Parent Teacher Conference

It shaped up to be an unusual Monday from the get-go.  I already knew I had to work on my presentation for the Management team tomorrow morning. First thing in the morning too which means I have to be totally done before I go to bed tonight. I was NOT looking forward to staying up late like I had in the past. We also had Johnnie's first parent-teacher conference of the year and Lisa and I looked forward to talking to Ms Cardona. That is if Lisa remembered what today was. I called her just to be sure she didn't make any plans. Of course she will sound almost insulted that I had to remind her. But as it were it didn't show up in her calendar. Surprise. That's ok. I had to remind myself to simply keep letting go of whatever comes up with whatever Lisa does. My life is NOT about her. She is just one thing that reminds me what I need to pay attention to and process and release. As it was I had plenty to do today, although I did note that while half-asleep last night, I had ideas about what stuff to put in my presentation. And so the process actually flowed pretty well all morning. Work on some content, get steps in. Work on some content, get some steps in. Even though getting those steps in meant still being in my pajamas/sweats and my walking footwear. I still got to 6000 steps by lunch. Yes I might have all this stuff to do. But really no excuse not to get to 15000 steps anyway today. Before long it was time to pick up Lisa to do the parent teacher meeting. Lisa was her same anxious hair-trigger self today, which meant I would have to tread carefully with what I do or say. And that's ok. I can do that for an hour. As it were all she talked about while we were waiting for the meeting was how Silvia bought her these pillows for herself to use. She is annoyed because she hates having stuff. Any stuff. She likes living in a museum. And that's ok. Just not me. She also talked about still possibly going to France during the Christmas break. I thought that was already settled but I guess not. YOu simply just never know what is going through her mind. Right now the appeal of going anywhere with her, let alone an intercontinental trip to France with Lisa has lost any of its luster.  We'll see what happens. 

So we met with Ms Cardona and really right off the bat all she had to say was that Johnnie was pretty much a great kid and a great student to teach.  For myself I'm glad other folks get to see the specialness of my little Bug because it is clear that he is one of a kind. He graded well in reading and math, well above his current grade level. And he's coming along with his writing grammar and punctuation, which I felt was his weakness if he had any. Certainly he wasn't behind in that regard. The only other thing was that she showed us his work for math and although he 'downloaded' his thought patterns on paper, they were not always easy to follow. Certainly not in the same vein that his mom would be good with. And so we determined Lisa would show him ways to organize his work such that they were easier to follow. Me, I didn't care as long as he got the right answer. I think there is a fine line with showing them a way to do things and also letting him express himself and let him think out of the box every once in a while. That skill has served me well after all. Not as appreciated by the linear thinkers like Lisa though. In fact, it annoys them. We will see where Johnnie falls in that area. We got to talking about him so much that I saw that the clock had gone past 1:45. And I thought these things only lasted 20 minutes. And so I mentioned it and true enough, the next meeting was already about to start. We could have talked and talked all afternoon I felt. So it was all good as far as Johnnie's progress. I believe his teacher Ms Cardona realizes he is a pretty special kid and that is always a good thing. I dropped Lisa off so I could finish off my presentation once and for all. And although it took me until well past 6 PM to do that, I did get it done before bedtime AND I still made my 15000+ steps easily. Got in 140 active minutes as well. Still all good. AND I picked up Johnnie at 7 PM. Lisa was bugging as always, stuck on cleaning her house which usually means she's waving off her own anxiety. But what did I care? I picked up Johnnie, picked up a late dinner from El Pollo Loco and we're back in the house, back in the place of relative peace and harmony and as far as I was concerned all was good again.