Epiphanies

I think I was watching “Nightline” and they had on a little segment on messy desks. I have to admit I’m guilty of having a messy desk and of being a pack rat. They had on some people who theorize that a sign of a messy desk is a sign of a creative mind. Yipee!! An excuse to live by – ha. Anyway, I try really hard to be more organized. It’s amazing how much stuff I can accumulate. It’s literally a struggle for me to throw anything away. I’ve been pretty good lately though. With 3 kids, I can’t stand the clutter anymore so I actually threw many things away, including my huge huge anime cd collection. I kept thinking I would go back and watch them. I finally admitted to myself that that was probably never going to happen. I haven’t thrown away my drama cds though I also threw away all my clothes from my “Professional lawyer” days. I think part of me didn’t want to throw it away because of the sheer amount of money spent on those clothes. I could cry. But seriously, I “retired” from being a lawyer this year. It was time to move on. No more sentimental attachment to clothes. It was quite ridiculous. I took pics of them in case I ever got nostalgic. I also threw away a lot of film related things from my film days at NYU and Downtown Community TV. I organized the kids clothes into correctly labeled bins (by age) instead of just throwing them in random “Clothes” bins. I threw my “one day I will fit them again” clothes into bins instead of leaving them in my closet. I haven’t quite tackled the toys yet but I’ve been pretty good about throwing away/donating toys all along so I don’t think it’s in too bad a state.

This week was Parent teacher conference week. Mrs. Terry was quite positive about B. Said he was very intelligent and sharp but too talkative. I guess he gets the chatterbox thing from me – that was something written on my report card as well. I remember always being moved around because I talked too much to people. Finally, the nuns from my Catholic school would just put me in the front desk where they could keep an eye on me. I still maintain it was others that spoke to me, not I to them.

She told us 4th grade was going to be much more intensive and that the jump from third grade to fourth was huge. Think she was hinting that we should prep him during the summer by visiting the sites of Harcourt and some of the other publishers. I will definitely do that. I still worry sometimes that we made the wrong decision by not letting him start school later. (He was born late in the year and could have thus started later). He does really well academically so in that respect he’s fine but socially he seems to get along best with those the year below him (i.e. Liam, Joshua, Peter, etc.)

On that note, B doesn’t get along with Eric. She told us he said something mean about Eric today. Not surprising to us because he’s expressed to us many times that he doesn’t like him. I asked her about whether Eric was liked by others (my attempt to figure out if it was B’s personal vendetta or was Eric an outsider). I concluded he was an outcast because she alluded to the fact that she thinks Eric has difficulties with socialization because of a language barrier. Eric is a Chinese immigrant. Then she said she didn’t know if Eric was cursing at B in Chinese and if he was, she couldn’t really help B with that. I told her even if he was, B wouldn’t understand it since he doesn’t speak Chinese himself. That surprised her.

All in all, she said B was a great student and that our influence showed itself. I guess a lot of parents aren’t that involved or aren’t able to help. I think a lot of the students are immigrants and the parents are probably unable to help with English is my guess. Ben, my hairdresser, comes to mind. He told me his kids weren’t doing well in school because he said he had problems communicating his ideas to his kids. Even though they understand Chinese, when it comes to school subjects, it was much harder to explain concepts in a way they understand. I get that totally. I never had that problem really. My parents didn’t really help me with schoolwork but I don’t think that was a function of language. It was more that they thought I should be independent minded and learn by doing. B mentioned today that he got 100% in his factor of 9 test which Zachariah graded. He in turn graded Zachariah’s test and when I asked how many Z got wrong, he said 10. This made me think I should give B a break.

On another note, B is so cute. He mentioned that he helped C (the girl he has a crush on) get her backpack after school. Wow – he’s growing up so fast it’s scary. I asked him why he liked her and he really didn’t articulate why. I asked if she liked Pokemon or Gameboy or Nintendo DS Lite. Reasons that I thought may be why he liked her. Shock of all shocks, she doesn’t even have a Gameboy or watch Pokemon though she does watch Naruto and she does have a Tomogachi (sp?).  Who can understand the inner workings of an 8 year old boy?

A went to an Indian Guide meeting last night with the boys and B burned his finger ironing some cute craft thing.  I’m thinking of spearheading the Kindergarten group of the MOMS Club if it passes on the Board next term. I like doing crafts with the boys so I think a K group would be ideal for me. C and I already signed on to be Mom’s Night Out Coordinators for next term. I’m passing on the baton of newsletter editor. It should be fun. W is running for president. I think she’ll be great at it. She always goes above and beyond.

 S wants to run for a position also and I told her she should try for Treasurer which was imo, the easiest position.  I held that position last year.  C disagreed and said that I was exceptional at it.  She mentioned the end of year report.  While she was at a meeting where all the moms groups in our area met the state coordinators to make sure our reports were done correctly, the state coordinator told her that our report was an example of how it should be done.  Many of the other clubs reports were a mess and done incorrectly.  I think as long as the procedures are done correctly from the beginning, the end is a breeze.  I was lucky because since we started our club anew (sistered off), I was able to do things my way.  I threw away all the old club ways (it was all incomprehensible) although in hindsight, I probably should have looked at what the end of year report required so I could streamline my procedures better.  I overkilled imo but that’s ok – it got the job done.  In any case, we won “Outstanding New Chapter” our term so imo we were just great all around.  (C was prez, X was AVP, W was MVP, I was Treasurer, and A was Secretary).  We just kicked butt.  Anyway, seems like S took my suggestion and is going to run for Treasurer.  It should be a great year.

 TGIF – we went out to El Cholo Cantina. Best cheese Nachos I’ve ever had in my life. Proof positive that simple is often best. It was just cheese and nachos but damn it was good. Think the nachos were fresh or something. I saw photos of President Bush and Jack Nicholson on the wall amongst other famous people. I wonder if they were actually at this particular location. Cool if they were. A and I had their award winning “El Cholo” Margarita. Nastiest sh*t ever. Not getting that again. I had a great Margarita at Habana so I figured I would have another Margarita. Blah.

Anyway, so I had the Crabmeat enchilada, A had the Sonora Style Enchilda, B had tacos and C had nuggets. B was quite disgusted with all the veggies in the taco lol. He’s like “Mom, the description doesn’t mention veggies in the tacos…” I told him, “Hate to break it to you kiddo but tacos usually have lettuce and tomatoes in it.” A liked his dish except the corn tortilla part (he likes flour). Mine was ‘eh’ all around. I think A was just desperate just to go to a restaurant we haven’t been to before. I would have been happier at “Irvine Tofu House” which was what we decided before we left the house. I could tell he really didn’t want to revisit the same places. He mentioned he thought we tried every restaurant around us. I pointed out we hadn’t been to “El Cholo” though I couldn’t remember the name at the time though I’ve passed by it a million times. Anyway, now we can say we’ve tried every place around us within a 5 mile radius. Probably won’t go back there. I definitely will take A to Habana to try the tamales. They were, in the words of Rachael Ray, “delish“.