leave it there
Click to viewLast week Gideon came in from drum lessons looking forlorn. His drum teacher Jeff is leaving Blue Bond and they will only have one more lesson. He was broadsided. He cried and I cried and I tried to explain how sometimes, if you really care about someone, you can be happy for them even when you're sad for yourself. (Jeff is taking a job teaching in the school district.) I don't know if Jeff didn't tell Gid before now because he needed to finalize things, or because he knew he had a lot going on with school, or because he was upset himself, but it doesn't really matter. Jeff is kind and patient and cool and he and Gideon have developed a sort of brotherly rapport, so I think Gideon is much more worried about losing touch than he is about his drumming. I understand. He's been Gideon's teacher since he was 9, so 5 years. Important years. It's sad, but he will be fine.
Gideon has been having a sort of charmed start to high school otherwise. He and his 2 friends from Meredith have had no problems with their 2 bus commute and even get to school early every day to hang out and eat breakfast. A group of girls and some new boys befriended them and they already have a popular crowded lunch table. He's signed up for a creative writing club, the talent show and the battle of the bands, and he auditioned and made it into the school's concert choir. (We have to send in money so he can be fitted for a tux.) He has work at PACK after school two days a week and and just reached out to his old principal and asked if he can assist with the rock band club after school as his community service. I'm so proud of him, it's ridiculous. His school's production this year will be In the Heights and I am SO EXCITED for him to audition. I think he has a great shot at a part even though he's a freshman. We'll see.
Toby is doing really well so far too. Since he's in the split class, he has math in a tiny group with an AMAZING teacher who really really gets him. I reached out to her already to thank her and I could almost cry every time I see her, I am so relieved. I'm starting to think we'll stay put for middle school. He doesn't have the grades or standardized test scores that GAMP middle requires, but I think we could get an audition. While I think it would be amazing for him to have music theory and lessons as part of his every day (and venues to share that part of himself with his peers), I think there's something to be said for leaving him where he is with his friends and the teachers I have relationships with and let him keep his punk musician sensibilities a while longer. I'm not sure.
This morning I walked him and his friend to school and they were talking about bombs and radiation killing people. It was hard to listen to. They absorb so much and the news is absolutely full of things to be terrified of. If world leaders taunting each other into war wasn't terrifying enough, there's one history-making natural disaster after another after another...
My dad was in the hospital most of last week. They thought he had pneumonia but it was his heart. He's on new meds and they are changing his chemo schedule. Sometimes I think I've lost the ability to react to scary medical news, but then I think that's ok because my mom seems to just routinely expect me to talk her down from her hysteria. Her youngest brother died last month and though he'd had heart problems in the past, it shocked everyone. My dad couldn't go to the funeral and I stayed here with him. My nephew took my mom and though I knew there would be an outpouring of emotions, my aunt fainted and my mom came back really shaken... and then my Dad was hospitalized. So, justified hysteria, really.
Tomorrow a contractor is coming to talk about new bathroom and roof deck. I'm nervous, but excited to hear what he says. The boys are off Thursday and Friday for Rosh Hoshanah, which is nice because this week already felt long. I'm getting over a cold I shared with Mat.
I want to go see IT. We started Black Mirror and man, it is dark, but thought provoking. I finished my Stranger Things dolls and now I have to photograph (and make Ghostbusters costumes for) them. Sometimes I make fun into work. That's ok though.
In actually exciting news, we FINALLY got Natasha to properly bury her eggs this spring by redoing the tortoise yard and though she didn't get the whole clutch safely in the ground, it turned out that one egg was good and just hatched. Mat took the eggs to an incubator at work so I started to text him daily to check the egg. He candled it and kept checking in but was *positive* it wouldn't hatch. So much so, that when it did, he just saw the shell and thought it exploded, totally overlooking the baby at first. I'm keeping him(her?) in a tank in the studio because he's much too little to be in the yard and the big'uns are already starting to slow down to go into hibernation. I'll keep him awake this year for sure. He's a tiny delight, only about 2 inches wide and already eating and basking and burying himself at night.
There's always wonder in the world if you look for it. <3