Just Me

  Photo Credit: Shutterstock Today is the last day my youngest attended middle school. (It’s also the last day of my oldest’s summer vacation! He starts summer term at the university on Monday.) My youngest had their promotion ceremony yesterday (8 th grade graduation). When I shared pictures and a video from it on Facebook, I got to talking with some people about everything that my youngest has been through during middle school.   To say the least, middle school was NOT easy for them. They experienced bullying, harassment for being gay, a physical altercation with someone trying to steal something from them, problems with teachers, their mental health issues affecting their learning experience, and a serious sense of feeling lost and alone. (This was made worse when they started losing friends due to their social awkwardness and poor social skills.) I honestly contemplated transferring them to another school because it got so bad. But they insisted that they wanted to ...

  Today was a good first day of the month. I have been struggling with a poem I needed to write for one of my poetry books, and this morning I finally wrote a draft of it which I felt was satisfactory. Enough to stick in the book, anyway!   I also started writing another poetry book. I’ll share more details about it later!   I got all of my workouts done today. And I figured that since I was tracking my yoga on my Apple Watch, why not track the Tae Kwon Do as well? So I tried that out today and the results were … interesting. Not sure if I will keep using it.   My 12 Things for this year did not go well. In August, I had hoped to learn how to swim. I never really learned how to swim because every time I go underwater, I go into immediate panic mode. Seriously, I get scared, flail my arms and everything. One of my friends told me that some people have that problem. I always wondered if it was because I almost drowned in the ocean when I was a little kid....

  “It’s been a while since I have had a COVID test.”   Those were the words I said today after watching a nurse do TWO nasal swabs in one side of my son’s nostril. Yes, he got swabbed TWICE!   When did that start happening?? Have they changed the test? Or is this how they do the Rapid Test? I have never had the Rapid Test, so I don’t know.   Not that I’m complaining. I’m good! Don’t need another COVID test! I have had 5 since the pandemic started.   That’s five episodes of being in isolation. FUNNN.   But the good thing about the Rapid Test is that we didn’t have to wait days for results. We got results within the hour. Sure, it was still a long wait, but we got the results that same day!   Aside from that, I still managed to get some things done today. I’m so glad I chose to make a crockpot dinner tonight, because I didn’t have time to cook dinner until 6:30PM, and that was when I started making mashed potatoes!   ...