Start of school

Also from the draft pile - started in September:

Another year has begun, and with that comes the close of summer. On the bright side (for me), running has become a lot more pleasant. My legs were even red this morning when I returned home - because it was 53 degrees! Also on the bright side (for me) is that everyone now has their (almost) normal schedule. Piano and violin lessons resume next week, and in a couple of weeks Helen's after-school class will begin. Then, except for the random work travel and early release from school days, things will be steady. And, as a result, I'm back to riding my bike - which is a great way to commute.

On the downside, my children have both begun their steady drumbeat of "I hate school" rants, which I mostly ignore. Because guess what? I hate it, too. But I'm not homeschooling either of them and I can't imagine paying for some expensive private school (which may or may not be deemed better) when I could instead save that money to send my children to college - or me to Paris. Always, I want to be in Paris.

This year, Connor has a computer science class, which purportedly is difficult enough to make people quit. Hopefully, this will provide at least a tiny bit of challenge to keep him interested. If nothing else, I suspect he'll have the opportunity to create a few games, which should be fun.

His math class is a disaster. Last year, the district implemented a new class for his cohort. Though it held the same title as several other sections of the class, it consisted of a group of very high-scoring students on multiple exams. The teacher pushed those kids hard, and while it barely provided challenge, it did at least interest him about 40 percent of the time. In contrast, a few kids dropped the class because it was too time-consuming, and I learned only recently that several parents complained the class was too hard. Sigh.

And, I suppose partly in response to those complaints, Intensified Algebra has no special section. Instead, it's a group of students from his last year's class as well as students from other classes. Predictably, as I finish this post off in January, the class has not been a challenge. The only challenge is walking the tightrope of turning enough homework in to maintain an A. Connor's lack of organization keeps him from turning several assignments in each quarter, though I do believe he completes most of them.

I've never quite pinned down how much Helen truly hates school. She'll say she doesn't like it, but she definitely likes chatting it up with friends at lunch and hanging out at recess. It's never clear to me whether her drumbeat of "I hate school" is just her reflecting Connor's angst, or her own. She, at least, has the distraction of the school musical, and this year she's singing in a choir across town which has been fun.

On the bright side - we're about halfway through the year now - which means respite is just 5 months away.

Phew!

Elaine

The Damn Video Games

I realized that I have over 100 draft blog posts sitting in my unfinished queue.  I wrote the blow in October. I'm an effing soothsayer. And I wish that wasn't true!

Video games are going to be the death of me. We reached an all-out low in our household this summer, which ended with a phone termination (briefly), and a website termination (permanently). And while, now that we are over a month out, Connor can talk about my terminations being both reasonable and warranted, it has become obvious that I'm a dog chasing its own tail.

There is no end.

I'm always running around in circles.

Elaine

My First Shot!

A few weeks ago, I was in Chicago for work. I decided to attend the conference, in part because Hamilton was there, and I desperately wanted to see it. Because I have tickets for all of my family in New York this coming summer, I decided I would just get a (relatively) cheap seat for Chicago.

My dear friend's brother-in-law in the house manager at the Chicago theater, so I emailed my dear friend and asked him if his brother-in-law could confirm the "obstructed view" seat I had my eye on was just a little bit bad, and not terrible.

He came back with "my brother-in-law will get you house seats", which translated into "the best damn seat in the theater for less than half price - cheaper than the obstructed view seat I was mulling over. But, better than that, an hour before the show, my friend's sister texted me with the instructions "meet at the stage right door, 10 minutes after the last note sounds" and that is when it hit me that I was getting a backstage tour!

The show was amazing. From the first note to the last, it did not disappoint. And during that tour, I met Miguel Cervantes, who is playing the role of Hamilton. He allowed me the below fangirl moment, which still makes me smile.

I felt a wee bit guilty attending the show without Helen. But I quickly got over that, knowing that soon enough she will get to call Hamilton her first Broadway show.

A week later I was in Chicago again - just for the day. I considered staying overnight just so I could see the show again! It was that good.

Elaine

In between...

Having a 10 and 12 year old in the house means we are basically always in-between something and often, on edge. And I'm not just talking about being between the activities we are running to and from.

For starters, I'm trying to grow independent children. I need them to be able to care for themselves at some point, and at a later point, care for me. One of the things they take on themselves is scheduling their own entertainment. They call their friends, their friends come over, they leave the house to go see friends, etc. And while they are generally very good about asking me before they make these calls or disappear, they ask with an urgency that means "CAN I, AT THIS EXACT MOMENT, HANG OUT WITH MY FRIENDS". And sometimes, often, I am in the middle of my own thoughts figuring out how I am going to stack my errands into the day ahead, and it hurts my brain to switch and think about their friends. But not only am I interrupted once, which generally comes with me mentally restacking my day so that I can be home if friends are coming over, I am often interrupted two or three times because they get on the phone and must negotiate the timing of their hanging out. Before they had this independence, I would attend to the task of asking their friends' parents if they could come over when I was ready, and the parent almost never answered at the moment of the ask, so it was a long, deliberate, process.

We are also in between being annoyed by the existence of parents and being grateful for the existence of parents. We used to lean hard toward the latter, and we're creeping towards the former. I remember the days of arguing who had the privilege of sitting next to me. Now, I am sometimes greeted with eye rolls. However, the 12 year old will also dance a silly dance as the 10 year old plays violin and we all wait for dinner to cook. We share hand dances in the car, laughter over the Simpsons, and can still run around the house being a little crazy. Guessing all of that stuff will come to an end at some point, but 12 and 10 are still firmly planted in both worlds.

The thing about both of these balancing act - time with friends  / time with family; time being silly / time being annoyed - is that I sometimes feel like I'm getting whiplash as my brain does a little ping pong dance between all these states.

So this morning, when my running partner and I ran across a little creek, I said "you must have so much fun with your children here". And, yes, she agreed, this was a magical spot. A spot where rocks splashed in the stream, leaves floated along, and everyone enjoyed the outdoors. Her children are much younger than mine. I kind of miss the days of knowing where everyone was.

Elaine