Preorder Your Alternative to Saccharine Laced Anthologies Now

My Baby Rides the Short Bus is now ready for pre-orders at Amazon.com. This is a book of anthologies written by parents of children with special needs. It is specifically written by voices of marginalized, "minority," and punk parents.

You can get a better peek at what the book will be like at the My Baby Rides the Short Bus blog.

Antidote to Saccharine Laced Anthologies

Here is a book coming out sometime in the next few months, and it is going to be very good: http://shortbusbook.blogspot.com/. I hope you all will pick up a copy.

Way back when, when the editors were first calling for submissions, this was the vision they described for their book: "My Baby Rides the Short Bus will be an antidote to the saccharine laced anthologies that exist for special needs parents. It will give punk, alternative, and marginalized parents a place to write about their realities."

I'm sure it will be interesting and moving reading for anyone, whether you have a kid with a so-called-special-need or not!

When Your Vision Is Too Expansive

I have difficulty compartmentalizing information.

This is often a blessing. I am easily able to take a broad view of systems and also transfer information from one system to another. At classes and workshop, I find myself impatient when other attendees have to stop and ask, "What does this have to do with...[fill in the blank with whatever the topic is]?" (Yes, I found college almost painful.) If the teacher or leader of the class or workshop has made the connection, you can be certain that I too have made the connection. When other people are saying things like, "This is nice, but I was really hoping to get some tangible ideas I can take home," I often am sighing inside. My neurons have usually been firing off ideas the whole time as I've connected all types of information in response to what I am learning.

At times, though, my inability to compartmentalize becomes problematic. Today I found that a global perspective I have been taking for granted for some time is not a common world view. I didn't realize until after I pissed someone off (at work, no less) by taking my broad view as a given. Actually, it took me getting upset that I'd pissed someone off. I got upset and called a colleague who listened to me explain my thinking to her, and then she said "I have never thought of it like that before." The subsequent dialogue in my head went something like:

Oh.

Oh! Huh.

Really? I could have sworn that other colleagues have talked about this before.

Is it just me?

I don't get how this can be compartmentalized.

I am so confused. I am so hurt [that the person I pissed off was so offended].

Sometimes it is hard not to feel crazy.

Postscript: A few days later, I am feeling much better. I called another colleague, one from the west coast whose response to the idea that I think much differently than others was, "you do?!" Ah, it is likely another one of those east-west coast adjustments I am making. So then I talked to a colleague out here who is one of the longest-serving and most respected in our field. And though she has worked for 30 years in the northeast, she also is very involved in the national organization of our association and has a good understanding of regional differences. She is a tremendous mentor for me! I wanted her to help me shift my thinking, if necessary, into a more regionally-appropriate form. But she told me I was spot-on in my thinking, and that more than anything I just have to be patient (and try harder not to scare people so much with my wild west ways LOL).

Hi "Mindy"!

So I have this really good friend, who I love dearly. She lives back in my old state. I miss her dearly. Anyway, she keeps trying to call me on her way in to work every morning, and keeps missing me by a hair. I can't find her cell phone number, and I know her best time to chat is on her way to and from work.

This time when she called she said she was going to check my blog to see what is up in my life recently. So this is my shout out to her.

What's been going on in my life lately?

Hmm...

The kids are both doing well. M is doing a one day per week Montessori program at a center for otherwise homeschooled children, and we are doing Montessori-based homeschooling the rest of the time. He is absolutely thriving! It is wonderful. I'm thinking of pulling him out of all his public-school based therapies. They are poor quality (private would be so much better) and really not the direction we are wanting to head. So many things he does in the public schools undermines the great stuff happening in Montessori for him. In any case, he is talking up a storm and wants to know about everything right now. His favorite subjects at the moment are (1) what exists "behind the walls" and (2) what exists "underneath the floor." He wants to know about wires and electricity, and pipes and plumbing. He also asks the question, "What is in that?" about everything until we get down to talking about "invisible" science, like atoms. He is such a curious, thougtful boy. I really need to brush up on my science.

K. can't wait to turn three and start going to the Montessori center too. She is super interested in letters. She loves for me to write words on her magnadoodle, and then she takes letters from her alphabet puzzle and moves them on top of my letters until she's spelled out the word. The first thing she asks for me to do every morning and the last thing she asks for me to do every night is to read to her. She is all about books, books, books all day long, though make no mistake about it...she is also on the go! Even when we read, she is twisting and turning and squirming. Even more than the average two year old, she is not one to sit still. She is a mover and a shaker! I'm thinking she might want to take dance. Actually, both kids would probably enjoy gymnastics or dance classes. K's favorite song is a "babywipe" song M made up. It's too hilarious, and she sings it nonstop. It's only words are "babywipe, babywipe," but it is sung with such a tender, sweet voice that even the word "babywipe" is no endearing.

We're getting closer to K's adoption. Not there yet, but things are looking pretty good. We really wanted to fly back for it. We owe M's birthfamily a visit so we're going to have to fork over the money at some point...but right now we just don't have it. I would have liked to visit you, and G's brother and his family while we were at it. Looks like we'll be doing the proceedings by phone and notary/certified mail though.

I had my 72 hour EEG but don't have the results yet. I think I am supposed to go see the epileptologist some time this month, but I forget when. G is looking for part-time work. She definitely doesn't want to teach preK again until the kids are older. She is looking for work that she can keep at work, rather than take home, and something she can do without a lot of thought. Something like bartending. I think that kind of adult time will be good for G too. My work is going okay. Not shortage of challenges to keep me hopping and of course everyone is worried about budgets for the upcoming year, especially since we (1) we have already used all of our heating oil money for the budget year through January and we just had to turn on the heat at the start of October, and (2) we are about to begin a capital campaign, just now as the economy hits the fan. But so much of my world is filled with graces and blessings, and dare I say that God is present. The work is good. So good.

I hope we'll talk soon. I can't wait to hear how you and A. and B. are doing.

Love,
Your Friend S.

P.S. Both kids have decided to be firefighters for Halloween!