Useless Blogging

I find myself in Allentown once more.  It is the second time in just over a month.

This past week, Emma was out at a camp, so Julie took the time of half-the-kids and went a little crazy with the paint.  I joined in the fun as well, and now Sara has a fresh bedroom (pink/yellow), Emma has a fresh bathroom (blue) and we all can share a fresh living room (brown). 

Today I took off from work so we could trek up here to Allentown early: this allowed Julie to go out with her father and brother to the DCI’s, a national drum corp competition.  Sara, Sighgus, and I are back at the house.  Thus far we’ve watched some TV, played some DS games, and taught ourselves to play Frere Jacques on the piano (I CAN STILL READ MUSIC… STUNNER!).  Not a bad night.

Tomorrow, we watch Emma’s big show and take her home.  No idea what next week will bring with it.  With luck, a nap.

Another enrollment season is upon me at work; once again, we opened our doors to the students of the Year Not Yet, and with minor exceptions, things went off exceedingly well. We’ve still five more programs to open — two tomorrow — and one more that is coming “at some point”, but we’re out of the thick of things.

I’m trying to progress as a boss. That’s probably where I should stop; I can’t think of anything to say (positive or otherwise) that won’t potentially land me in hot water. Just know that I’m trying to do better.

Home life has been interesting since the Bad Weekend below. Many things have turned around, and I’m finding myself having a renewed sense of purpose thanks to my family (even if work has precluded me from seeing them a whole lot lately). I love my wife and kids, and am extremely grateful for the strength they offer me day in and day out.

There’s more on my mind, but it’s got a different theme, so more to come.

For the record, being stuck inside my house this weekend has been hell.

Within three days of each other, my grandfather has a birthday and my parents have their wedding anniversary. This week is always something else, something special. I never feel like there’s enough I can do to commemorate this week. Any interesting suggestions?

For those keeping score, my eldest daughter has been allowed to live to the ripe old age of ten, as of today. A spa day, a Snuggie, and a cell phone were hallmarks of the day. (Yes, she has her own phone now, lojacked up, of course.)

So to my daughter, upon reaching the turning point of our base 10 numerical system, I wish you a happy birthday, and another awesome year.
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I think I lived a fairly normal childhood. While I had a propensity for remaining indoors to play, I also did bowling and baseball for as long as I can remember. I had very few neighborhood friends, owing primarily to the makeup of the neighborhood by the time my parents finally got around to having me, I think, but that didn’t seem to inhibit my social growth (at least, not in my eyes then, nor upon reflection tonight).

I think that’s what makes Emma’s struggles so baffling to me. I’ve been as keen as I can be to offer her every opportunity I had and then some, and still something seems off. Some of it, I know, is her. I won’t deny THAT bit. There always seems, though, like there’s something amiss with the rest of the world as well. Emma, given to drama as she can be, often thinks the world is out to get her, and the more time wears on, the more I think it’s not just all in her head.

I can’t remember — ever — fighting with my friends (at least, not the people I called “friends”; there are some folks that were more than passing acquaintances that made it onto my pre-teen list). I certainly don’t remember having repeated disagreements that led to repeated dissolutions of the same friendship, over and over again. Is this a function of female-to-female friendships? Just Emma? Did everyone else go through this growing up? Am I just quirky (or AWESOME?) enough that I sat in the middle of my web, immune to this common issue? Seriously, I want to know. As it stands, I watch my daughter struggle to keep even one friend, and I worry, because I completely lack a base from which to operate here, and I don’t know if it’s because I had a charmed life or if it’s because Emma’s is particularly uncharmed.

There are myriad ways I’m a lousy father. I do my best, but I know I fall short. Providence has landed me in the arms of a great woman who is both able and willing to pick up my copious slack in that department.

One way I know I miss the mark is believing my older daughter. She never made it particularly easy with her penchant to exaggerate, just as I know that my fondness for teachers and a general belief in their absolute desire to do what’s best for the children in their care exceeds realistic levels. I kept telling Emma — and myself — that it couldn’t ever be as bad as she describes it. I don’t know what clicked, in her and in me, but something did, and I’m grateful.

To that end, today is my daughters’ last day at Middle River Baptist Child Development Center. I’ve watched this daycare:

• Let my five year old autistic daughter run a quarter mile home
• Lose my daughters’ things and try to blame them, changing their story no less than three times in the process
• Have its teachers set my older daughter up for ridicule and embarassment
• Send writeups home bearing witness to the bad behavior of my older daughter, only to learn that none of the people who signed as a witness actually saw my daughter do any of the things they described
• Break their OWN policy in informing the parents that ringworm was discovered in one of their kids, and not see an ounce of apology in the letter that finally did come home

There’s certainly more, ranging from ‘things that got on my nerves’ to ‘why are you a teacher again?’, but I feel that’s a decent bullet point list.

I’m sorry that I didn’t believe my daughter more the first time through, and I’m sorry that my inaction caused her grief. (And if you’re reading, MRBCDC, that is an apology. Not apologizing for how people feel, but rather apologizing for the actions that were in the wrong.) I’ll be working to make it better.

Two child-related events of note happened yesterday:

Emma wrote a song entitled “Sunset”. Unlike most songs she writes, it is not a rehash of some existing song with silly lyrics; this one is actually about liking sunsets. Her music teacher apparently liked it so much that she’d like to have the class perform it at the spring concert toward the end of the year. Buy your tickets now.

Yesterday, around 2:30PM, Sara proved that she’s a growing girl yet again, this time marking the occasion by losing her first tooth (a lower incisor).

Pictures to follow, I hope. Congratulations to both of my girls!

So everyone on Facebook has been managing a full 25, even if it took days to accumulate the full amount. This has successfully guilted me into rounding out this damn list.

1. I had two of my elementary school teachers at my wedding.
2. The teachers mentioned above chipped in and bought me the microwave for my dorm room after high school graduation. That microwave is right behind me, still functional, as I type this.
3. I failed one quarter of one course in all of my education: third quarter AP Calculus, mostly because I didn’t like doing the homework.
4. If I could pick my career, I think I’d still like to teach, preferably at the undergrad level.
5. I used to be a kick-ass Magic: The Gathering player, having placed tenth in a two-state tournament in Germany at one time (eighth and higher went to German nationals, so I barely missed the cut). I still think I could do pretty well, but you’d have to give me the deck. Creation was not my forte.
6. Favorite movie: Hudson Hawk.
7. Favorite game: Uno.
8. I’m organizing a company volleyball team.
9. Despite being a trash-brained trivia whiz, I actually read very little, bookwise, at least. I read most everything that’s not a book, though, like the backs of cereal boxes.
10. I couldn’t tell you how much money I make in a given paycheck.
11. One Defining Moment: In high school, I was rehearsing for a play (Of Mice And Men), and my acting was pretty flat. My director asked me what it was my character wanted at that moment, and I failed to produce an answer. He LAID INTO ME, telling me that if I didn’t know what the character wanted, I should get off the damn stage. Yeah. That had an impact I still feel.
12. In tenth grade, I organized a reunion of sorts for my fifth grade elementary class at Emily Liadakis’ house.
13. Twice (in fifth grade and in twelfth grade) I played the role of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’m fairly certain that the director in high school did AMND solely because I wanted him to.
14. My Facebook friend collection contains ex-girlfriends and girls on whom I have had crushes. This is mildly awkward, even now.
15. The semester my first daughter was born (yes, I was in college, if you didn’t know) was the only semester in which I made Dean’s List.
16. I always thought I made a better techie than an actor. As much as I like being in front of people, My vision of lights and sets is far clearer than anything I’ve tried to put together for a role.
17. I proposed to my wife about two weeks after our first date. She said yes. We did the proposal again six months later for two reasons: our friends said we needed to wait, and we needed a ring.
18. I have a Brown Sr. belt in Taekwando. I started three years ago.
19. I bought clothes at a retail store once in the past… three years or so. That one time, I bought shirts off the clearance rack, getting $26 shirts for $4. I normally buy clothes at Goodwill.
20. I can fix computers by merely being in the same proximity.
21. In high school, I was active on about a dozen BBSes and less-than-active on a couple dozen more. This is what the cheap kids did in the time when you paid for AOL by the minute.
22. I want to live near and/or on the water, but am relatively ambivalent toward swimming.
23. I want a boat, in a bad way. We ALMOST bought a boat at the end of last summer, but the math just wouldn’t work out well enough to keep everyone comfortable.
24. I like redheads, but have never dated one. I have however dyed my own hair red on a few occasions.
25. I have two shirts that say “STAFF” in large letters on the back. One is from working a Fuel concert in college. The other is from working a cheerleading tournament. The Fuel concert was easier.

The game is almost over, and only one ad has made Julie almost fall over with laughter: a Monster.com ad prominently featuring a moose.

That is all.