General – Page 175

My Artist, the Senior

Breeder's Corner, Geek Wannabe, General Comments Off

Sep 162008

I’ve mentioned before that my oldest son has really become more aware and responsible in the last year or so. As an example, when Hanna was expected to make a showing, I had him help me carry the heavier lawn furniture into the back yard shed. We got most of it in, but then I was stumped about how to fit the big rocker chair in with everything else.

A few years ago, The Artist would have been wandering around the yard, waiting for me to figure it out and call him back to help. Now, he was paying attention to what we were doing so he could help as much as possible without being instructed. When I said I thought we’d have to leave the rocker on the porch after all, he suggested “We could stand it on end.” We stood it on end, and were able to get it into the shed.

Last year he got held back in the 11th grade, due to poor performance in a couple of classes. Over the summer he re-took the 11th grade English class (and got an A). He started this high school year as a junior, but he noticed—he noticed—that he was taking 12th grade English and Algebra. And he took the initiative in finding out why he was in the 11th grade if he was taking 12th grade classes, finding out that he was only lacking one course to be a senior, and arranging to take that course online this semester so that he can be classified as a senior and graduate next spring. By the time I found out about it, it was already taken care of.

I can’t begin to express how tickled I am that he’s taking charge like this. It’s going to be so exciting to see what he decides to do with his life.

I’m Not Like the Other Wives

Geek Wannabe, General Comments Off

Sep 112008

The Alpha Geek just e-mailed me that he’s going up to Philadelphia later this month. He’ll be gone about a week.

Some time later, it occurred to me that my reply probably falls outside the usual sort of thing a wife will say when her husband is leaving town for a week:

“If you go by the Mütter, see if they have any fetus-on-a-keychains at the gift shop.”

Disturbia

Geek Wannabe, General Comments Off

Sep 092008

Some random glimpses of turmoil, in varying degrees of force and locality:

Hanna’s been and gone. She breezed through like the party-girl friend you had in college: everyone got all excited when they heard she was coming, we made a lot of plans and preparations, she staggered in during the wee hours of the morning, blew around at random having a good time and making a mess, and then she was gone and we were left with the cleanup. There were some areas flooded, some without power, and one small community whose only road in or out got washed away. But mostly we’re fine. In my neighborhood we never lost power and didn’t even get a lot of branches down.

Meanwhile, her rowdier brother Ike is looking to crash on Texas or New Orleans’ couch this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for folks like LawDog and Ambulance Driver, who may be stuck with this unwelcome visitor.

I’m not a big fan of getting older, but I’ll definitely be glad when I don’t have a period any more. Damn thing is getting to be a right vicious bitch. I spent most of Sunday on the couch, feeling like someone had been using my abdomen as a punching bag. I’m beginning to wonder if my uterus isn’t tearing itself loose a piece at a time, a theory supported by the thumb-sized clots I passed in the shower this morning. Seriously, the place looked like an abattoir. Fortunately my menstrual Niagra is generally short-lived; two or three days of misery and then it’s gone. Like everything else I do, I go overboard.

The Artist has achieved his learner’s permit. This means that any time we go anywhere, he leaps to the door with an eager, “Can I drive?”

So far I have left his driving practice in the capable hands of my husband, the Alpha Geek. AG has a lot more patience than I do (for example, he’s married to me), and is better at teaching people—I’ve often thought he would make a good college instructor. I don’t have any skill at teaching people anything, particularly The Artist. I think something in our personalities is too much alike, and whenever I try to instruct him we just wind up frustrated with each other.

So far he’s only been driving AG’s car. I figure he’ll start driving mine after he’s had a little more practice. Say, twenty years. Have I mentioned how much I love my car?

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