So on all the news showing my joint under 98 feet of water...there's this one guy standing in front of his house, with his lakefront property, which was not lake front yesterday and in fact the lake is more in his house than in front of his house, in an area that until just recently was totally snowed in, and he tells the news guy, "Yeah, we moved out here from Wisconsin to get away from the harsh winters." And, I swear to shit, the news guy says, "How's that working out for you?" Nice!
On the positive, True is enjoying her second day off from school, my first. We had school yesterday, but they started sending kids home early in hard hit areas. Here's the weird part of my day...you remember the psycho parent who hates me? She wanted to sit next to her daughter during our test yesterday so the kid wouldn't be "intimidated." What the hell ever lady. We talked a while after, and this morning, I got cc'd on an email to my Asst. Superintendent and my principal. It is 2 pages of how great a teacher I am, calls me awesome three times, and it ends with, "I wish I had gone in earlier to observe." Now, most people would go, "Oh thank goodness that is resolved." But I gotta tell ya, this makes me so nervous I am actually going to check for a car bomb before I drive today! Tune in next time when she tries to get me fired again.
Before that sounds like I am being treated unfairly...let's see if maybe I am due for a karmic slapping around. Last night, my poor girl rolled over in bed and told me she was going to start crying because of her dream. In a half-asleep mumble, she told me of dreaming about a little boy who ran away from home on an icicle (though I think an ice floe was what she was thinking of) and his family missed him so much. I said maybe he was just going to have an adventure and would come back soon and she says, "No, he was running away to the sea." in the most tragic voice you have ever heard. And quietly started crying, AS SHE FELL BACK ASLEEP! Barring real tragedy, it was the saddest thing to have transpired ever. Later in the night, she made this one whimper noise, like she may have been crying in her dream. I didn't sleep much, as is usual, but instead of getting up and entertaining myself, I just squeezed her all night. What can this spritelike, joyful, rambunctious, bright girl be so sad about? I am hoping against hope it's just her very deep concern for others. She's always been hyper-sensitive to everyone being happy and it hits her pretty hard when they aren't. But I don't want her dwelling on unhappiness. I want the sunshine and rainbows and unicorns thing in her head all the time! I want her darkness to be filled with mystery and wonder, not dread and threat. The reason this weighs so heavily on my mind, outside of the obvious, is that you should be able to hear her right now. She is playing with the Petshop toy she got for Christmas, and all the little animals have cutesy names and they are all playing together and she's quite honestly cracking herself up as she plays. She has incorporated the real cat into her bobble-head cat's family, much to the real cat's disapproval. It is a scene from a misty-eyed childhood nostalgia memory in there. So why are her dreams so dark? Which leads naturally to the question, What have I done wrong? Hence, the psycho parent retribution. Nice. Hey, speaking of higher powers, I'm reading a book right now, by Terry Pratchett, of funny fantasy fame...great gods, this amazing author, who's very identity is wrapped up in his spinning tales from his imagination, has been diagnosed with early onset dementia. That falls in the category of real tragedy I mentioned earlier. Imagine watching that come at you. Jesus! Anyway, it's called Nation, and it has a whole slant on religion that I've really been struggling with. The whole Red Pill/Green Pill thing, would you rather know the truth, even though you will be miserable, or be happy with a cozy lie that there is a benign god cupping you in his hand? It reminded me of one of my favorite books, "Life of Pi." If you haven't read it, stop whatever else you are doing and go read it now. Then, tell me at the end if you think A or B was true. I'm dying to know what you all think. If you've read it already, please talk to me about it!
