To help you understand the kind of person Carl is, let me explain that he looked at a giant buffet of desserts and did not partake! Amy and I were shocked and horrified by his behavior. You can see our faces as we saw the picture he sent of the delicious array of options.
Luckily, my brother is visiting this weekend, so while Carl is away enjoying the beauty of Alaska and skipping some amazing desserts, we are stocking up on ice cream experiences. So far we have been to Jeni’s and to Dairy Delite. Today we aim to go to Page’s. We all enjoy the relaxed visits with my brother, but Sarah is especially attached. Last night as we watched Frog and Toad, she arranged herself so she was in the exact same position on the sofa, with one leg stretched out and resting on the coffee table.
The other pictures Carl sent me show the absolute beauty of Alaska – and that he too is getting ice cream some of the time.
Sarah had a mostly good week at school, but classes are definitely the most challenging part of the experience for her. When I picked her up on Monday, she said she was grumpy. She had not enjoyed the behavioral health class that is the last class on Monday afternoons. The form she partially completed from the class had a prompt about when she was happy and when unhappy. She wrote that she was happy when she was at her jobs and not happy when she didn’t have her jobs. This bodes well for when she is done with school, but shows that class-time may always be the hardest part of her day. On the back of the paper she wrote, “MOM” in big letters because she missed me. I was impressed that she was able to tell me she was grumpy rather than just telling me her head and stomach hurt. That was due to some coaching by her teacher to be honest about her experience. Fingers crossed about the next Monday she has classes.
For Fridays, Sarah has to dress in business casual for her off-campus job doing office work, such as stuffing and stamping envelopes, at the court house. She loves her blue blouse with little white polka dots and kept saying she was wearing a suit.
Amy’s last week of summer vacation began last Sunday with a most amazing mermaiding experience! Unfortunately, now we will have to release her back into her natural habitat as she is clearly ready. She was an absolute natural at swimming as a mermaid, although she said the tail was heavy. At the end of the class her face hurt from smiling!
The less exciting part of Amy’s week was a check-up with her orthopedic doctor. Her top scoliosis curve has gotten a tiny bit worse, but apparently that sometimes happens after someone stops bracing. Still, it wasn’t exactly the visit of our dreams. Luckily, we got to hang out with another Higgy Friends family after the appointment since they had the appointment right before ours.
For a vibrant start to school, Amy dyed her hair purple. It looks phenomenal. Somehow, every time she dyes her hair, I feel like she has found her natural color, whether it is pink or purple or blue. They all look like she could have been born with that color, just like she could have been born with a mermaid tail.
At the risk of jinxing anything, because I’m still not sure I can actually bring anything publishable to fruition, I have been working for a long time (in very very very tiny increments) on a fictionalized account of Amy’s scoliosis journey. As with the book about Sarah, at first when I got through a draft, I thought it was great and almost ready to go! Predictably, this was not actually the case. With feedback from early readers and my editor, despite their specific suggestions and helpful perspectives, I felt plunged into despair about my abilities. I was completely stuck and wanted to give up and pretend I had never tried. I joked about this feeling, but it was also incredibly real. I didn’t open the document for several weeks. After some helpful discussions with a fellow She Writes Press author, Julie McGue, in preparation for a webinar we are co-teaching October 7 and 27, I became unstuck! I have started a massive re-write, although, again, it is in very very very tiny increments of time. I expect the second draft will still need a ton of work, and I may again feel like I need to give up and pretend I never tried. But for now, it feels good to have a project and to have my wheels spinning freely rather than stuck in the mud.
Wishing you all the feeling of being in your natural habitat.
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