Hope

We called a Family Holiday yesterday. Julio stayed home from work, Harrison stayed home from school, Mom and Dad came over before 8:30 - AM, and we spent the entire day watching Inauguration festivities.

Julio made a delicious breakfast casserole, and we gorged ourselves as we lived through history together in our family room. After the ceremony was completed, GW made the most dramatic helicopter escape since the fall of Saigon, and when the news teams were turned away from Statuary Hall so the Obamas could eat lunch off-camera, Julio and I raced to KFC and brought back lunch, which we devoured in our own "private luncheon" as we watched the reporters scramble for information about Ted Kennedy's seizure. Deedee even volunteered to pick up my daycare kids at school and bring them over, so we could stay put and watch the parade, which we did until the shoddy coverage and redundant punditry got so annoying we finally switched over to The Simpsons.

Since November 4, I've been trying to imagine the best way to orchestrate this historic time to make it the best possible memory for Harrison. This is the kind of event that you talk about the rest of your life. You are supposed to remember exactly where you were and what you were doing "when the Chief Justice screwed up because he wouldn't just read the oath". What stories will he tell friends and family when he is my age?

Unfortunately, my efforts were thwarted by Harrison's sorry excuse for a teacher. He had another run-in with her yesterday, which resulted in him spending the last part of his half-day of school talking to the school counselor.

Are you imagining horrible things? I was too. It turns out he forgot to put his name on a paper he handed in. The teacher gave him a dressing down, and he hurried to correct his heinous lapse in judgment. In his haste, he left out the "i" in his name, which drew him an additional tongue-lashing "Harrison, get back here! You forgot how to spell your own name!". This is not an uncommon occurrence in that class, but it happened right before lunch and his blood sugar was low, so rather than just keep his head bowed and retreat to his desk, Harrison also started to cry. Bad move. She called him up again and asked him to explain himself, and goaded him to speak up, until he blurted out "I just don't like you!" This led to "serious conversation" and the trip to the counselor. They scheduled a "meeting" for today, with the counselor acting as mediator between Harrison and the teacher.

So rather than enjoy time with the family, and really being able to celebrate and absorb the historic events unfolding before him yesterday, he spent the day engulfed in anxiety and worry about today's meeting.

Harrison is a very forgiving person, and generally very diplomatic. He made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he wants to handle this situation himself and not have me step in on his behalf. I have faith that he will handle things today better than I would, and I hope it doesn't turn into the "two against one" scolding that they seem to have set him up for. I'm praying that it resolves the issues he's been struggling with all year long, and that he'll be able to look forward to going to school the way he did for his first 5 years of school.

But even if things work out for the best, I myself am going to have difficulty forgiving that woman for robbing Harrison of the full experience he should have had yesterday, and for creating a learning environment so toxic that Harrison no longer enjoys reading or doing homework, and has had more sick days in 4 months than he had the prior two years combined.