Today we went to Dittmar pool. It is about 3 miles from our house, and it is currently in the running for my favorite free pool. Why? It has an entire section of the shallow end shaded. There was a hugely mixed crowd- from a tiny baby napping on his floatation device to this huge Mexican guy who had tattoos running from his chest all the way down his arm (Gavin tried to fool him by pretending to throw the water ball to him, but pushing it under the water instead of releasing it as a toss, and it was quite comical from my perch to covertly observe his game with my son.) – and everyone was friendly. I sat in the shade trying to learn Spanish from a book for almost two hours while he played “monkey in the middle” with two little kids. Then he flirted with a circle of women who were congregated around an infant that could not have been more than a month old. Then he conned me into tossing rings for him to dive for – and three, then five other kids joined in. I spoke in some of my seriously fragmented Spanish to the mother of two of the ring divers who had come to sit down beside me to watch her boys.

Oh how I love the south side.

Today we went to Sea World San Antonio and had a marvelous time. We got to the park about 3:30, and Gavin wanted to go straight to the penguins, so we headed that direction and stopped to get wet at the little splash playground. Then we saw the new Shamu show (Not bad, I guess, but I kind of miss the old days when they just told you interesting things about the animals. All the emotional music and stories just kind of leave me – blah.) We spent the last hour and a half swimming at the Lost Lagoon in the wave pool (which always reminds me and William of Budapest, since that is where we first encountered a wave pool)and the Spash Attack playground. We left at 7:30 and went to Will’s parents’ house for dinner. A very satisfying day.

Today we went to Metz neighborhood pool because we heard there was a water playground. It turned out to be not much of a playground, and the Metz pool was closed because they didn’t have chlorine. So we drove about 3 miles over to the Martin neighborhood pool and swam. The only thing I didn’t like was that there was nowhere to sit in the shade and the pool at the same time. It was a pretty high-energy crowd, not too crowded, though. Many random kids used William as a shield in games of water tag. It was quite funny to watch them grab his arm and duck behind the only large white Mexican in a sea of brown bodies. (It kind of reminded me of one of the tenets of the Monty Python skit “How Not To Be Seen” – Don’t choose an obvious hiding place.) I think there is corrido material in there somewhere. Hope to get off my ass and post the pictures soon.

Today we swam at Marble Falls. We didn’t stay in long, though, because the water was pretty murky. Gavin asked to go swimming as soon as he woke up, but I stalled for a couple of hours and tried to negotiate waiting until we got back to Austin to go to the pool, but he wouldn’t have it. So I got in for about thirty minutes and then got out on the pretext that I liked to be able to see my legs when swimming. He said, “Why do you want to see your legs?” I responded that it made me uncomfortable for parts of my body to disappear when I knew they were still there. He said he couldn’t see his hand, but he felt great. This is the tenor of many of our conversations.

Today we swam at Dick Nichols pool, a very cool, totally free pool that is about 6 miles from our house. Gavin and I went alone as William was in a meeting and Merlin was at my mother’s. There is a playscape – which we didn’t have time to explore – and a large 3′ section that made it fun for both of us. They also had a wading pool that Gavin spent quite a bit of time in while I worked on a potential YMCA schedule – if we join. I think it could be pretty cool.

We didn’t swim today because it was raining. William and Gavin, who is currently complaining because he is named after a knight and not a wizard, were in San Antonio for most of the day helping Grandma move into a nursing home. I was there yesterday packing up boxes, but today I had to go to the Blanton Museum for a training that was pretty cool.

So last week, my students were huddled in a corner of the classroom – obviously conspiring. I ambled over in an eavesdropping fashion marched over at once to put a stop to the chatter and discovered that they were planning a Valentine’s gift exchange. They asked me if I wanted to participate, and I said, “sure.” They were so shocked that I began to wonder if I had misunderstood and pledged fealty to some unknown Mexican valentine’s day cult. But no. I had simply agreed to draw a name for my gift recipient. They called me over a few moments later and asked me to pick one of three tightly wadded pieces of paper. I picked one. I walked back to my desk and opened it, only to find that it read – my own name.
ha.
I told no one. But yesterday they confronted me about it. It was quite funny, actually. They were very reluctant to accuse me of anything so heinous as cheating, but apparently whatever system they used caused someone else to have drawn their own name, and, really, my selfishness could not be borne.
So today we hade a hyped-up-on-chocolate good-for-nothing sort of a day.
Oh well.

#7 first, I think.

Daughter was supposed to test for her yellow belt yesterday, but it did not come to pass. She was a bit shaky on the last few moves and the sifu decided against testing her. She was pretty disappointed. But she’d have been more disappointed if she hadn’t passed. And sifu covered it pretty well by mentioning that he thought she wanted to test with another girl in the class. So, all in all, not sucha bad thing.

Still, it made me sad that she didn’t get to do it, and I felt a bit guilty for not working with her more on her katas.

The weird thing about kid’s activities these days is that every one of them imagines that you are dedicating your child to only that one. Classes three times a week and then practice at home, and then performances. Then there is the competitiveness – between parents, between kids, between organizations.

I want my kids to learn to play a musical instrument and participate in meaningful physical activity. But it is both expensive and time-consuming, and neither Husband nor I have the flexibility to leave work early to get kids where they need to be on time. Come to think of it, I would also like my kids to be learning another language. Where are these options in public school? They are just almost available. The kids have music and p.e., but neither of those classes ends with your child knowing a new skill. At the elementary level, and often at the middle and high school levels, these classes do not offer the opportunity of mastery.

It is disappointing. And with so much focus on the other troubles plaguing public schools, I suppose it is unlikely to be addressed in any systemic way. So I am left to my own devices in supplementing my children’s educations with things that I feel are pretty important.

I don’t post and don’t post and don’t post…but life keeps happening and things I should be writing about pile up in my brain until I can’t think any more. Then I don’t want to post everything at once. So i forget. Then i remember when I am away from the computer.

I have at least a half dozen places where I write down ideas, but no coherent system to organize them.

Anyway, this post is going to be a list of things that I need to write about. Maybe if i keep it here, it will shame me into action.

1. Son busted his nose at after school care and we had to get his head examined (it was overdue, if you ask me)
2. Daughter failed her school hearing screening at every sound frequency.
3. I dragged my husband to our fist BDSM lifestyle gathering – it was a workshop about Japanese bondage.
4. I interviewed for and was offered a job that will make my life hell for 6 weeks and hardly pay me enough to cover my expenses to do it. I am still crazy enough to be considering it.
5. I need to write my “This I believe” essay.
6. I met a friend for coffee on Saturday, and the best news she had for me was that I should be grateful for my continued good health.
7. Daughter is testing for her yellow belt today.
8. I saw Match Point over the weekend. It was awesome. So here I am reccing – review to follow.

That is all.

Funny how life sometimes springs out violently and then other times seems to walk along companionably. It must be a contributing factor to the reflective nature of my writing that I tend to write more when life is quiet than when it is busy. I know it will be crazy again soon – probably sooner than I can quite handle. My Juniors would like to sponsor a Valentine’s dance in three weeks and I don’t quite know how to find a DJ. Also, it seems that it will take three weeks to get the person approved – if they want to get paid – which means I really have to find them TODAY!! Not likely to happen, I am afraid. This weekend may be the last time I catch my breath for a month. But at least the pattern is familiar. Three weeks of crazy life, one week of quiet life.

We have instituted a new nighttime regimen which is ominously called The Schedule. It is, in reality, exactly what we have been doing for the entirety of our children’s lives with only one change – they must sleep in their own beds. The first night, both children wakened about 1 am and came to our door knocking, then banging, then making sort of fake crying sounds interrupted by statements like, “Mommy, I’m scared.” and “I feel like someone’s watching me.” and “I don’t like this schedule.” It was a bit heartbreaking, but it also sounded a bit manipulative. We held fast. After about 10 minutes, they went back to bed. The second night, they both came knocking at the door, but there was little crying. Then I heard my daughter say to my son, “Do you know how to use it?” and I realized they must be searching for the key that unlocked my door from the outside. I guess they gave up before finding it, though, because they put themselves back in bed within five minutes. Last night, the third, there was nothing. No waking in the night, no knocking, pleading, plotting, …nothing.

It is a relief, but… I don’t know, I am finding it a bit difficult to get to sleep without them. I did not anticipate that. The notion that I created my own problem really should not be foreign to me. And in fact, I realized that not setting limits on when they could sleep in my bed was causing the difficulty of never having any time alone with my husband, but I didn’t think that I was letting it slide because I wanted to cuddle up with them. Huh. So I am going through an adjustment as well. I feel like I’ve lost my teddy bear. I just lie in bed staring at the ceiling, waiting to see if they come knocking in the middle of the night. Serves me right, I guess.