Spring Break

Again, a while! I've been working on the ads for the banquet book for the swim team banquet, which this year occurs just one week after the return of the Nationals and Zones swimmers, meaning I must turn the book around in record-time, as normally there is about a month in between. Also, I have never personally attended the event, doing so this year will set me back a bit as well.

So, Megan got the second cut for Nationals at Junior Olympics, but not without the usual drama. Of course, she will not do it in the morning, so we must wait until evening for the Big Drop in Time. We got there with all relatives and friends in tow, and sat through an hour plus of warm-ups and then a good half hour of Other People's Races (boring, long ones.) before the 500's even started. The boys went, and then the first heat of girls.

Megan was at the block, and just as they announced her name, Olympic style, the place erupted in a deafening roar. It took several moments for all of us to realize that this was not a horde of her newly acquired fans, but that the fire alarms were going off. White lights and buzzers were everywhere. After a bit of hesitation, everyone began to file out of the building, where we stood for about twenty minutes. They think someone pulled a fire alarm in the gym. We were glad we had Brian at the seats with us. He might have been a prime suspect.

Once back inside, the same eight girls went back to the blocks, and they started the race like nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. For a while, Megan was slowing down relative to her pace from the morning, but then she picked it up at the end, I guess swam the race the way her coach likes for her to do. So she took off nearly two more seconds, and has a comfortable position to swim in the morning event down in Florida, rather than the afternoon time trials.

Otherwise, school is wrapped up. I worked two of the four days last week, and spent the others working on the banquet book. Megan had to be in church Thursday night for the Washing of the Feet, which was an eternally long service, as they tend to be in our church of pomp and circumstance. She was supposed to be there last night, but the priest excused her for swim practice. She has to go tonight, and again tomorrow morning. Then we have our annual brunch with the Doll, at 3pm. I will consider that our dinner.

Yesterday, I took Megan out shopping. This Nationals trip is going to cost us a fortune! I had to buy her new clothes for summer anyway, and I had a coupon for 40% off from American Eagle, but I had to spend $250. I figured that was not a bad deal, so I amassed $270 worth of merchandise, and only had to pay $160 with the discount. Then another $125 in sundries from Harmon's. Most of that - sunblock!

So that is that. We have no major spring break plans due to swim practices every day and homework that the kids must complete so they can miss a week of school. I'd like to get to Philadelphia for a day, maybe Tuesday morning, if I can swing it. Wednesday practice will be early, to be followed by a traditional pre-meet pasta party and distribution of meet merchandise; on Thursday I must escort the Doll to her long-awaited colonoscopy. So it looks like it will have to be Tuesday.

In other news, Rusty broke an heirloom lamp last night, by knocking it off of the piano when we had all gone up for bed. He shows no remorse. Baseball has begun for Brian, and the Old Fat Men's Softball League is kicking off as I write this post. Moles are beginning to take over the yard, and the other morning after a rainstorm, Brian and I emerged from the front door to find the walkway and doorstep covered in slimy worms! Being the original city girl, I had no idea that these worms were now stranded. Therefore, the driveway is now littered with worm carcasses. Even the birds don't want them.

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!

oh, Happy Day!

I took down the tree! There is no evidence of Christmas remaining, except for the fiberoptic tree, which goes into a box, balls and all, when I am ready. The real tree was coming apart into little sprigs of dead pine all over the living room, and I was so tired of having it block out every bit of light that came through that window. Must rethink that location for next year.

The thing is, it wouldn't be so bad. I mean, Christmas is a nice and happy time. Until you are the person responsible for unpacking 17 boxes of accumulated CRAP that just clutters up the house for a minimum of three weeks. And then the person responsible for repacking these 17 boxes. Why can't we just have one box of ornaments, and then maybe a few small items for around the house? How lovely would that be? Buy a tree, take out THE box, trim the tree. Done.

Although I love the Village. Don't want to shortchange that. However - snow everywhere - the roads curl up - the people fall over - the lampposts don't light - pieces break when I pack them up - trees stick me and don't fit in the box that I think they came in. And this year, thanks to Puff and Rusty, I went light on the Village: no people, no snow, no street lights, no trees. It was a beautiful scene.

As I expected, I am so grateful that I didn't put up many lights outside. Just the dancing snowmen and the lighted one. And some ribbon and garland, but that comes down easily at any time, like the fiberoptic tree.

I just love to have my house back. I feel like it's spring already. The dust shows up on everything, and I can really see how bad of a housekeeper I am with all that clutter gone. It inspires me to vacuum and clean. For about two hours.

But now it's the dreaded New Years Eve. We are actually invited to a party this year - that's two years in a row! However, as the day got closer I found myself thinking how much I liked the years when we just went to my favorite restaurant, Bahr's, in Highlands, and ate their crab cakes and drank Kendall Jackson chardonnay. That is my favorite New Years Eve.

Now Brian has just come home and he is complaining that it's winter, so we shouldn't go to a shore restaurant. Contradictory to that, he says - but it will be packed! So we'll see what happens. Megan has a sore back, and no wonder, that training this week = overtraining. I told her to tell the coach she's sore, take a couple of days off later in the week. She won't even hear of it. I used to feel like a pressure parent, telling her not to miss practice. Now I can't get her to take a day off here and there. The county championship meet is Saturday afternoon, I don't want her to hurt herself; they're also using medicine balls again.

Meanwhile, I emailed all of Brian's teachers regarding their Christmas comments on the progress report. I asked two of them to fill in questionnaires for his neurologist, and I have been researching "executive dysfunction". I found a published paper on one site that sounded like it was written about Brian. But Kevin says it is like a horoscope, that it would apply to anybody. Well, again ... we'll see. I don't expect to hear back from any of them before school starts back up on Wednesday.

Well, there are just seven hours remaining in 2007. I must go and put them to good use.

Merry Mayhem

Well, the cold sore is gone, it lasted about six days but it was never visible like usual, only I could feel it. I'll just keep using the cream if I get another one, without risking the dizziness and mood swings of that other drug.

Molly still needs her lampshade, and Puff is no longer in heat, so she is being very cute and friendly (to me)and making me feel bad about having to take her in for her spay surgery. I have to make that appointment next week, when Molly goes for her bath. Hopefully she can stay out of heat long enough to get it done the first week in January.

So I just came out of a three day work stint, after three days of the swim meet up at Rutgers. The weather was questionable, so we split the weekend between home and a hotel, which was a good thing. Megan swam pretty well, she got a best time every time she swam, if even by .01. Then she had to come back for finals in a few events. So that was exciting.

For some reason, her high school coach was unaware of a meet they were supposed to have on Tuesday. So they ended up rescheduling it for Wednesday, which meant that I had to reschedule her confirmation make-up (for what she missed for the other meet) for Thursday, which means she has to miss her Y practice, which she also has to miss on Friday for another high school meet!!! It's major mayhem and I can't even stand it. So she won't swim with her real team for nearly a week by the time she gets back in for Saturday practice.

Of course, right after that, the Y takes her away for the four day training trip to another state, in the middle of our family holiday.

And on top of this, we still have not resolved the issue of the 30 hour fast. I googled some other area churches and other churches' requirements for confirmation. Most will give a selection and require that most be met. Others will include a choice of several retreats, and some do just one class. Most seem to mention community service, of which our church does none. They added on a quick day at the soup kitchen, to which I plan to send Megan before the county swim meet.

If the church is going to deny her confirmation because we don't want her to fast for 30 hours two weeks before her Y state championship, at which she is trying to make national cuts, then we have to seriously consider whether or not we belong in that church at all. I'll offer for her to do the sleepover and skip breakfast and lunch on Saturday, which is a lot for her anyway. Plus the soup kitchen, which is half of the other day, the one she can't make.

In the end, she is putting forth the greatest effort possible, and we are trying to be flexible. Since I feel that is the church staff that has set these requirements, and not actually God per se, if they do insist that she must do this fast without any compromise, I'm afraid I will have such a bad feeling that I will have to consider searching for another church. They are offering no "home schooling" type of makeup for the fast, no alternative other than these two dates, one of which conflicts with the country meet.

I've been getting emails from them begging the congregation to please return their pledge cards, and apparently finances are tight. Although I can never repay the kindness of the pastor when Brian had his brain surgery, I'm afraid that this just isn't the kind of church I would want to be a part of, and wonder if that is perhaps some of the reason behind the difficulty in getting pledges back. Strength in pastoral services doesn't always balance out the atmosphere within the church; and that's what you have to deal with day to day.

So now I am off to try to tie up loose ends of shopping today and loose ends of cleaning tomorrow before the onlsaught of our holiday guests (at which time we may not see Puff again for days). A particularly strenuous litterbox changing activity has left me feeling a little shaky, so I sat down to let that wear off before I shower and hit the mobs. I hope the mobs are still asleep.

Oh, and maybe I'll put up some Christmas lights outside. Or maybe not. It is almost time to take them down already.

First Snow!

It snowed today! We have a winter wonderland. It's a little hindered in appearance by the piles of leaves that have yet to be picked up, but it is a white world nonetheless, very serene looking. I think tonight is probably the town tree lighting, since we're going to the church spaghetti dinner; and they always coincide.

I've been avoiding going back outside since I am developing the terrible fear of the holiday shoppers. I must go get cat food and some other things, and my heart speeds up at the thought of the parking lot at Target. Yesterday I drove about 100 miles on the highway with trucks and psychopaths. By the time I got home, I really needed a shot of valium or perhaps even morphine.

I was reading a post on one of the message board where a guy tells how he was harassed by an aggressive motorist. the guy came up behind him, flashing his lights and honking. So the narrator chose to slow down, to be annoying. The pursuer then went to the right lane to pass, at which point our "victim" sped up again!! As is the case so often these days, the end result was physical. The two cars pulled over, and the pursuer slugged our victim.

The message board is one for chiari sufferers, so this guy had chiari. He got the guy's license plate number, and filed a police report. The tone of his post is such that he was wronged on the highway. As in the case of the agitated seventh grader who took a cheap swing at the wiseguy - the aggressive driver was obviously not a model citizen. However - not one person has posted in reply - "what the hell were you thinking? Did you not expect that this might be a likely outcome of toying with an obviously deranged driver?!" I have reread that thread many times and can't believe nobody has said one word of reprimand to the victim.

And I'm not going to be the first one to do it!! But now I must escape because I hear that Brian is not doing well with his learning of the lessons - maybe I'll just find a back road to Target right now.