the long, dark teatime of the soul

Being surrounded for 5 days with fevers and snurgle noses has taken its toll on me and I woke this morning with the harbinger (I love saying that word) of snotdrips and fever of my own to come. Press on, press on.

Tuesday night David went to group piano lessons... basically, a crowd of 2nd-6th graders who perform some pieces for peer evaluation, then Dr J does some group theory. I left David there and ran to Fred Meyers to finish up shopping (so nice to be alone when shopping), then picked him up afterwards and went home.

Weds am at my own piano lesson with Dr. J, she informed me that David had writhed around on the floor like a snake, had karate chopped pretzel sticks into her Persian rug (after specifically being told not to; intentional disobedience) and in general displayed bad form and arrogance by stating before the group that he had played a particular piece better than another student had.

Suffice it to say that was the Beginning Of A Day of Constant Discipline. I dealt with the piano class issues as soon as I got home, but it was only the beginning. Throughout the day I dealt with rudeness, unkindness, disobedience, defiance, disrespect, and in general, it was just an "Alexander" day.

At 1:00 p.m., exhausted emotionally, mentally, & physically, I grabbed the phone book and started calling Montessori schools to send me packets of information. I know D would absolutely hate a traditional school, but the hands-on approach of Montessori may be an ideal fit.

Sam, still running a fever, stayed home from karate, but I took David out there. Sensei camethisclose to making David do pushups for talking ( I am sitting in the stands thinking GO SENSEI GO! MORE MORE MORE!) By 10 pm I lay in bed, tears streaming out the corners of my eyes into my hair. So I started to read The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes since I've never finished the entire book. I finished the first book, A Study In Scarlet. Then I slept like the dead. ha.

Today improved, but only marginally. Still dealing with the same basic issues. I finally lost it and yelled rather fiercely, and then felt much calmer. Then I had to go and apologize, because I had been very angry and frightening.

Took a nap in the afternoon. My head is feeling heavy and my eyes ache. The sad thing is, I had a cold already right after New Year's. For me to get another not even three weeks later is annoying. I mean, come on, I'm not some hypochondriacal freak job who needs to be sick all the time to get attention. (No, I get my attention in other ways :p)

It's only 9:30 so I think I'll crawl in bed with some tissues and a glass of water, and try to read another Sherlock Holmes.