Transitions

The school year is off and running, and not without its usual ups and downs. Somehow I always forget there will be bumps and overwhelm, exhaustion and readjustment, annoyances and redundancies, surprises good, and surprises bad. We here at the Link house, do not care so much for all that.

Wil will not wear a watch (anymore), and cannot have his cell phone on at school (totally understandable) and does not read conventional clocks easily. He carries on his person a pretty good-sized travel alarm clock, and that is his method for keeping himself on time. I triple checked that said alarm clock was in his backpack when we headed to the car. I did not see or hear him remove said alarm clock, from the backpack, and displace it in my car. I noticed only after I was back at home and stuck there, waiting to receive a package that requires a signature, that never came, and now is likely to screw up tomorrow, too, but that's another post.

Because said alarm clock was not in place, meds were not taken on time. Because meds were not taken on time, pretty much all hell broke loose. All that coupled with the surprises bad, redundancies, overwhelm, blah, blah and blah, let's just say that Beer O'Clock came early today.

Woohoo, too, is having her share of "issues," none of which are serious, but nevertheless taxing, tiring, frustrating and kind of a buzz kill. I will say this, Woohoo is at a great college, and to hear her talk about her classes and be excited about what she's learning, is a wonderful thing. STM and I went to perfectly fine colleges, but I think for at least the first two years, we simply took classes because we had to, and we just checked them off. We weren't engaged (one of mine was "taught" on television), we certainly weren't inspired, and we definitely weren't excited.

On a completely different note, I had plans to have coffee with my cousin Nancy today. In the middle of the night Saturday I sat bolt upright in bed, and realized I could not meet her for coffee, because I had to be home waiting for the package-that-never-came. Long story short, she came to me, and I invited my mom (her aunt) to join us. The three of us had a lovely time.

True confession: I hesitated having Nancy come to my house, because our carpet in the living room is so old/dirty/stained/trashed, and we are in the process of picking new carpet. Because we're so actively in this process, the existing carpet's flaws are in flashing neon to me. Nancy actually said these words to me during her visit, "Did you get new carpet?" My mom, too, seemed surprised when I mentioned to her why the samples were all up against the wall. She thought our carpet was just great.

The truth is, our carpet is not just great. Our carpet was cheap to begin with and we've put it through hell.

The truth is, our carpet is just great. To the casual observer it does what it needs to do, it covers the floor, it's warm under the feet, and with enough carefully placed furniture, it's "fine."

The truth is, so much of what is wrong, right, in need of fixing or just fine, is a matter of perspective. One (me) gets too close to the situation and looses all perspective. Sometimes the smartest thing to do is crack a beer and call it a day - a day like all days, with its highs and with its lows.