Another New Beginning

Today is the first day of school.


I can't believe MonkeyDo is starting junior high. Due to paperwork snafus, she is not starting at our School of Choice and I am not happy about that. I know all schools have their good and bad points, but I really do not like this school. I've heard very few good things about it and the feeling I got when we picked up her schedule was that it was a sad, sad little school. Supposedly they should be able to move her within a couple of weeks, so hopefully this is temporary.

MonkeySee started his Junior year today. Halfway through high school and time to get serious. Junior Prom, driving and college are all closer than they appear. I kind of can't wait to see him in a tuxedo.

Maybe I should put a donation button in my blog's sidebar? Oy.


Rock starts. I'm raising them.

Time Keeps on Ticking

One week from today is the start of a brand spanky new school year.




I'm not sure I'm ready to give the Monkeys up, yet.

Family Portrait Outtakes

Join the Impact - Sacramento - Photos

Photos from yesterday's Join the Impact protest are available here.

Photos from last Sunday's protest rally are available here.

I did want to share something interesting, in particular.

Last Sunday:


This Saturday:

OK, OK, totally not the same kid. But, wow, it was like looking into the future.

Maybe He's Born with It..

Don't tell him it's called this, but I've talked MonkeySee into trying the Curly Girl Method of hair care. I'm hoping it'll help him look a little less like he stuck his tongue in a light socket and then hit it with some hair spray. Hopefully this will help with the frizzies, flyaways and frizz-related volume.

Next up: Fashion sense!

Because the orange on orange (on orange, if you're counting hair) outfits have got to go.

Thirteen Months

July 2008 June 2007

You know, the older they get, the less they look like their dad's kids. Is it terribly wrong that I enjoy that?

Play Review

Because I haven't mentioned this:

The play was great. Usually when it's a mixed bag of skits at the school level, it can be kind of dicey. All the kids did awesome, though, and it was funny and fun.

If I'd known their punk ass little bitch of a father wasn't going to bother remembering (not that I reminded him or anything), then I'd have told elphie to come on out and break MonkeySee's leg herself.

Oh, well.

The kids had a great time and spent lots of time chatting with grandparents.

Everyone got to stay for the cast party and I scored a cupcake as big as my head. It's in the fridge now. I plan on quartering it and using it for dessert. Eventually.

I have no pictures because it was too dark in the theatre.

Apparently, I'll be emailing his drama teacher to find out how to get copies of the DVD. Because asking MonkeySee to ask does not seem to be working.

On Witches and Pixies

Courtesy of elphie, MonkeyDo, elphie, MonkeySee:Also courtesy of elphie, MonkeyDo's "talent":
Most of the assembled birthday party:
To find out who everyone is, you can click here and read the notes.

For SweetPea's birthday party, we closed down Mr. Pickle's. As an added bonus, elphie came out to party with us. The Monkeys were over the moon and proceeded to ignore everyone else and spend the entirety of the party talking over each other to elphie. In fact, I don't believe the MonkeyDo shut up the entire time. It's ok, though. They've missed her, and it's been a long year and a lot has happened.

And look at Neighbor sitting there next to Opah. She looks so tiny! To prove Opah isn't some sort of giant, here's a snap of Opah and SweetPea from her birthday party a couple of years ago:

You can surmise what you will from that about the size of Neighbor. But I will say that she gets her shoes from the boy's department.

Books on Their Heads

I would like to point out the following:

April 26, 2007:

May 2, 2008:

May 2, 2008:

By the way, I had my camera out this morning and took some pictures. I may be doing more of that this weekend. We'll see.

PS:

WineDog, to answer your algebra question, it appears Monkey See may just not be mathematically inclined.

"It doesn't make any sense to me. If you take the percentage for one-third and multiply it by three, you get .999, but the calculator says 1. But that's not correct."

Monkey See is, however, appearing to be very summer school inclined.

Third Quarter - Monkey See's Grades

Japanese B
PE A-
Science B-
Algebra D+
English B-
History B-
Community Service F (pass/fail - did not complete enough hours)

Which Cracker Jacks box was that in?

Why does the school drop-off always have to be such an adventure? I find it hard to believe that all the crazy people/idiot drivers out there happen to have kids that go to the same schools as mine. So what gives?

I drop my son off at school in the morning, and, because we're both compulsive about time, I drop him off earlier than I'm "supposed to", but not so early that there aren't plenty of kids and staff milling about. Because I drop him off so early, there's hardly ever any other traffic to deal with, and there are usually only two, maybe three, other cars in the drop-off area.

My son's school is addressed on a little four-lane "main" road, but to drop kids off, you have to turn on to a residential street. It is a traffic joy, let me tell you, and backs up quite a bit. Some parents don't have the patience to sit through all the traffic to turn down the little residential street and drop their kids off in the drop off area.

So they make illegal u-turns on the four-lane road and drop their kids off along the road there.

OK, so the kids are in junior high, and it's really not a big deal that they're not getting dropped off "at the door". But, you know, some of these parents are not so much suave with the illegal u-turn making.

On Tuesday, we were late with the drop off due to last minute project completion. After I make the drop off, I turn back up the four-lane road into what is the "illegal u-turn area". I'm cruising up the road and I have to dodge someone in the left-hand lane who is waiting to "turn left", only we all know what he really is trying to do is make another illegal u-turn so he can go the other way up the road. I dodge into the right hand lane behind a minivan that promptly has to all but slam on its breaks to avoid the Suburban that has decided to make an illegal u-turn in front of oncoming traffic.

Nice.

When I gave her the dirty look stare as I passed by, she had her hands in her hair and this expression that was like "ohmygawd! that was soooo scary!" and I came very very close to pulling over so that I could walk back to her stupid little driver door and yell at her for being a twit and for putting our lives at risk by being a moron and that maybe she shouldn't drive if she had no damn common sense.

And then yesterday we are sitting at the last stop light before the school stop light. It's two four-lane roads. I'm in the left hand lane (because my next turn is a left turn, so I need this lane), and our light turns green. There is a person coming up the road into the right lane who does not need to slow down or stop because the light is now green.

Except that the person in the intersection on the right-hand side of us has, for some reason, inexplicably decided it must be her turn and started to go. Totally randomly. For no apparent rational reason. She climbs her fool ass completely into the intersection before the rapidly approaching oncoming cars make her realise something must be amiss and stop. The car in the right hand land, which she is now completely blocking, slams on his brakes and comes within inches of her door before stopping. At this point, the ditz in the Honda finally starts to back up a bit and get out of the lane.

And I know that might be totally unrelated because she was not trying to get to my son's school but ohmygod! Are you serious? People are freaking nuts.

All of this has been in the rain, no less! Which makes me believe that what Christine said was correct... She said that there is a special kind of driver's license that allows the person to only drive on their birthday or when it's raining. So, of course, when they do get to drive, they act like crazy people because they're just so excited.

The last couple of days have shown that, clearly, she must be right!

but it's always strep...

All quiet on the western front?

I spent the morning working on the new layout and colors... I really wish that the computer was up to full speed again so that I could create more mastheads. Then again, it's not like I really have time for all of that, what with Christmas coming and all.

Monkey See is home today sick. His immune system is fairly like mine. He gets very mildly sick, but usually not enough to really warrant a stay home day. Today he's pretty bad. Fever, sore, scratchy throat. If it's this bad for him, the rest of us are doomed! I've been feeling off-kilter for a while now, so I'm hoping it doesn't get worse for me.

Here's hoping it's not strep!

I emailed his teachers to get his assignments and got prompt responses. Of course, it took me about 15 minutes to figure out that was because school was already out! I really do enjoy school in the digital age, because it's so much easier to just fire off an email. I really don't have the time for phone calls or visits to the school. Email is quick & easy and I can ask questions and keep up on assignments and grades with ease. Some of his teachers use online grade/assignment tracking websites. One of them emails home a weekly progress report.

I love this!

Now I'm going to grab a blanket and catch a catnap before it's time to pick up Monkey Do.

A Chameleon's Spots Never Change

Because Monkey See is in the IBMYP, he goes to a different school than the one he would be going to normally. The normal school is relatively just down the road and a short bus ride away (it's also right next to the high school that he would normally be going to). The school he is going to is about a 15 to 20 minute drive (depending on traffic) and would take three buses and some walking.

So every morning he gets a ride to school.

On the way to school we pass an elementary school. If we've timed our arrival correctly, then the high school kids will have started gathering in front of the elementary school for their school bus. Usually when we pass by there's about five to ten kids waiting.

These kids totally make my morning.

It's been 14 years since I graduated high school, but these kids look like they walked directly out of my freshman and sophomore years. They resemble so closely the kids I knew, the kids I was friends with that I could totally point them out and name them.

It kind of makes me wonder if high school kids ever change, or if we've come around again to the way things were when I was in school.

Not the cool kids, of course. I know that's probably light years different from when I was in school. But I never really hung out with the cool kids, so that's ok.

I'm talking about the "real" kids. The geeks, the drama nerds, the band geeks, the intellectuals. The outcasts. The fringe element. Where I belonged. And didn't.

I've never really felt like I "belonged" anywhere. Sure, I "fit in" lots of places, and was accepted and had fun and that was all well and good. But, at the end of the day, whatever it was wasn't "mine" the way it was anyone else's.

I still feel that way. Like a chameleon with no home. It's odd. It can be disconcerting.

It's a lot like always being the new kid in school, no matter how many first days you've had.

Red Ribbon Week - Creating Tomorrow's Parrots Today!

Last night on the way home from Wednesday Night Pizza, both Monkeys rode with me. We were almost home before Monkey See commented that something smells. On further inquiry, he declared that it smelled kind of like a skunk.

Ah.

So I explained to the Monkeys that it could be a skunk, or it could be pot, because pot smells kind of like skunk. In stereo I get:

"What's pot?"

Um… you know… Marijuana?

You could hear the blank stares.

Wait just a minute, I demand. Didn't y'all just have Red Ribbon Week? Didn't they tell you anything about the drugs you're supposed to be saying no to?

"Nope," pipes up Monkey Do. "They just tell us to 'Just say NO! to Drugs."

"They just tell us to wear the ribbon and decorate our lockers," adds Monkey See.

Am I the only one who sees the problem with this? If kids don't know what drugs are, what they look like, what they act like, what happens when you take them and why you shouldn't… How are they supposed to make the kind of informed, intelligent decisions that keep kids strong in the face of peer pressure? How are they supposed to know that the cigarette their buddy is handing them isn't just the nicotine that their mother swore she'd smack them for trying but actual DRUGS!

And how the freaking hell are they supposed to know that the little square of paper isn't a tongue tattoo and that it's not going to be the kind of fun they're expecting?

When did we stop trusting our kids to make intelligent decisions based on good information and their moral base (whatever that may be)? Why are we teaching them things that are potentially life-altering choices by rote and expecting them to parrot that back to us?

Being able to recite the "just say no" litany isn't going to help them when they hit junior high and high school. Peer pressure isn't dumb. Peer pressure went to the same schools and sat through the same red ribbon weeks. Peer pressure is going to figure out the sales pitch:

"But it's not drugs, Monkey Do, they're just mushrooms. Your mom wouldn't mind if you had mushrooms, would she?"

Being prepared is for sissies.

What happened to buying school supplies before the school year starts? I remember that it seemed like back to school shopping came so early in the summer time, before I was really ready to be reminded that I'd have to return soon.

Back to school shopping meant buying a load of new clothes, and tons of school supplies. Before the first day of school.

My daughter started third grade today, and my son started seventh (junior high!). Our elementary school sends out a small packet with your child's teacher's name, some information sheets, and a supplies list for school. The problem is that the information invariably arrives within about ten days of the start of school. Ten days? Really?

Not only does this not provide any real time for shopping, particularly for working families, but, also, this plants the time the list is received and the time school starts smack between paychecks for most families.

I know that in some neighborhoods this may not be a big deal. However, our school is filled with mostly working and lower-middle class families. The kind of families where money is spent shortly after receipt. The kind where all the grown folk living in the household leave to work each day.

My son's school never did send home a list of supplies before the school year started. Sure, there were the obvious things, like a lock for the locker, some means of taking notes and keeping papers. But there was no specific list. I thought that must mean that they're trusting the kids to know what they need to do to keep everything together.

Apparently, I was wrong.

My son came home from his first day of school with a note from each teacher, each of them detailing supplies.

And, what, I should run out right now and pick these all up? What about the shopping I did before the first day of school?

Am I to infer that being prepared counts for nothing?

Oops. Probably not what they meant by that.

Fortunately for us, some of the things are already taken care of. We had either already thought of that, or had it on hand (I have this issue with buying school supplies. I really like school supplies.). The rest of it he's just going to have to live without until the weekend. It's mainly just a few little things. I should be able to get them reasonably priced and from one store. I just will not have the time or energy to take care of going there and doing that until the weekend.

My point, though, really, is that it would be very nice if we parents could get more of a heads up when specific supplies are needed for back to school. I found out from the elementary school secretary that it's mostly the same list from year to year. In fact, my daughter's third grade supply list had the same error on it as her brother's third grade supply list (a red highlighter? Really?). So why can't they send that home on the last day of school with the report card, and then again with the teacher list before school? That would be super for those of us who believe in shopping early and shopping often.

As for my son's school... I'm pretty sure those teachers have been teaching these classes long enough that they just use the same list, too. Except for Japanese. Which I believe is new to the school.

Seriously. I know schools and districts have all sorts of things that happen over summer that can change things... But I really don't think it's too much to ask to give us at least a full month's notice on school supplies.

Since, clearly, it's too much to ask for the school to supply them for us (thanks, no child left behind. I adore having to supply tissue for the my kid's classroom for the year. That's awesome!).