Vegan Reason

A phone call from the Assistant Principal and a clearly irritated email from a teacher regarding my cyclothymic disordered son who'd gotten their goat yesterday.  He excels in that regard.  It's a bit unnerving.

I totally understand, I told them both that I agreed with their assessment of the situation.  Too often school administrators face irate parents who make excuses for their kids.  I can explain why my son acts this way, but I do not excuse these behaviors - even though they appear insurmountable sometimes.

I always wanna crack, "Try living with him," when they explain how difficult it is to have him in their class.  Duh, Sweetheart, I never say, 24-7 ain't no picnic either.

He has ISS today as his consequence.

He won't necessarily learn from this, indeed he'd ridiculously tried to explain to me how wrong the teacher had been.  Nope, I don't believe so.  Then when I was dumb enough to try for the billionth time to explain to him that if one acts like this, then there'll be a consequence like that, he stormed off mumbling very ugly phrases about me designed to spike my blood pressure.

I don't respond, as that'd only escalate the situation.  However, dude, I wasn't even there at school with you, why be ugly about me?  This wasn't my dog fight.  Rational thoughts have no place in these episodes.

He'd recently, down in  Florida, read a fortune cookie that made me bust out laughing at the irony.  It read, "The only last word you should ever have emanating from you is an apology."

Oh my.  At that moment, in the up part of his cyclothymia, a bright light bulb shone over his head for all to see and he totally, for once, comprehended.  But the clarity was short-lived.

I'd take him to see Dr. Mandy today, but I try not to take the one who's acting out the most on Thursdays as I never want to link a visit with her to one's bad behavior and have her be seen as punitive.  They all have way too good of a trusting relationship with her, and I don't ever want her to be seen as the bad cop.  That's my job, let them view her as the more understanding of the two.

18 years ago I met one of my most wonderful sons.  Sweet, adorable Jesse, then scared, banged up emotionally, wary and bothered by all he'd endured, entered my life.  He was very thin and medicated unnecessarily.  He'd been placed in special ed classes back in Texas, but his special ed teacher here, a friend of mine, Sandra, recognized that he didn't need the services at all. I had immediately taken him off of the meds.

Allowed to blossom here, even though he had Big Joe as a consort - constantly tempting him to cross lines, but Joe's also a loving, fun brother - Jesse grew up too quickly and left for the Navy where he met his lovely wife and had the most adorable son several years later.

Yeah, I was proud to be a Navy Mom, but prouder still to be Jesse's mom.  He's been a dream son and I'm excitedly already looking forward to seeing him again in the next couple of months - he lives a thousand miles north of us.

Also 14 years ago yesterday, on January 9th, I became Martin and Tony's mom, they were then toddlers, now still living at home, one's almost 17, the other almost 19.  One was mad at me yesterday for getting in trouble at school, the other bear hugged me in our anniversary remark that I'd almost forgotten.

Very warm weather for January, I weeded and piddled, messed with the compost pile, raked some areas and soaked up the sun, feeling happy.  I am so barometrically influenced by the weather.

And for someone who loves words so much, I've been struggling to state why I'm either vegetarian or vegan succinctly but the poster I'd see on Pinterest said it for me perfectly.  I'd hollered for Lily, reading it aloud to her, as she too hadn't nailed down her own philosophy for her own satisfaction yet.