happy string & the list o' kvetch

Down at the bottom of this post you will find, as promised, my Craptacular List o' Kvetch.
Personally, I'd skip it and just read the nice stuff I'm gonna put here up top. This is my attempt to bury doody. My goal for tomorrow it to bury the doody even deeper with a photo heavy post about the SF Ravelry Meet-Up.
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Happy String

Last night, after that lame-assed post I wrote for y'all, things actually improved a bit. MyFavoriteKid came out of his room with a very long rubber-band, and said, "Look what I can do with this, mom!" What he did was make a tangled up stretchy mess, but what I realized he was trying to do was some sort of Cat's Cradle string game. Well, I was all over that.

We ditched the rubber band and replaced it with a loop of string (no shortage of that around here), and then jumped on YouTube to watch a couple of How-To videos. I used to be a pro a this as a kid, but I was seriously due for a refresher. It's totally like riding a bike, though. It was like I was in a time warp. Within a few minutes MyFK and I were side by side with our loops of string doing this:



I never thought I'd get a chance to do something like this with him. I never thought he'd be interested. When I was kid, this was something us girls did on the playground and the boys steered clear. Like, a wide berth, if I do reacall. Turns out times have changed, because several of MyFK's guy buddies have been running around with string trying to figure this stuff out.

I went to bed thinking, "Ya' know, when I was little girl and I learned how to do this, it may very well have been my first love of string! Watching it twist and turn and seeing how it wove into itself and what part your hands played in it, and then *poof!*. You wove it into some sort of magic. This may have been the beginnings of what inspired me to knit, I fell asleep wondering.

Except when I woke up this morning, I realized that the Cat's Cradle thing was our playground activity in 6th grade...but I learned how to knit when I was only 7 years old, and I knit a cardigan for my doll in a 4th grade after school program. So the Cats Cradle games came after.

I wonder what, if anything, came before the first time I picked up yarn and needles at age 7. I'm starting to have images of granny square blankets, and holiday gifts made by my aunt, and sitting and watching my great-grandma fiddling with something, but I'm just not sure.
I wish I could remember.

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Seriously, I'd just move along.

The KVETCH---as in, a rant that goes something like, "Can't you people just stay outta may way? My life is difficult enough with ME getting in my OWN way!"


* The State of California has sent me a letter. It was dated Monday 5/10, is postmarked Tuesday 5/11, and I got it late Thursday evening 5/13. It says I am required to appear in their offices at 10am on Tuesday 5/18 (to determine the fate of my insurance coverage) with a whole stack of papers and details that I cannot put together that quickly. The letter says I can call if there is a problem and make other arrangements. I phoned first thing the next morning to say I have a problem (short notice, plus I have a hugely important physical therapy at that exact same time). I got a voicemail telling me to leave a message and they will call me back in two business days. That was Friday. I got no call today, Monday.
Thanks, people.


* MyFK's drama teacher has decided there will be an post-productions cast party this Thursday, which she just announced this afternoon. I know it's still a few days away so I have a chance to wrap my brain around it, but here's the rub: this party of hers is to be held after school from 330pm to 5pm. ALSO HAPPENING THAT NIGHT? Every student from ALL classes are required to show up between 6pm and 730pm WITH parents in tow, to meet in the kids' homeroom so the kids may give an oral presentation about what they have learned this year. If they kids and parents do not show, the kids will fail a simple pass/fail homeroom. So I guess between 5pm and 6pm I am supposed to pick MyFK up after the drama party, drive him home, feed him dinner, make sure he's got his homework done, and get him back for his presentation (which includes dressing up and bringing props).
I should maybe tell you that all of this comes on the heels of her forcing required play rehearsals DAILY the same week that the state tests were taking place. I notified that principal that his letters home about, "Make sure your child is well fed and well rested," were ignored by his own staff. Next year's productions will take place earlier in the year.
Anyhow: Thanks, lady.


* The math teacher, the math department, the school administrators, the school district, and/or the state of California (not sure who to be pissed of at yet, so why not just be annoyed with all of them). This year MyFK is taking 7th grade advanced placement math (Algebra I), and there are two classrooms of 36 kids taking this one. Next year, for the 8th grade advanced placement math (Algebra II), there will only be one classroom of 36. Last Friday there was a surprise test issued (the day after annual State testing was completed--meaning, the day that the kids finally let their guards down after two weeks of stress), and this one test will determine which 36 kids will move forward. What this means is that if even if the student got an "A" in the class all year long, and even got, let's say, a 91% score on this surprise test, if he ranks as student number 37 with his grade on this one pop quiz? He/she will be repeating Algebra I again next year. So I might get to rally and fight this one (energy out), or I will have to spend all of the 2010/2011 school year listening to my kid complain about repeating the work (also energy out). There are a few other ideas I have to make this better, but I need to get some info from the school before I turn into a tornado.
So School folk?? Thanks, to all of you, too.
(*update to this: MyFK thinks he ranked 21 out of 36 and that he is in. I have no written proof yet, though.)


* My immediate dance community. I also feel very restricted by the scheduling issues that keep arising between my co-teachers and fellow performers when it comes to teaching and/or performing. This has been going on for over a year now, over and over again in various forms, and it once again points to the fact that I am overdue in assessing whether or not this is working for me anymore. I'm not as pissed off at my dance-folk as I am at the state or the school folk, but it's still in the same category---but if there was more flexibility and consideration in regards to scheduling coming from my counterparts, I wouldn't be in this place of figuring out if I need to basically redesign my entire creative life. So, Thanks.



There's more, but I'm sick of thinking about it and I'm sick of rambling. Some of these are big deals, some of them are not--I know that. I know that I am just making them big deals. I know I do that. I am the Queen of Doing That.


Now. Tomorrow. Pictures. And we'll just make this all go back to being no big deal.