The Crab Chronicles

Last Day of School

It's Mike's last day of school. I am relieved. No more homework for ME! Yay! Nobody tells you this before you're a parent but YOU end up completely revisiting school, through your child. You become a tutor, a school advocate, and on occasion, penniless, as you're socked with all sorts of activity fees and book fees, and everything else.

The parent gets "schooled" as much as the child.

Michael is starting high school in August, which blows my mind. I was talked to another parent the other day and she was saying Lakeside is such a huge school, and I laughed. Farrague High School, where I attended from 1976-1980 is a HUGE school. Last time I was in Knoxville, we drove around the school a bit, and my kids eyes were like saucers, staring at the enormous campus. There were more than 3,000 kids there when I was there.

She was right about the social challenges of a ginormous school. You can feel swallowed up if you don't have a core group of buddies.

I always made friends in each of my classes, but I only had a few close friends in high school, a tiny group. I did a lot of Drama Club and Newspaper activities, and Chorus. Those things were what made the whole experience fun.

Michael was in an incredibly foul humor last night, for unknown reasons. He said he was happy and sad. He will miss his school friends. I told him to get contact info and maybe he could see them over the summer.

Transitions are hard for him. He had to leave behind his birthmom [however abusive and awful, she was his original mom] and go to an orphanage. Then he had to leave his friends there are come to a new country, new family, new language, new everything. Now here's another big transition. I am so sympathetic but there's not much I can do to help.

Here he is in 2008. How time flies...

Skin and School

Well, the trip to the dermatologist yesterday was a relief. He was really a nice man, and Michael feels optimistic about getting his acne cleared up, finally.I just have to go get the prescriptions late this afternoon. None of the medications were available yesterday.

Two interesting notes. The derm is a TINY man - Michael looks like a gorilla next to him, and he's 5'5 and weighs 120.

The other thing of interest if that he is the dermatologist to the Atlanta Braves and is a huge baseball fan. His office is filled with autographed photos of players. I told him about my grandfather, Bob Hasty.

Most importantly, Michael liked him. The doctor gave a sheet of explicit instructions on how to wash the face and apply the different medications.

So Michael is hopeful the plan will work. I am too, although I cautioned him to pay particular attention to the derm's instructions that it will take 6-8 weeks to see big results.

When we were coming home in the car yesterday, Michael and I talked about why he hates school so much. He hates being confined to sitting at a desk for so many hours. I am looking into homeschooling him next year. The problem is that he will have to be self-motivated to get on the computer and get his coursework done, and I can't help him with higher math and science stuff. Homeschooling a high schooler would be challenging. I did find a website called Georgia Virtual School which looks interesting.

I am still in the exploratory phase of this.

I think Michael will miss being around his friends all day. OTOH, he will be 16 years old when he starts high school, so perhaps the homeschooling thing would work out better. Who knows. I'm praying for guidance on this.

Lizard Movies

I had a plan to do a cute blog about my Christmas tree and decorations, but, um, didn't get the photos made. Busy day yesterday. Lots going on.

Michael missed three days of school just before Thanksgiving break, and hasn't really caught up, and so he's having issues in math and science. His math teacher refused to help him yesterday, which annoyed me no end. I took him in early specifically to get help.

The science teacher is nice and Mike likes her, but she gives a lot of homework. Her tests are hard, too. I have told him over and over to bring home his book and study all along, not wait until the last minute. Does he listen to me? Nope.

The irony is, I pay for good grades in his core classes. He gets $20 per A and $10 per B. C's earn him nothing.

So we had some after school drama here yesterday.

I did make a good dinner. I put a small pork tenderloin in the oven, plus we had red skin potatoes, and a big salad. I've gotten to where I really like the little pork tenderloins. I sear them in butter, then pop the meat in a pan. I melt more butter in the pan and add soy sauce, ginger [from a tube, but it's good], fresh garlic, and some honey and grade jelly. Taste to make sure the balance of sweet and salty is there. Pour that over the roast and bake at 300 for several hours. Yum.

We finished a movie last night that I loved, but Michael wasn't terribly enthusiastic about, Rango. It has some very clever, funny lines. Johnny Depp narrates the voice of the main character, a lizard in the wild west. I know, you're thinking "Oh yeah, another lizard movie set in the west, what a bore" but this one is different. Really. Watch it.

That's all I know for now..

Memories of 15

The heat wave that has gripped the southeast has broken - today's high was a brisk, cool 91 - and the upstairs air conditioner in my house is also broken. Oh joy. It's 82 here in my room at the moment.

Why is it these things always happen on the weekends?!

We've had a nice day, albeit a very quiet one. When the highlight of the day is going to the grocery store, there's not much to tell.

Michael wouldn't go to the pool. He said none of his buddies were there. He keeps in touch with his network of friends via text, and he knows where everyone is, most of the time. It's weird to me, but I'm a different generation.

I spent some time in my room writing this afternoon while the air was still working a bit, and it was about 78, which is bearable. 82 means I'm sweating when I'm just sitting here typing, despite the fan blowing right on me.

Michael has been kind of a pain in the ass today, which is rare. Then again, he's 15.

Mother told him a story at dinner which is sort of funny, about when she was 15. She remembers being that age. Her memory has always amazed me. I have only the most vague, hazy memory of being 15. Mother remembers it clearly because she had her first date.

The guy mom had a crush on at 15 worked at the dairy where my grandfather worked, and he asked her out to the movie. Mother thought he was the cutest thing ever and was so nervous, when they got to the movie and she realized she had to go to the bathroom, she was too embarassed to tell the guy, and made him take her home. He never asked her out again.

When I was 15 I was a sophomore in high school. I spent most of my time feeling extremely self-conscious about my hair, my pimples, my lack of fashionable clothes, and my complete dorkiness. I was sort of a female nerd, but I wasn't really in the ultra-smart category. I was nerdy in English and in History, quite the opposite in math and science, where I made low B's and C's, because they were difficult for me.

I excelled in Chorus and Newspaper staff.

My science teacher my sophomore year was a small man who liked teaching physics and resented being forced to teach sophomore Biology, and he took it out on us. I think I've written about him before. I learned a lot about Biology because he didn't like making up exams, and his would just be one sentence essay tests saying things like "Explain the digestive system from the time you take a bite of food until it's ready to come out the other end." I think that was an actual exam. Lovely.

He wore a green polyester liesure suit every other day, and he smelled awful.

Other fun memories that year, hmm...

There was a boy named Tom who was the ultra nerd and he was on newspaper staff. He carried a briefcase, so he got a lot of flak, needless to say. He liked money. We used to pool our change, all of us on the newspaper staff, and pay him to eat these evil concoctions we made out of cafeteria food, like green jello covered in mustard. He always ate whatever stuff we made up, because we paid him. One day he did have to run for the bathroom so he could vomit.We thought that was awesome.

Guess what that guy does now?!

He's a lawyer.

Ah, the fun days...LOL

I digressed. Oh well. It got my mind of sweating...

First Day of 8th Grade

Michael asked me just before bed tonight if he could skip 8th grade. "Nope, sorry," I had to tell him. He has to pass the 8th grade CRCT or he can't go to high school.

They already gave him a CRCT workbook in math. I was astonished. First day of school. He's pretty good at math, made all B's last year, but he stresses over it. I stink at math so I can't help him.

As I was on the way to work this morning I automatically checked my purse for the card to get me in the garage at work, and it wasn't in the outside pocket. I freaked OUT. I figured Mike had messed with it since his wallet was in it. I found it later, thanks be to God. Costs $10 a day otherwise. Yikes.

Other than debriefing Mike about the first day of school, and sweating furiously while I fertilized my tomato plants, it was a pretty routine day. Here's the young man:

He loves these shoes. Bought them with his own money. Says they are too good to wear to P.E.

Quick Update

This will have to be a quick update because I wanted to let you all know I'm still here, but I gotta get a shower and get to work soon...

It was close to 100 here yesterday. Dog days indeed. I just love to sweat like that. Not.

Got Mike registered for school yesterday. He met his homeroom teacher. He's heard negative things about her from other kids but I told him not to be so judgmental. My mother was considered a very strict teacher many years ago but she was also a good teacher.

We changed the locks on the doors here at the house yesterday, after I got back from the school. Alesia took her housekey when she left back in June, and we can't take a chance on her bringing some lowlife here to the house. The boyfriend she's living with now refuses to tell me his last name or their address, and she has no cell phone, has to use his. Can you say RED FLAGS?!? Lord have mercy.  That is one of Alesia's biggest issues, trusting the wrong people.

It was so hot last night I couldn't face the thought of cooking, so we had tuna salad, fresh tomatoes, and blueberry muffins for dinner. Mike ate enough tuna salad to choke a mule. I put lots of eggs and spices in it, so it's atypical tuna salad...

Mike is having two of his buddies over for a spend the night Friday and I promised to make lasagna. I am already wondering what the heck I was thinking. Oh yeah - 3 teenaged boys, right. Gotta fill 'em up...

I was looking through sme photos and found this one of Mike, ready for school in August 2008. What a cutie!

Read to Your Kids

Every so often I think Wow, I should mention that on my blog. Then I forget about it. then I try and remember it.

After worrying me half to death because she was out of contact, Alesia came home yesterday afternoon with - a friend I REALLY like! Yay! She's not ideal [she smokes] but this is a nice kid, a very smart kid, and she sets a good example for Alesia, I think. Fingers crossed, prayers said. So now Alesia has a great boyfriend and a nice friend who is in her summer school class with her.

Alesia did some extra chores for me without complaint. Yay!

Prayers ARE answered!

Michael had to take the CRCT, which for those not in the know, is a test they give kids at the end of every school year now, at least here in Georgia. He scored at "meets standard" or "exceeds standard" in EVERY area. Most exciting to me was in Literary Comprehension, he scored 16 out of 16!! A PERFECT score! This from a kid that had awful comprehension a couple of years ago. Of course, to be fair, English was his second language. BUT the takeaway here is:

READ to your kids. Every day.

Michael is now reading on his own, happily, and without me prompting him. I also still read to him every night for 20-30 minutes and he watches the words as I read. You might think since he's almost 15 I shouldn't do it, but I think it's important and he likes hearing me read.

Exactly 4 years ago, Michael didn't speak English. Now he is scoring well on all his academic tests. He Exceeds Standard in English, and is almost there in Science. His lowest grade was social studies and he still scored way above Meets Standards. His grades for the second semester are all A's and B's.

Here's why I started reading to Michael when he was 13.

My mother's friend Caroline was married to an attorney, Keith. Every single day as long as there was a child at home, Keith read to them, at night, after dinner. He was still reading to them when they went off to college. ALL three kids were honors students in high school and college. One now has a master's degree, and I think is getting a Ph.D. Their son is in the diplomatic corps in Washington and just a couple of steps below the Secretary of State.

So let me repeat this in case you didn't get it: READ TO YOUR KIDS.

Every day.

Here endeth the lesson.

1980's Flashback

I had a major college flashback this morning when I took Alesia over to her school to pay her fees for her summer math class. The big difference, though, was that nobody at Georgia Perimeter College sported an addabead necklace or a red shirt of any kind that said Go Dawgs!

Nobody had a big bad perm in their hair.

Since classes were over we only saw a few students, and they were talking on cell phones, not listening to one of these:

So much has changed in the past 25 years...

The bookstore at GPC also isn't the ginormous, department-store sized structure that I loved to browse through when I went to the University of Georgia. It's a really small store, smaller than a Rite Aid or CVS. The ONE book Alesia needed, though, was $142! Used! Yikes.

She better make an A in that math class or I will have a mini-hissy fit right in the middle of campus at high noon while screaming I'M ALESIA'S MOM AND I AM INSANELY PISSED OFF!!

The good news is that instead of 95 degrees with 90% humidity, which is the weather all the time in Athens, except for maybe December and January, it was a brisk 70 degrees when we were walking around campus today.

The rest of the day was almost anti-climactic in comparison.

Alesia and her friend K went to the mall to look for jobs, but before they left Mother and I made Alesia change clothes 3 times. She kept putting on little frilly sundress outfits that didn't look businesslike AT ALL. So far, Alesia has failed to grasp even 5% of the meaning of the phrase "business-like attire."

She got a jury summons in the mail today. I am pondering how to get her out of serving, since she can't miss summer school and still pass...

Michael had a baseball game tonight. His team got the butts beat, 13-1. It was like the Titanic of baseball games, and the coach threw in the towel 15 minutes early, invoking the "mercy rule" which says you just go home after the other team is whipping you by more than 10 points, rather than continue the humiliation. I felt bad for Mike, but he didn't seem too concerned.

At least his team has won a few of their games this spring, unlike the tennis team, which didn't win a single match all spring.

I am preparing to spend a good part of the day cooking tomorrow.

St. Bede's is having a High Tea on Saturday, and I am making Ina Garten's curried chicken salad and putting it in little puff pastry cups, and making a pound cake. I may attempt some shortbread if I am feeling energetic. I already told mom dinner tomorrow night will probably be tuna salad.

Tomorrow is Mike's last day of school. Mother reminded me about teacher gifts and I got them wrapped at 10:18 tonight. He has had a good group of teachers this year and I wanted to send them each a tiny remembrance. It's likely the last year I will fool with it, though.

Tomorrow, typical May weather returns - it's supposed to be close to 90.

Oh, the ginormous plant threatening to take over my garden? It's actually a zucchini. Wow.

Gardening and Studying

Very cool day [high was 70] here, and a quiet day at home. I didn't go anywhere or do anything except some gardening.I have nearly all my tomato seedlings in the ground.

I now have more than a dozen tomato plants, two watermelon plants, two pepper plants, two cucumbers, two spaghetti squash, about 8 onions, and the ginormous parsley bush, plus various herbs [basil, mint, rosemary, chives, sage].

Alesia's friend K took her to her meeting this morning with her school advisor. I was later called in on a conference call with Alesia and her advisor. Alesia made C's in all her classes, and the advisor fussed at her about her poor grades. She started off with A's in all her classes, before meeting "friends" who led her astray.  The good news is, she's still in the Gateway program. The bad news is she has to take math in summer school. She didn't fail math, but she has to finish it before her 21st birthday next summer, so summer school was the only way. That's an 8:00 a.m. class every day for about 7 weeks. It's also not covered by the Gateway scholarship, so the tuition will run me more than $600. I intend to make her pay me back, since she is also working this summer.

Alesia and I got into an argument yesterday and she said "You're always on the computer!"

"Yep, I am looking for a job," I replied.

Looking for a job takes a LOT of time, when you do it right. Composing one cover letter took me almost an hour this morning. I don't do that for every job, just the ones where I think I have a good chance of actually getting hired.

I find it's easier to be patient with her these days, simply because I realize more acutely now that her brain doesn't function correctly. We still got into it yesterday, though. She had mopped floors, then left disgusting mopwater in the sink in the kitchen and Mother's bath.

I know I should be happy she's even willing to do chores. I know several fmailies who don't make kids do chores. I refuse to pay a maid service when I have big healthy kids who can help me clean up around here. You have to instill it early though, is the key.

Today, I know far more about China and Africa than I have ever known before. I spent an hour quizzing Mike about his social studies terms he needs to know. He has high B's in all his classes but that one, and so he really needed to study. The stupid thing is, they took away the books last week. So we had to Google a lot of the terms.

Do YOU know the other identity of Siddhartha Gautama? Neither did I, until I looked it up. He is also known as the guy below. Wish I had his serenity and patience... LOL

Manic Monday Mode

I can remember as a kid hearing my dad say he welcomed Monday so he could get some rest. Even 100 years ago when I was a child, weekends were always too busy.Dad worked in the yard a lot, and we always had beautiful yards. It relaxed him.

He liked to say to me and my brother on Fridays, "Sleep as late as you want!" - then he'd run the lawn mower just outside our windows at 8 a.m. My brother would roll up in the bedsheets like a mummy and ignore the mower. I would leap out of bed, nerves frazzled.

I got Dad back years later, when he was trying to teach me how to drive a stick shift car... [evil chuckle]

So after a really busy weekend I was hoping to get some rest today. Didn't happen.

Lots going on at work, on my breaks. Alesia's school called and reported she missed a class this morning. That upset me greatly.

Then there were issues getting my time from last week input into the computer so I can get paid this week.

Then I had to make Michael a dental appointment because he is having toothaches. I so dread hearing what's wrong - I have no dental coverage at the moment.

I just got through paying for his braces. So of course now there's something else wrong... That horror will be Wednesday morning.

I went to the gas station at lunch to fill up and paid close to $4 a gallon.

I am so glad Osama bin Laden is dead. Good riddance to bad rubbinsh. However, I fear his death is going to turn into a political football in a lot of different ways. I already saw a heated debate on Facebook just amongst some of my friends. I also am quite sure there will be reprisals in some form or another. I would not want to be traveling internationally right now.

Alesia is scared she is going to flunk out of her classes. I told her skipping class is no way to deal with the problem. She has final exams this week. She needs to spend every spare minute studying. She needs to not give up. I told her I nearly flunked out of paralegal school, but I pulled it out and passed by studying feverishly for several days before the exam. I didn't mention that the only reason I nearly flunked out was because I found the classes incredibly boring. Turned out I never needed to know that corportate stuff anyway, since I've always done litigation.

If I had earned money for every hour I spent studying useless crap I'd never use again I would have enough to buy a luxury car.

I came home from work and had to work in the garden, help Mike with his math project, have a long talk with Alesia, and suddenly it was after 7:30 and there was no dinner cooked. We ordered pizza.

So that was my hectic, stressful Monday.

I have an outstanding month ahead, according to my horoscope. Sometimes it's good to be a crab...

If I had the money I'd buy the new Mazda 2 - 35 mpg!