I love it when things don't go as planned but still turn out interesting.

Today was the beginning of a 3-day retreat at the zen center I have been starting to go to. I'm no where near ready for that long a period of practice, but there are several breaks during the day where you can come and go. Since I have been going on Friday mornings for an hour and a half, I had discussed with the monk the option of my going to just the first four hours of this retreat.

Well, I woke up today, and I felt extremely "dull" and "flat". And I had some residual tension behind my right eyeball that I was worried might blow up into something bigger. I also was not feeling particularly interested in food, and this is a big deal, because at the zendo, one of the practices at a retreat is to do "eating meditation". Apparently this includes eating every single thing in the bowl whether you like it or not, and I just was not sure I could commit to that (on top of four hours of meditation: bowing, sitting, walking, sitting, walking, sitting).

Instead I ended up going to MyFavoriteKid's "Awards Assembly" for the first trimester. No less easy to sit through, lemme tell ya' (loud kids, plus the band performed), but at least I knew that I could duck out if I needed to. Now, this is one of these events that MyFK says I should not come to because, "it's not really for the parents, mom....," and then I get there and there are 50+ parents there. LOL. Whatever, kid.

So what happens is that they call out all the names of the kids that acheived Honor Roll (I'm not exactly clear on the criteria for that...3.5 gpa maybe?), and then all the kids that Principal's Honor Roll (4.0). Then they do a few awards for each grade level for citizenship type stuff. In between all these, as the kids are shifting around, the band or the choir performs.

MyFK plays clarinet in the band, so that was fun. And he also got honor roll. He's one "A" away from a 4.0 which is completely driving him bananas. Last year, he got all A's and one B for both the first and second trimester, but he did get straight A's for the third trimester---of which they hold no awards ceremony because the grades are completed after school is out....hahahahaha (sorry, it's kinda funy to me in a Murphy's Law sort of way). And now here we are again, first trimester of the new school year, and he still just barely missed it.

Now, I'm not pushing the kid for straight A's, let's be clear about that. I encourage it and support it, but this straight A thing is his goal, not mine. Now the funny bit was that he has developed a bit of a crush on a girl at school (plays flute in the band), and she landed the 4.0 Principal's Honor Roll, and when her name was called for it, his mouth flopped open, and then he sort of clenched his jaw a bit...hahahaha! What was even funnier to ME about that little moment, was I got to see the girl he has been crushing on (I knew here name, so I knew it was her when her name was called and she stood up)....and she looks like ME !! I nearly fell over. I took a picture of her because I honestly could not believe what I was seeing. She has long straight brown hair, and she has the same exact birthmark that I have, in the same exact spot on the cheek.

Now, I don't feel good about posting a stranger-kid's photo all over internet, but this is me as a kid:


...and she looks exactly like that.
Sans dorky headband, of course.
I think her teeth are probably straighter, too. LOL


In other good news, one of MyFK's closest buddies also got Honor Roll. This is super great, because he is one really smart kid, but this kid seemed to spend far more time last year being interested in how cool his clothes looked than his schoolwork, and it resulted in his going from really good grades down to D's and F's. The fact that he pulled himself up to Honor Roll again (and still looks cool, I might add), is really fantastic, so I took both kids out for a celebratory dinner. Which of course, was also a treat for me, 'cuz I didn't need to cook dinner (yay).



It rained here today, but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny.
I'm thinking it's gonna be lovely :-)