Seasons

I know that I've mentioned how I'm completely over the No Pants Summer. I mean, I know that summer isn't officially over, but I'm over it. There is still a bit of the little Minnesota girl I used to be in me and every year, with the return of school, I start longing for cooler nights and cardigans and crispy leaves and wood smoke in the air. I crave pumpkins and cinnamon and apples and I am ready to put away all of my breezy cottons and blue-and-whites and pull out some corduroy pants and wear deep, warm colors. And brown. I'm just craving brown.
I really love dressing exactly how I feel - I always have (which hopefully explains some particularly awful Christmas-themed turtlenecks), and wearing only dresses was lots of fun. People treat you differently when you're wearing a dress, men especially - and with apologies to feminists, I enjoyed it.
But I'm done with it.
I am doomed, however, to a life of longing when it comes to fall. Everyone knows that we don't exactly have the traditional four seasons here in Florida. If you take the time to look for it, though, you'll see that the light changes. There is a sweet, honeyed look to the afternoon sun these days and I love to stop and drink it in. And in spite of the absence of other atmospheric evidence, that light keeps me trying to capture the season anyway.
We made apple-cinnamon waffles last Saturday and pumpkin-pecan ones the week before. And I am already toying with party ideas for the Autumnal Equinox. I wonder what we'll do this year?
But those aren't the only seasons shifting around here. We started another year of school today.




Once I got everyone where they needed to be (and it did go smoothly!), I sat down and had a little cry. Andrew's in middle school. What? Who let me have a big kid? When did that happen? I had all these ridiculous flashes of walking him to his classroom in second grade and taking pictures of him with his teachers. And today I had to drop him off into the big unknown, and even though he wanted me to come in with him, I wasn't allowed to. Sigh. Can you hear my heart breaking from where you are? I'm sure it's very loud.
I have to say that, while Emma had a great day full of re-connecting with her friends and getting to know her super-fun new teacher, Drew didn't really have a stellar one. He didn't get into any of the great electives that the school offers and didn't have success connecting with any kids yet. Even the one kid in his class that we do know wasn't exactly friendly. So, he was really ready to get home.
To make a long story short, he had two reading classes on his schedule and I wondered why. One of them is called "Intensive Reading," and this class seems to be taking the place of an elective in his schedule. So, I did a little Googling. It's a remedial reading course!!!
You have no idea how angry I am about that. But, digging a little further, I've concluded that it's policy to stick him there because he didn't take the FCAT and they don't have any alternative scores for him. So, the system automatically presumes that he reads below grade-level and requires that he take remedial reading instead of a cool elective like Technology or Band. Grrrr. The Mama Bear in me is ready to march down to the school with his SAT scores in hand and get him outta there ASAP. The policy seems to be that they will test all students without scores within 30 days and adjust their schedules as necessary, but I'll be damned if I leave him in remedial reading for 30 days. His reading scores are post high school. So, one day in the public school system, and already the smart kid is punished for the betterment of the others.
The really tough thing here is that he has had such a good attitude. Changing schools is never comfortable, but for a guy like Drew, it's downright awful. He thrives on routine and knowing what to expect. And he's taken this situation and found things to be excited about - namely the technology classes - and really looked on the bright side. And then he gets smacked with a crappy schedule and nobody was nice to him. I've been holding back and keeping a nice face on this evening, but as soon as the kids went to bed, I just sobbed.
Know what else sucks (this is my this-really-sucks face)?

I can't fix it tomorrow. Or the next day. School is cancelled due to the tropical storm. And my husband's not here. I have to batten down the hatches and hunker down by myself. I'll go and hang out with my parents tomorrow and we'll laugh and eat non-perishable food and stuff, but I have to bring in all the porch furniture and loose ends that are sitting outside. And I'm tired.
I think I might have to make another apricot tart. Maybe that'll help.

DAILY BLISS: Sort-of Blackout Night (we had to keep watching for storm details so we could decide how prepared to be) - wallowing on the floor in our post-school misery and eating chips right out of the bag while the clock valiantly ticked and tocked and the birds happily crunched their seeds