This morning I had a meeting with Kid2’s school counselor to get her signed up for Homework Help. It involves more than just getting to be in a place where she feels safe, that is quiet, where she can get her homework done. It involves signing a few documents that permit the counselor and other professional observers of children to figure out how we can fix her.
She’s not broken. She’s an artist.
But of course, she does have to slog through years of school until that scholarship to an amazing art school comes through in about eight years. I am most impressed with MiniMe, even if no one else is. Her reading scores are through the roof. Her math scores are in the basement. But I told her, once she starts having to scale up her art for the sides of buildings — contracted for beautification efforts — she’ll have to wrap her brain around math.
She starts Homework Help Monday.
After that morning meeting, John agreed to take me to work, bless his heart, although I did offer to take theBus. We caught up with each other as we sat in traffic for an hour. In Hawaii, there’s never a dead body on the side of the road, no satisfaction that sitting in bumper-to-bumer traffic was because of something other than raindrops. Hawaii does not know how to drive in anything other than sunshine. I know. That was mean.
I get to work and realize (OH THE HORROR!) that I’m late on an assignment. Fortunately, I started researching the article yesterday and was able to finish the main story by midday today. I added two sidebars after a bowl of ramen with Young Colleague With Interesting Relationship Issues, and then worked on three other publications ready to pop. I don’t like to say all this happened because I thrive on deadline pressure, but I will say that when the pressure is on, I will not leave without delivering.
Now I’m thinking about gratitude. Tomorrow I’m going to talk to my department about donating to our holiday food drive and how the have nots are probably people we know, right under our noses, and that it is easy to be kind.
Lavagal 