Dear School Administrator:

I do not know what posessed you to rearrange the lunch schedule this year so that first graders eat lunch at 12:55 pm. If I thought you even HAD a reason other than the crazy control thing you seem to have going on. And we know lots about control games at our house. Just sayin.

You couldn't have designed a day more difficult for my child. If you had been purposely making scheduling decisions to make her life more difficult, I don't think you could have done it. And I have it on good authority, it is exceedingly difficult for MOST first graders to live this schedule. Not just mine.

You expect my six year old to function in a classroom setting between 8:20 and 12:30. Do you know how LONG that is to a first grader? To focus on work most of that time? The kids are fried way before recess hits.

Recess. Recess is before lunch. This does not work. Jupiter finally gets to run about freely, but by then she needs it so badly she can't control it. And by then she is also hungry. Hunger is not something that ecourages in any way Jupiter making a good decision. She can't. She's spinning and can't stop to make a decision period. Good or bad. Impulse takes over.

So next week, your new plan is to have Jupiter STOP playing twice during the recess time, to check in with the recess teacher to make sure she's making good choices. This is not a good plan. First of all, Jupiter will have no concept of how much time is passing. She won't know how much of recess has passed until the whistle blows to end it. So I don't see her being able to think "Well, 10 minutes of recess have gone by. I should go check with the teacher now." And furthermore, you want her to transition from playing to not playing to playing to not playing to playing. HAHAHA. If she were that able to handle transitions, I would spend a lot less time trying to MINIMIZE transitions.

So after recess, you want her to transition to lunch. See above about transitions. She is supposed to stop playing, walk calmly into the lunch room, sit down calmly and eat. In a big, noisy smelly room which has already been decimated by three previous grades having lunch. Jupiter says she chose her lunchroom seat at the table by the fact that she could put her feet on the bar part of the table leg so she won't have to put her feet on the dirty floor. She can't eat then. She's still mentally at recess. Please note, last year she had lunch at 10:55 and recess after lunch. She didn't have as many problems at lunch OR recess all of last year as she has had so far this year.

So, after completing 16 days of school, my child has actually EATEN lunch three times. One time was last week, after her punishment for fooling around at lunch was eating in the classroom alone with her teacher. One other time, she actually ate her lunch at snack time. So, I guess she's eaten lunch once this whole year.

Then after lunch. An hour and a half left of school, and the kids are so drained from the first three quarters of it that they have no interest being back in the classroom. At all.

So, Mr. Control Freak Administrator, was that what you were going for?

School is just around the corner

We just got our first letter about school next year. 1st grade.

1st grade lunch is scheduled to occur at 12:55. PM.

Are they out of their little freakin minds??????? Well, I suspect I know where this scheduling idea came from. Some people with a doctoral degree obviously have never worked with actual children.

12:55. Right. Like that's going to work. Last year, in kindergarten, lunch was at 10:55. They want to move it up by TWO HOURS.

When Jupiter doesn't eat when she needs too, a character called Mean Bear starts growling. Sometimes Mean Bear doesn't realize that she's hungry and needs to eat something. Preferably a protein source.

Jupiter is picky about her protein sources. Much to my dismay, they pretty much consist of peanut butter crackers, and Chef BRD Ravioli. I would send peanut butter crackers for Jupiter's mid morning snack, but this year she is in a peanut free classroom. I told her that she could just eat her ravioli for snack in the classroom. It's easier for her to eat in the classroom than the lunch room anyway. And I don't know if they make a thermos powerful enough to keep chef B raviolis hot all the way from 7:30am to 1pm.

1pm. This should be fun.

Maine Destination of the Day

Eartha, the giant globe

Delorme Map Store, Yarmouth, Maine

Jupiter really did like the globe, she just feels she is too grown up to pose for photos now.

Summer Vacation Pics

Kettle Cove, Cape Elizabeth ME

Jupiter at Kettle Cove

Jupiter in Central Park

Giant Wall Mural at Grand Central Station. Made entirely of Post it Notes.

Portrait at Grand Central Station. Made entirely of push pins.

Summer Pictures

Metro North Train to NYC

Summer Horse Show at Therapeutic Riding

Feeding mini horse

Tough day body surfing at Pine Pt Beach

Stayed up late watching movie.

Vacation

I love vacation. If I were to win the lottery, I would take great pleasure in calling work and informing them that I am not. coming. back. I do not miss work in the slightest.

I can't believe it's the first week of August already. School starts a month from tomorrow. What's up with that???

Getting full nights of sleep is great. We're both more regulated. Jupiter even managed to regulate herself extraordinarily well when we went to NYC last week for a couple of days. Of course that was countered with days both before we left and after we returned during which I was kicked and spit on. Today we went to the water park which is one of her favorite things in life. She was brave and tried out water slides where I couldn't actually be holding on to her. Then I couldn't get her off them, but had to drag her out of the pool to go to therapeutic riding. Jupiter has progressed to riding off lead. Her lesson went well, even though Mean Bear was starting to growl by the time we got home. We fed Mean Bear, brushed her teeth, and read half a chapter book because we knew she was tired. After 20 minutes of music, Jupiter wanted me to lay down with her until she fell asleep.

Jupiter also wants to paint her room. I've been pricing low VOC paint. Yikes. Of course the paint store had a one day only 40 percent off coupon while we were gone on vacation. I missed it. Of course I did.

Six more days. I'm doing my best to slow down time.

New Job again

So, a couple weeks ago I started a new job. Same bank..different department. A department I thought would be more in keeping with my training and experience. It may still be that...but it certainly is not that yet. Today was my 8th day in the department and it was the first day I didn't have to squash an overpowering urge to run back up to the fourth floor and take my old (boring) job back and be grateful.

The new department is much more restrictive. Our cell phones are not allowed to be on our desks. They have to be in a pocket, purse, or car. There shall be no texting while at work. Unless we are on lunch or break. It used to be you could attach your 15 minute break to your half hour lunch, thereby giving yourself enough time to go to the store or run an errand. But now we have a new web clock time system, and the system doesn't allow for that. In my new departments defense, I would have had that problem even if I hadn't changed jobs. And the new department didn't want us to take a 15 minute break at all. They figured, since we were allowed to get up and use the restroom whenever we had the need, that should qualify for our 15 minute break and we shouldn't have to have a seperate one. (They have since determined that in our particular state, we are actually required to have one half hour lunch (unpaid) and TWO 15 minute breaks. (paid.) HA HA.

I applied for this position (with some trepidation and for about the 5th time) knowing that the change was going to be huge, especially when I'd worked in a flexible, easygoing department for a LONG time. I refrained from applying a few times, worried about the flexibility. They chose not to hire me a few times, for essentially the same reason. Well, that and they were concerned that I would lack writing skills. But I couldn't very well put a blog link in my resume. The good thing about this department is it has a path for promotion. I don't want to be a senior manager. But a little more pay wouldn't hurt. This time around, the hiring manager and I came to a sort of agreement. Currently the department is on mandatory 8 hours of OT a week. We agreed that I would work whatever OT I could, and if it didn't come out to quite 8 hours that would be ok. The arrangement was that we could work our eight hours by adding to our regular shift over the week, or work Saturdays. So my second day in the department the email that Saturday the 26th would be mandatory 8 hours of OT was not a happy omen. Supposedly it's only the one Saturday, and we'll be back to doing our OT whenever. Note to Senior Management: I will NOT work 8 hours every Saturday indefinitely. Just so you know. Do you know how much it costs me in gas to drive there and back every day? People (not me) have been working 8 hours a week of OT for NINE months. Let them do it on their own terms, and they might not all quit. Just a thought from one of your lowly peons.

Okay, OT rant over. Now for my alternate work schedule. The hiring manager and I also came to an agreement that I would be able to request an alternate work schedule of 7:30-4. On paper this is for daycare reasons. In reality, it's so I have a shot of getting home in time to feed my own daughter supper. The approval for my alternate work schedule hasn't come from wherever it had to go yet, so I've been working 8-4:30. The first day I worked those hours, I sat and idled in the parking garage for 12 minutes before gaining the freedom of a traffic filled street. Multiply 12 minutes by 5. I have much better ways to use that hour a week. Since until yesterday we weren't allowed to take a 15 minute break, I started taking my lunch at 3pm. That way I can eat for 15 minutes, hike out to the parking garage (a 5-7 minute walk), free my car from the parking garage, and park on the street in a one hour parking slot. The one hour street parking is a three minute walk from my desk. I get home much earlier. Hopefully the alternate work schedule approval comes through soon. (I'm saying when, not if. It had better be when.)

So yesterday Jupiter was awake when I went in to take my shower. When I came out she'd gone back to sleep. I knew she was tired, so I let her sleep. Bad plan. She was mad when I woke her up that I hadn't given her oatmeal before we left. And I couldn't MAKE her oatmeal before we left, because I HAVE to be AT MY DESK by 8am. If I want to leave at 4:30, that is. She was mad mad mad. She expressed her displeasure by slapping me before we even got out of the house. She was somewhat settled down when I dropped her off. Slightly less than an hour later, I got pulled over for going 36 in a 25. I was honestly making an effort to slow down (the speed limit drops from 45 to 25 right before I got clocked) and the officer was very kind and didn't write me up for the speeding ticket. Or for my expired registration. (Seriously, my town office opens at 7am and closes at 4pm. I leave town at 7:10 and get home at 5:15. No problem. I'll send a messenger pigeon.)

So anyway, today was better. I have hopes the sailing will get smoother. The adjustment is throwing me for a loop. Jupiter has had a therapeutic riding intensive session this week in the afternoons so she's been tired when I finally get home. Monday and Tuesday she wanted to go to the playground but we didn't make it. (Tuesday she kicked my sister's dog in the foot. I saw her do it, and knew she was lying when she claimed she was trying to get the dog to move away from the door. She was mad at me and kicked the dog. When I told her that she didn't deny it.). Wednesday we made it to the playground. We made it because while I was at lunch I called and asked Mimi if she would possibly bring Jupiter to the playground and I would meet them there. Lower the odds for misbehavior sabotoging a playground visit that way. Today she just displayed some minor disrespect when we got home. I sent her to take a five minute break while I cooked her supper and she was fine the rest of the night.

Sunday I'm hoping to go pick strawberries.

On the upside, my August vacation got reapproved. I will savor every second. Last Sunday it was raining when we got up. So we went to Tar*et. When we came out of the store, it was sunny. So we went to the ocean, since we were pretty close. We were going to pick strawberries on our way home, but the only organic strawberry field in our county was so busy that they had closed by the time we got there. This weekend we're going first thing Sunday morning. But anyway, I did a lot of savoring on Sunday. I think this job will teach me a lot about savoring. Maybe that's what it's all about.

Sorry for the long long rambly post.