Manic Monday

I had a lot of appointments today. And, of course, one of them got fubared -- it was no one's fault. I went in for my pelvic ultrasound, but apparently I'm a "slow filler" so it took 20 minutes longer for the 48 ounces of water that I drank between 7:15 and 7:40 a.m. to make it to my bladder. At 8:30 at my appointment, we were all ready to go, but my bladder was about 1/3 of the way behind. So, I got to pee and then got sent out to come back at 9:30. From 9-9:30 MacTroll and I toured Carrie Busey Elementary School. It's my third time there. I went last year by myself when Savoy finally got a proximity A school. Then I went back during the open house night with Quigs. We saw Mrs. Carswell, who always makes me happy to send my child to kindergarten if he can have a teacher that communicative. :-) But this year, the special treat was that Mr. Scott, the assistant principal that I liked so much at Southside when I toured last year, is now the principal at Carrie Busey.

MacTroll was pretty happy about the tour and seeing the inside of the building plans for the new building they're supposed to finish by the time X-man is in first grade. Mostly, he was really excited to see so much inclusivity in the classrooms. Carrie Busey is home to the district's education program for the deaf. So, it was awesome to see interpreters in the classrooms working with the librarian doing story time, side by side.

Afterwards, I went to the gym and did some strength training and road 20 miles on the bike in 60 minutes. I'm excited about reaching this ability of 3 minute miles, sometimes less. Right now it's while the bike is on level 11 of 20 and set to the "Alpine" setting.

Then I ran over to weight management, where I learned that a man who started the program with me had died. It was strange, because I had just seen him on the treadmill last Tuesday. He was 71, and he started the program morbidly obese and lost hundreds of pounds. I don't necessarily believe that exercise helps you live longer. I know that being lighter is less of a tax on the circulatory system, but I believe that being more mobile does make life a lot easier to live. I was sad to hear the news and read his obituary online.

After weight management, I picked up MacTroll, and we headed over to Robeson Elementary School. It was my first time in the building. Usually Robeson is a four strand school. (Four strand means they have 4 classes/teachers at each level.) Next year they will only be three strand in order to make more classrooms available for things like reading rooms, special education classes, etc. The principal seemed very excited about it. She has a child going into kindergarten next year, too, so she was very sympathetic with a lot of the confusion or questions parents had.

The fun part of the trip was that last year, our company donated a bunch of money to some kindergarten classrooms at Robeson, so we got to see the rugs and pillow chairs that we bought for them in use. :-)

We know Carrie Busey is our first choice, but we have to have a second and a third choice, just in case we don't get into the 85% likelihood that X-man gets to go to his soon-to-be neighborhood school. And I'm at a loss about what to do about spot two and three I know there are wonderful schools, but they're usually picked by everyone. Only 3-4 schools appear to have a copious amount of extra seats, mostly, I'm guessing, because they're situated in more impoverished neighborhoods where crime is greater. They also have lower test scores. To attract people to those schools, they've been putting on brand new additions and changing them to magnet schools. I'm working on arranging tours for MacTroll and I at all four locations. As a parent, you hear different things about people's school experiences. No one is every 100% happy, it seems. But I also find that parents are usually die-hards about the schools they ultimately get, because they want to be supportive of the environment their children go to every day.

By the time registration rolls around, I hope to have visited every elementary school. I'm a curious (i.e. nosy) person by nature. I blame it on my journalism experiences in college. But I also have a thirst for being in the know. Having more and more information, only makes me feel more secure about the choices I make. So, I started this process when X-man was 2, just to stay involved. I refuse to be overwhelmed. In fact, when MacTroll complained that the choosing part was too confusing, I sighed. This is the kind of stuff I want to think about. I like options. I like contingency plans.

The principal at Robeson said that we'd register by the end of March, and we'd find out what school we're going to by the end of April. Then we'd find out our teacher in August. So, keep your fingers crossed for me. My luck in percentages department has never been great...