So that's the end. This laptop is burning my lap, and I must get it off of me. A random end to a random blog. Oh, the excitement!

Thursday, Already?

I can't believe how fast this week has gone by. First, I had the debacle of the cracked filling, which did have to be partially refilled after three shots of novacaine, which left my jaw sore and numb at the same time, for hours. Then, as that wore off, I felt what I thought was a sore on my tongue but soon realized was an actual cut from something he must have done accidentally, either with the tool that holds it out of the way or when the tooth isolator thing was stuck and he had to wrench it out when he was done. So, that's still healing slowly.

Then came Tuesday, when I got a call at 9:05, as I watched Regis and Kelly while lying in bed with Rusty the cat, to go in to work for the morning. I had to be there by 9:30! well, I made it. After which I had to come home and get ready to take Brian to the neurologist for his check-up. At least, thankfully, that went well. We may not even have to go back for the MRI in the summer. I'm really hoping!!

Yesterday I worked all day in the special ed kindergarten class. So few students, and they can be such a handful. And then Brian had the orthodontist, then a basketball game. So we went to Chili's for some extra calories which I DON'T need at all. My diet starts tomorrow.

Yesterday morning, at breakfast, Buddy the cat had a strange meow. I forgot about it, since I was in such a rush. But this morning, it was worse. The big tough guy has this raspy little scratchy meow, like a kitten! He seems ok otherwise, except for a little rough breathing when I go close to him and he gets nervous. I'll give it a couple more days, but I just spent $135 on Molly last weekend for her hot spots (which, at least, are gone and she has stopped chewing since getting an antibiotic). This is just crazy.

Now we face the weekend. President's weekend! We have no special plans, although Megan has promised to babysit Saturday, which means she has to miss her swim practice. Oh well. It's Y Silver States this weekend, so the coaches will mostly be down there watching those swimmers. The cats are away! Let the mice play!!

Weekend Update

Thank goodness this weekend is over. The pressure on Megan, and then on all of us, leading into the meet on Saturday was just too much. In the end, she swam fine. The only thing was that others swam better. But she did great. Apparently some teams take this meet more seriously than her club team does, and they taper their swimmers. Not her team.

The boys and the girls meets both had a common thread: swimmers from one particular area team all did exceptionally well. Which means they were tapered for the meet. Megan got third in one event, and second in another. It's still respectable for a freshman, and she beat her time in the 500, and swam right on it in the 200.

We had to go to another long but unimportant meet yesterday, so that was just tiring. That same tapered team was there, all shaved and in their fastskins, while everyone else had hairy legs and 'slow' team suits on :-) ... but sometimes it's nice to have a meet with low pressure.

The bonehead's newspaper coverage of Saturday's meet started with a paragraph on how two senior swimmers had a "friendly conversation" and agreed to win their events and take the meet back for seniors. One was the one Megan had to race twice, and the other was the one who had hoped for the MVP award at the county meet. Obviously, the latter is still harboring sour grapes, because neither of the two has lost their events yet, so they had nothing to take back, except for the one wanting to see Megan get beaten. In a nice twist of justice, Megan's club coach had seen the article, and made fun of the girl for actually giving that kind of information to the paparazzi.

And who still has that MVP plaque, anyway?

Brian started with his new travel baseball team last week, and they had an indoor practice yesterday. Apparently it went reasonably well but he got tired at the end. Tonight he is supposed to have a basketball practice at 9pm! I am not sure if he's going, because it's so late, it's freezing cold and windy, and he has the neurology appointment tomorrow, where they check his reflexes and muscle tone. I might send him, though, because I noticed one of the other kids wasn't passing the ball to him at all last weekend. I didn't like this, but can't really complain if he skips practices (which he hasn't done yet, but I don't like him to either)

Well, I must wrap up my wrap-up, because the other night, when I was flossing my new back filling, two small pieces of it came off on the floss. I am terrified. This filling hurt me for days, then was sensitive for weeks. It finally stopped hurting, and now it has broken. I hope they can patch it, but I am not optimistic. I am off to find out now.

Boredom

Well, I'm bored. This will probably be a boring post, in turn. I'll just ramble a bit because I don't feel like starting dinner and I don't think eating more conversation hearts or chips in five day old onion dip is really the right way to go.

This morning I did my duties - got kids off to school, even door-to-door service for both of them. I was just surfing the net, waiting for numbskull to update his swimming blog page, when the phone rang at 8:40 am. I hate phones when I use the laptop, because I usually have to get up out of the recliner, destiffen my joints, put the laptop down, and stagger across the room by the fourth ring. And check the Caller ID, which, invariably, says, "Mtn Schl" =:-O

As it did today. I have finally figured out that the number that starts in the particular exchange I saw today is the woman from personnel who calls for subs once the day is underway. Yesterday I turned her down, so today I picked up. Turns out I was supposed to be in for the morning, not the afternoon, as I had been told. My morning bliss was shattered and I had to fly into the shower, and rush off to school. Imagine my relief when I zoomed around the corner at 10 mph above the speed limit and almost crashed into a police car who ALREADY HAD SOMEONE PULLED OVER. whew. I checked to see if I knew the unfortunate perpetrator (I didn't) and tried to keep my eye on the speedometer.

But all in all, it was a good day. Easy assignments. They put me in a kindergarten class with another sub for the first hour, and she didn't really know how to run circle time, so the inmates were in charge. I didn't want to step up and challenge her authority, so I minded my business and went on butt-crack patrol. (Two incidences successfully corrected) And the best of all, I was done by noon.

Of course, would I use the afternoon wisely? No. I picked up some items and came home and whittled away the time. Which is why I am bored.

So, in other news: an email from Brian's math teacher, saying he talks excessively in class these past two weeks. His excuse? She put him near "this kid" and X and Y, who talk all the time. I explained to him that this does not mean HE needs to talk all the time, and he went away to play X-Box. Speaking of the inmates running the asylum.

Tomorrow I have a full day in special ed. I hope no fights will break out over who likes the number 1 better than whom, or why this one said that to the other one. But really they are a good group, and I like them. One of the best things about special ed classes is that they have paras, who can always answer any questions, and help to keep the worst situations under control. And then: Friday night! And then: the big meet! And then: another meet. Sigh.

So there it is, if you made it this far. The most boring, and perhaps most aptly named, post of my blogging career.

Perhaps.

Ashes to Ashes

Funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie ...

no seriously. It's Ash Wednesday, or that's what the calendar says. It feels more like Memorial Day. The gulls are crying (ok, so maybe they're really Canada Geese), the air is warm, and there's a smell of spring everywhere. Of course, the flu bug is loving it as much as everyone else, which is still keeping me busy with work, as there are teachers calling out every day.

So, the Giants won the Big One. They had their ticker tape parade and their fans trashed downtown New York while Hillary cleaned up. Now the trophy will go to Giants Stadium, so the Jets can pretend it's theirs every other week.

Brian hasn't mentioned any more headaches, but he's been too busy trying to be out of the house as much as possible, and when he is home he's trying to scam time on X-Box Live. His appointment with the neurologist is scheduled for next Tuesday, I always love those and the time leading up to them. His walking and running gait has been looking pretty good, though, so ::knock wood::...I hope no surprises. Although, not that anything would ever surprise me after three years ago. I like to try to go to church right before for that extra last request, but this weekend I have to take Megan to a swim meet in Trenton, of all places. At least we are going to the service tonight, for ashes. That one is so gloomy.

Speaking of swimming, her last big meet of the season is Saturday. The local so-called reporter who covers girls' swimming is once again asleep at the helm. He hasn't posted a blog in over two weeks, although they released the state tournament brackets on Monday and the psych sheets for the meet yesterday. His last blog post was rudely entitled 'leftovers' from the article where he failed to give any press to the girl who won MVP at the meet, and instead droned on and on about the teams he seems to fancy. He tried to make up for it in a pathetic blog with a lame title, (oh yeah, and he got one last dig in at Megan, saying he didn't agree with her having gotten the MVP award because she's a freshman) and he hasn't been heard from since.

I can hardly wait to see his review of the psych sheets, as the girl who lost to Megan at the last meet has mysteriously resurfaced seeded .01 faster than Megan - bumping Megan to third seed. I'm suspicious, as I have been watching all the time in the paper and never saw anyone swim faster than that time. Even the rankings in the paper two days earlier had the girl in with her slower time.

Ah, here come the gulls again!!! I'd better go make myself an umbrella drink and enjoy the 70 degree weather in February. :-)

Stupid Bowl Sunday

So, here it is. The Giants are in the Stupid Bowl. Mass hysteria prevails. Everyone is on the bandwagon. If the Giants win, there will be a tickertape parade down the Canyon of Heroes on - what - Super Tuesday?!? That ought to be interesting. As luck would have it, Tuesday is a school holiday. Maybe we can take the ferry over and watch them throw paper out of the windows. I saw them do it for Nelson Mandela once. That was cool. I don't think anyone even knew it was going to happen, and suddenly, there he was.

I woke up Tuesday morning thinking I had no work for the week. At just before 7am, the phone rang. One of the teachers was sick. I went in for her, and ended up going back again the next day. I never thought they would call me again, but they did, the next day. A second grade teacher was sick and had requested me, I guess because I so meticulously cleaned out her science kits when I had some down time as a floating sub. So, exhausted, I came home that day and went straight to Megan's rescheduled swim meet, starting at 8pm. During that meet, I got another call! I worked four days in a row. The life of a sub. I will enjoy the paycheck.

Megan had her big meet against the 200/500 free champ from the other county. The girl swam different events! We will have to wait until the conference champs next weekend for that race. Megan had an undefeated season, but she had two races in which she had to actually fight for the win. (not counting the two she won at counties, obviously the best races of the whole season so far). Yesterday she had to go swim the 1000 free. That's so grueling. I know she can make the National time in that, but I hope she doesn't. To have to go down there and swim that would just take all the fun out of the whole trip.

Meanwhile, Brian is going to play on a different travel baseball team this year. That should open up a whole new spectrum of challenges for me. With all of Megan's swimming, I am running around all the time. Now I will also have to worry about where he is going to be. I think this team even goes to Cooperstown for a tournament!

And so begins the month of February. I really do hate football, but I can't wait to see if the Giants have a chance.