The Po Show

Once Again

I hate to sound like a broken record (actually I am thrilled to be sounding like a broken record in *this* instance), but this year beats the hell out of last year. Today is my birthday (thank you, thank you very much). On my birthday *last* year, we had to go to an interview at the first day treatment program we visited. I was all stressed out, trying to find the place, worrying about how to deal with the timing of picking up Ross at a train station near the campus. I was stressed out in general, with the whole "we have to find a placement for Matthew and it's SUMMER and we're leaving for CA next week" situation.

So we had both kids in tow, and no one was expecting us. We waited for the director, who was in another meeting, for almost an hour. When we finally did see him, he had no idea who we were, had not seen Matthew's file, could only tell us that there were no spaces available for next year. He tried his best to give us an introduction to the place, and when Matthew heard that it was a year-round program, with a summer session, he flipped out and started banging his head. We got him together enough to go on a brief tour of the campus, which was quite nice, but it was all a bizarre and upsetting experience. Afterwards, Ross asked me where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner (woohoo, let's party now!) and we ended up going to Cheesecake Factory and it was very nice, but I was so emotionally drained.

My birthday this year was much nicer. Tessa went to art and music camp, which she is loving (it's just too adorable to see her playing "Hot Cross Buns" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on her half-size violin), so Matthew and I were alone for most of the day. We went to the library and to the mall, had lunch and frozen yogurt, and went grocery shopping. I received a TON of lovely birthday wishes via Facebook and email, including an ecard from my sister that featured a dog that was shocked when the question "How old ARE you?" came up on the screen :D. Tessa came home and disappeared into her room, where she proceeded to make me THREE sets of cards and gifts (each in a shoe box, and I was supposed to choose one :)). Ross came home early, bearing flowers, and I had a brownie with a candle in it so they could sing Happy Birthday to me. I received a beautiful black dress and three pairs of wool socks (I had been saying that most of my wool socks were shot, so he found some SmartWool socks on sale at Nordstrom Rack :)). My sister called and I had a nice long talk with her. Now I'm having birthday cocktails (acai juice and vodka, because you know that as you get older, you need a lot more antioxidants :D). So all in all, a lovely birthday indeed.

Oh, and we found out that we totally dodged a bullet with that other day treatment program. We were talking to the parents of a girl who had gone there for a year (till they pulled her out and managed to get her placed in Matthew's school) and it would have been completely, disastrously wrong for him. Apparently the staff there is great, but the student population is very tough, to put it mildly, and Matthew would have gotten eaten alive there.

So there, more this year goodness.