More Shit and yet hope too

Zach slept through school yesterday and it's beginning to look like he's going to do it again today. He was up all night and fell asleep 20 minutes ago. It's 5AM. Not conducive to getting up at 6:45 for school. His DSS case worker will be here tomorrow afternoon for our first meeting. This may not go well. But the good news is the change in his medication. She, the clinical nurse specialist, upped the dosage on his Adderall and I gave it to him yesterday afternoon for the first time. What a difference! He was calm, relaxed, and well-behaved. He even noticed the change. He rarely ever sees the difference his meds make but this one was so obvious. I think his problem sleeping last night had a lot to do with a cup of coffee he had and that he didn't get up until 1:30 in the afternoon. I hate when this happens. Nicole used to have this problem too. Her sleep pattern would get disrupted and it would take days to get her back on track. Hopefully he'll be back in sync tomorrow.

Nicole had her pre-op check-up yesterday and everything is good so surgery is on for tomorrow morning. She wants the boyfriend there. I'm so tired of the boyfriend. He's a big guy so he's hard to avoid. I don't want to be tripping over him but hopefully he'll be smart enough to leave for his class at 3PM (in New Hampshire!). His being at the house will let me check in with my professors if she's feeling ok after the procedure. I've missed so much school on Mondays and Wednesdays so it's the same 2 classes that are suffering. Both teachers are being understanding but that will only go so far.

I did the pre-registration for next semester. It's my last three classes. Then I'll have another Associates degree but even more so, a decision. Where to go from here? I know I'm going to continue on. Now it's just deciding where that will be. I've narrowed it down to 3 schools. Smith College, UMASS, and Hartford Art School. UMASS is my least favorite but because of my enrollment at the community college, I'm already accepted so it's the easiest to get into. Smith will look at my academics (3.85 GPA) and Hartford will look at my portfolio (I'm unsure how it looks). I'm not ready yet. :~) I need to do some campus visits and department visits. Smith and Hartford have state of the art photo departments and UMASS doesn't so they are already heads above but UMASS is part of the 5 college consortium so I could take classes at Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, and Mt. Holyoke as part of my curriculum at UMASS (can do the same at Smith). I have a lot to take into consideration.

2 photos published in the college paper

Shit, shit, and more shit

This has been a shitty week so far. I went to court with Zach on Monday on the CHINS case for his truancy. Since he'd been suspended twice and missed or was late many days since we were there in January, I knew what we were facing. He had to go before the judge and admit he was a "CHild In Need Of Services" and that meant that legal custody of him would go to the Department of Social Services. I have physical custody however. So this is pretty bad, right? What does my son do? He's late to school the next day and then gets detention for insubordination. Ok. I'm trying to keep it together. Wednesday he tells me he's got another detention on Thursday. I'm thinking "Great - they are not going to like this." but little did I know how that day would unfold. I called home after my last class yesterday and Nicole told me that Zach was home when she got there so I'm panicking. He's going to get suspended for skipping detention. She put him on the phone and he advises me that he didn't serve the detention because he'd already been suspended. Lovely! Sure enough, I come home to find a message on the answering machine from the newly appointed case worker from DSS wanting to meet with me (he doesn't know yet) to go over the details of how this will work.

So what do I do now? His attitude sucks so bad. He refuses to accept the responsibility of his behavior at school. His view is that the Vice Prin. is out to get him. He didn't really do anything wrong. He's not getting it or he is and he's trying to play us. I can't get ahold of his father - naturally. I am so frustrated and don't have a clue what to do.

I'm juggling 4 classes, a part-time job, two full-time kids, and very messy house. My ex does not help with the kids at all and never has. My daughter is having surgery next week. My car is falling apart as are my joints so I'm in physical therapy. Something has to give and I don't know what that will be but I'm guessing it'll be Zach's residence.

Nicole's nervous about next week so Zach's crap is really stressing her out. She doesn't do stress well. She ends up aggravating him even more in her misguided attempts at helping him see the light and we end up in WWIII. That I haven't had a heart attack is such a blessing.

So I keep breathing as deeply as I can and putting my faith in a Divine Source that will lead us to the highest good for us all. Whatever comes of this will make us stronger. I have to believe.

I'm published - photographically

I signed up to do photography for the student newspaper on campus and last month they assigned an event to me. It was Black History month and the campus was hosting a Black Invention Exhibit. At the exhibit, many groups of children came and performed essays and poems as well as double dutch. I took a couple of great shots of the kids and they ended up on the front page of the next issue.

I am a published photojournalist!! I am so excited. I have been experiencing a host of firsts and this one is precious to me.

The exam results

I passed both but one much better than the other. I got a 98 on the test in Critical Survey of Photography and about a 78 in Art History II. I missed out on points on the second essay because I was out the day he discussed one of the sculptures that was being compared; Mary Magdalen by Donatello. Oddly, I got 6.5 out of 10 without being in class for the lecture so I felt really good about that. I got 8 out of 10 on the first essay and 12 out of 14 on the slide id's. Overall I was extremely pleased. If I do better on the remaining 2 tests, he'll lower the effect of the first test on my grade so I have a chance to get an A. I'm trying to keep my GPA up. I'm at 3.85 right now and want it to stay there. It'll help me when I transfer.

Midterm in Critical Survey tomorrow. I am not ready. I'll be studying tonight!