Crazy Thursday's Aftermath - and the iPod

Ahhhhh...Thursday is over! Yes, yes, it is finally Friday. SmallBoy and Girl are off today, LargeBoy is at school, and here I sit at work preparing for a busy day at the office and a quiet night at home. Isn't THAT backwards?!?! Yes, as it turns out, Girl is not squaded for tonight's game. She is going anyway to support the team, but we do not have to go and watch because she won't be playing. WOO HOO! And yes! I DID say a busy day at work! Our CEO, and the co-author of many of our programs, is having a video conference tomorrow with every center that we have nationwide (about 40) to explain how one school system in Pueblo, CO took our program, implemented it in their school and had tremendous success. Today, we set up the office for that. LOTS of work involved. MUCH coolness! And so, I post now while I can because tonight, I'm not going near my computer.

Last night was supposed to be one of our harriest nights of the week. We were prepared for much chaos, but had a plan: go to OT, haul ass over to cub scouts, and then book down the block to Girl's game. I truly believe, that because I stepped back and looked at the big picture (and got us somewhat organized this week), the Schedule Gods had mercy (or pity) on me. SmallBoy's OT was cancelled and, though it was MUCH needed, it helped ease our life just enough to breathe. SmallBoy was able to make it to his scout meeting in time to join in the flag ceremony. Not only did he get to join, but he got to be a line leader in the ceremony. Unfortunately, the picture of that didn't flash too well, but here you can see SmallBoy in his spiffy new Weblos uniform, complete with neckerchief & hat. Believe it or not, he's happy. Can't tell by the look on his face, though.

The flag ceremony was wonderful. He led the boys in, directed them where to go and was SO proud. Then it came time for badges. We missed a meeting about 3 or 4wks ago. Guess which badges were handed out and who didn't get one. Guess who melted. He was sobbing SO hard that I had to take him outside of the meeting to get him to pull out of it, which he did, eventually. Things got going again and the boys broke into groups to play "machine charades". Each den had to choose a machine to act out - not what the machine does, but the actual machine. It was really fun. Our boys were a bulldozer. When the boys were assembling on the floor in front of the stage, SmallBoy got his hand stepped on. Yeah, total meltdown. You'd have thought that someone was cutting his fingers off one at a time. I pulled him aside, calmed him and he pulled out of it and went back to the group, enjoying the rest of the meeting.

I hope that this is truly just the result of the chaos of the last couple of weeks. He's been much more on edge and much easier to break and crumble than is usual for him. I'm going to call J, the fabulous OT and see if we can't get in a makeup session next week, since we'll miss due to Thanksgiving - that would then be 2wks in a row with chaos and no OT.

After that, we boogied over to Girl's game. Thankfully, this one started on time. We were only about 15minutes late. When we arrived, our girls were up 20-1 almost at the half. 20 - 1! HOLY COW! The team we played was not the best, by any stretch of the imagination; it wasn't just a team having an off night, we've played these girls before and experienced the same sort of scoring. It was nice for our girls though, because the starters didn't have to work as hard and the bench got a great deal of playing time. Girl, who LIVES to be on the court or on the diamond or on the field, was actually kind of relieved, too. With as many games as she's played this week, it was nice for her to have some time to just sit. I'm not sure what's up with my camera, all of my pics are dark when I take them out and put them on the computer, and they're pretty decent in the camera...but I regress.

SmallBoy was THRILLED to be able to go to one of her games. Like I said earlier, he and Girl have no school today, so even if the game ran long, it wasn't a big deal, because bedtime was no longer such a key to the night, we could fudge a little if we had to. He took off to go run around the gym and play in the lobby with some of the other kids because, well, that's what they do. As I sat and enjoyed Girl's team crushing the other girls, I heard a yelp coming from the lobby. I was 99.99999% positive that it was SmallBoy, but didn't go rushing out because I want him to handle his own. About 30seconds later, I hear the screaming and the sobbing again, as only a mother can while inside of a noisy gymnasium. When I got to the lobby, I found SmallBoy lying on the floor with another, younger boy, standing over him. SmallBoy was in hysterics, so I calmly asked him what happened and he couldn't calm down enough to tell me. The other boy, said to me, "I can tell you what happened, I slapped him."

My ears not being able to clearly hear over the din of the crowd, I thought this boy said he had "slugged" him. I also know that this young man has some issues of his own and when you put two boys, both with social issues, together, who knows what could happen. I asked, "P, why did this happen?" He replied with a stone face, "I don't know." I let it rest and chose not to talk to P's father about it right then, that I would call his mom today (still don't know how to put this so that she doesn't break - she's right where we all were prior to diagnosis, pulling her hair out trying to understand "what" & "why." Remember that phase?). The final score, btw, was 43-7 - us.

When I was tucking SmallBoy in, brushing him (do any of you do that? SmallBoy LOVES it), and he was nice and calmed, I questioned him about it again. He told me that it was, in fact, a slap, not a slug. I asked him to tell me what was going on prior to the "incident". He said they were running around, but had no clue why P hit him. Well, Duh, MG...of course SOMETHING precipitated this. I wasn't about to call P's mother and say, "your son hit my son for no good reason," that would just be wrong. I'm not certain of all of the details, but Girl and P's sister are both in the drama club after school. Last year, SmallBoy would stay after with her, do his homework and play with P, who also stayed after with his sister. This year, SmallBoy walks home by himself on those days. Apparently, P angrily confronted SmallBoy about this and was resentful that SmallBoy was no longer there for him to play with. I'm clueless as to the happenings prior to the slug, or what words may have been exchanged, but I guess P has been harrassing SmallBoy about this for quite some time and now, finally, had his opportunity to express his misplaced anger by slapping SmallBoy.

My poor little bug. What a night. Tonight, we do nothing. Tonight we hang out as a family - watch movies, play dominoes, eat pizza or something. Nothing else. I'm looking forward to doing nothing, because Saturday and Sunday are both filled with doing lots of stuff, again.

Ahh, the iPod list. So far I have about 70 songs loaded. Here's just a smattering of them, brought to you by Maizey, one of the OCFs, doing her prairie dog stance (isn't this hysterical?!):


Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas
Bad Moon Rising - CCR
(I need "Back in Black" to complete my Supernatural playlist)
Black Crowes
The Ramones
Sugarland
Dixie Chicks
some Janis - what work out would be complete without Janis Joplin?
Cream
Allman Brothers
"SuperModel" (Taylor Dane?)
The Gorillaz
The Offspring
Pearl Jam
Zeppelin
Grateful Dead
Taj Mahal
Jimmy Eat World
Corrine Bailey Rae (or Rae Bailey - "Girl, Put Your Records On")
Code West ("Blue Star Highway" - written and sung by PC - you can hear it here)
and much much more. I really wanted to cut and paste the list out of iTunes for you, but I couldn't. Thanks for your suggestions. Oh yes, "Redneck Woman" IS going in there, but the only recording I have loaded into iTunes right now is with me on vocals and THAT is definitely NOT going in myPod.

Well, kiddos, work is insane today (Wheeeeeee!), so I'd best get back to doing my job. Tonight I will enjoy the lack of something to do, be at, drive to, make, etc. Tomorrow: workout, take LargeBoy Driving, freeze outside with the Scouts and then a gig with the band. Hey if you can make it, click here to find out the details on our myspace.