You know how life sometimes seems to plod along, do what it always does, and then – BAM – things happen that shake everything up? Yeah, that was yesterday. Morning was great; I got work done, took a run, then went to lunch. But when we got home, both Ash and I found we’d missed meetings. His at 1, mine was at 1:15 but I had written down 1:45. On top of that, I got an email from my son’s math teacher about him being rude in class. I HATE to get those because it is clear that the teacher has zero interest in mitigating behavior issues but as far as I am concerned, that is part and parcel of being a teacher. Especially a middle school teacher! I told her that she can punish him in any way she sees fit; send him to the office, give him detention. I don’t care. Don’t schools have these disciplinary measures? I can talk to him all day at home but I cannot hold his hand at school. He’s 13; it’s on him.

Now, I was pretty mad when I heard this because, geez, can’t the kid just keep his mouth shut? But I kept my cool once I saw him, much later in the day after he had soccer tryouts. I simply let him read the email and my replies then I told him it’s all on him. When he got home, he was a perfect angel. I think treating him like he has agency to run his life really helped!

ANYWAY, the evening was nice. Ash and I started watching Cobra Kai season 3 after all the soccer practices but when we went to bed, he was annoyed with me. Which then prompted talking, which is also good since I am awful at initiating talks when I am stressed or worried. But it’s nice to be broken down and rebuilt sometimes.

Today has been very busy: class from 8-9, meeting at 9, meeting from 10-10:30. Now I have one more class at 11:15. I have a parent/teacher conference with my daughter’s teacher later (guess she didn’t do them in the fall like they typically do) and then that is all my obligations for the day. I look forward to being done with those so I can drink some beer. I did not drink the last few days, and that’s a good thing. I have found that during this at-home time (we’re almost to a year, you guys!) having a couple drinks every day became the norm. Reminds me of my grandparents. When I was a kid it sort of surprised me – though I accepted it as all young children tend to do – that both sets of grandparents, at a certain time each afternoon, poured a drink. None of them drank excessively but they all had some kind of liquor drink after 4 pm. (My one grandpa drank beer earlier in the day.) So even though my initial feeling about every day drinking was negative, it has become the semi-norm and I accept it. With, obviously, the caveat that it does not become out of hand. I suppose it could for people who are worse off during this weird time than we are. We are, for now, very comfortable. The only real issue is that we’d like to be back interacting with people face to face for work. One of these days!

OK, class beckons. I leave you with the hope that the sun might actually come out today – it’s been days since I saw it – and I can get rid of this awful weather-related headache. Here’s to a happy humpday!