Crazy, nutty, insane week.

I've gone back to college.

I find it overwhelming and slightly deflating. First week and already I feel like I'm behind.

I'm completely frustrated with the book store. Digital books are too unreliable when it comes to NEEDING it. I didn't have a book when I needed, foolishly thinking if I ordered it for digital I would get it sooner. I ended up having to call the store for the particulars and then too many technical problems just to get to it to read it. In the end, I cancelled the damn thing and ordered a hard copy. Next year I just go get the darn things.

I WENT BACK TO COLLEGE! *squeee* And even though I'm far older than most, I'm not the oldest. :) That kind of helps.

I have to constantly tell myself that it's just for a job. Not because I'm looking to be a giant administrator for 50 billion different places. In the end, I'm not sure where I will end up, but I need to start somewhere.

Oldest bought his first car. Much amusement was had as our mechanic pointed out that the car was a year older than he was. In five years, if it lasts that long, the car will be an antique! Heh. All in all, it's not in bad shape. Even better, Oldest got to flex his independence. He found it, he got the money lined up, we were just the support team. No more having to take him to school. :D

Hubby got a severely part time job. It's suppose to be two days a week. But this first week it was four days in a row. I missed him terribly.

Youngest has an after school route. He's doing pretty good in it so far.

What with school, aiding in getting the car, the second job, the route and getting work study set up.... I was exhausted come Friday.  The sun went to sleep and so did I!

Not a Joke

Remember how I blogged about my nervousness over my oldest driving? I talked about kids I'd known who were in car accidents.

This morning I got another call about another young life taken too early. He was in his twenties, the youngest in his family, asthmatic, drank a bit too much, liked guns and was totally charming.

I keep thinking it's a bad joke. There's nothing in the newspapers online mentioning an accident. It must of just happened. But it has to be a joke right? Because I just saw him on Saturday, talked about getting him to a bar and being his wing man, getting him a date.  He tried to argue how women selling beer are used because women want to be her and men want to be with her. I argued that I know I'm not that woman, don't want to be that woman and if the beer commercials really want to get my attention use a good looking man! They made him switch places with another so he would stop yelling his point across the table.  I snuck the last bite of pizza from my husband, opened up the garlic sauce and let him have it. He's far too skinny. Was.

My mind keeps thinking this is such a bad joke. A terrible one. I'm going to kill his brother for calling work and making it.

It's not a joke. I don't know the details. Don't care to know. I'll probably hear them somewhere down the line, but right now, I just don't care how it happened. It just happened. Again.

Such a bad joke.

Edit  The funeral is on Friday. Poop. It wasn't a car accident. Around here people hear "accident" and they think car. In some ways I feel slightly better. I'd feel fantastic if it never happened at all.

Books

Growing up I had a plethora of reading material. I looked forward to the Readers Digest and the National Geographic every month. My parents had a ton of books and more that came in when they joined a book club. Because of that I read Red October and Toy Soldiers before they were movies. 

I loved the set of encyclopedias they had. The Egyptian section was full of information with colorful and interesting pictures to support the words. I'm not sure if man had gone to the moon yet in that particular set. The outdated information didn't stop me from loving the weight, the smell and the feel of the books. 

My parents had two newspaper subscriptions. I was a normal kid, I started with the comics. I would read the whole thing eventually.

I remember with fondness the summer I read the entire Dune series at the local library. I can remember the first person who told me to read the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. To say reading has had a positive effect on a young mind would be an understatement. 

I don't always have time to read like I used to. With age my eyes get tired sooner. They will water and twitch, their way of demanding I put the book down. It's a struggle for me when the book is an interesting one. I'd rather be wiping away and rubbing to find out what happened next. 

My books are still in storage. I have a few out that got put in some odd box or other or they are recent purchases. My husband picked up a nice shelf unit on the cheap (yeah! cheap.) and I look forward to hitting the storage and getting out at least a couple of boxes. I'm gleefully planning which books I'll put out first. I think I'll keep my eye out for the Disc World books and certainly the Harry Potter. Whatever else is in the box will get a coveted spot.

Today I had a converstaion with a couple of pediatric health professionals. We were discussing summer plans for our children and I mentioned reading my youngest has done. It was mentioned how nice it is to hear there are books in the house.  They mentioned how some houses don't have books, that the kids are playing video games or wandering the street because that is all there is to do. They don't have various outlets for their interests and don't even consider the library. I said out loud without hesitation, "Oh. That makes me sad."

I can't imagine how empty my life would have been without books around. They are an all over sensation from feel, to smell to mental stimulation. I don't think my kids could understand how important books where. Now they don't have to wait for a movie to come to town, (the smaller the town the longer the wait was) or for the library to open for research. Those encyclopedia's were life savers a couple of times because I didn't get down to the library that day. Reading was my reason to stay up late, my entertainment because it was Sunday and only golf was on TV on all THREE channels, a good reason to be inside on days from very cold to over a hundred for the third day in a row. There's only so many times you can build a snow fort or hang out at the pool before it gets old. A book always had something new to offer, a new place to experience, or a different way to look at life. It was my portable entertainment.

I feel bad for those kids out there who have never wandered over to a book shelf to browse to find a new and interesting world to occupy for a time. Every kid should get that at least once in their lifetime.

Research.

I've been kidnapped by Supernatural. UGH! 

Anyway, they do a lot of researching on that series, using a lap top and what not. We watched Jaws last night and wow, what a time warp! He was looking through these things... pages in them with black and white and color photographs... what are they called again? Oh, yeah, BOOKS for doing research. Then, on the boat, one of the characters opens a beer and his finger takes the whole thing off! Yeah, a pull top! And then, that character goes crazy and smashes the boats radio and get this... they can't. contact. anyone. No. cell. phones. 

Truly a horror story of another kind for the kids, heh.

I remember having to go to the library to "do a paper." My parents had a full set of encyclopedia's! Loved those things. We got magazines in the mail and read them! 

More Lovely School BLECH!

I still wasn't thinking straight when I posted about Youngest and his disastrous p/t conference. 

With some time and a cooler head I realized the real issue was communication. More like the lack of it and the blame game I felt the school was trying to pull. 

I'm not sure how I feel about this particular school. I don't know if I want him going there anymore. I recognize that he might have some issues of his own to deal with that has nothing to do with the school system. I'm addressing that now. 

After reading the e-mail I received yesterday, I can see they really want to blame us as parents. That ain't going to fly. Now I'm all pissed off again. UGH!

Going back to school in the fall.

Extremely need to brush up on math.

When I'm done I'll be able to show that I actually have a skill set that pertains to a career, not just a job.  

Still wish I could find at least a part time job. 

P/T Conferences

*sigh* Youngest's didn't go so well. Matter of fact, I got so pissed at one teacher, I finished with another and stomped off straight to the counselors office. All to do with bullies.

There are a couple of boys that bully Youngest. He told me about it last semester. I told him did you tell a teacher? Not yet. I told him he needs to. He did and he went through the process. But, I was so rabid today I totally forgot that he had talked to the principal about it.

I've told him all the ways to deal with bullies. Walk away. Ignore. Use humor. Stand up and defend yourself.

Apparently none of the above was working so well. This particular teacher told me that Youngest and the other boy were sent to the counselors office because Youngest was bullying.  "They were bullying each other." Didn't even ask youngest who started it. I turned to Youngest and asked him was it 'quotation marks with hands' (because we call them Fat Boys so I know who he's talking about). He nodded. I told the teacher I knew about these kids and that they were a problem for Youngest. "Well, did he tell a teacher? We have a process to deal with that." I was getting mad. I couldn't remember.  I told the teacher that I had given Jon permission to stand up for himself because he's old enough now that he should know right from wrong. "Well, we're not talking about the other boy right now. We're talking about your son."

Yeah, PeeWee, I get it. What the fuck do you want me to say? "I want to talk about the social and behavioral issues we're having." Yeah, you mean the ones you guys are creating by not communicating with the parents or each other. The one created by the lack of communication between staff freaking members! Or the ones making my kid not even want to try to do well in school because he hates it so much?

Yeah, obviously there are some issues we have to deal with to boost this poor kids self esteem. But there are obvious communication issues this school needs to deal with.

I went straight to the counselors office. My poor kid was in tears because of that clod hopper. But I was so rabid I couldn't think straight and communicate well myself.  All I got there was excuse after excuse. I left abruptly. Not handled well on all sides, I'd say.

I was mad enough that once I got home I called to see if I could get him transferred to another school. The lady there was at least able to get me to settle down a little and talk more sense.

Seriously, if my child has a problem with behavior in class, then yeah, it needs to be dealt with. Getting blind sided at a parent teacher conference with other parents and teachers in the room was enough to make me see red. It was degrading, classless, crude and embarrassing. To make excuse after excuse when I'm just steaming freaking mad didn't help at all. Do you seriously think a raging parent is thinking about what happened six months ago? I could barely put two sentences together.

Don't know what's going to happen now. I just seriously know I don't want him going back there.