Wierdness and Chaos
Okay, i have STARTED to submit an entry to this blog for 3 days over the past week. Each time I have had to leave the house, reboot my computer or some other moment of chaos has taken over my life so that I was not able to complete my post, and I've had to start over. So here I am, trying again.
I really wanted to post about the wierdness that detailed my life last Friday. Perhaps some of you can relate. And those of you who can't relate, well, you can just learn from my experiences that sometimes strange things happen which are beyond your control, regardless of any action on your own part. This type of thing happens to me on a more subtle level quite frequently, but Friday was just "One of THOSE days".
The night before we had gone to our friends house for a visit, and so my husband could fix their computer for them. Comcast went to their house to fix their modem and ended up breaking their network, so my husband fixed it for them. We went in the car, instead of the truck, which is unusual because the car only seats 5 people (we have 6 in our family) but one child was at camp, so it was ok this time. Friday afternoon I was supposed to go to clean house for the lady who gave us the puppy. I had planned to leave the house about 1:00, around noon as I was finding all the kids shoes and getting everyone ready to go, I realised I didn't know where my pouch was. I looked everywhere. I looked in the truck 3 times. I looked everywhere in the house again. I called my friend to see if I had left it at her house. No where to be found. So I called my husband at work to have him go look in the car. A few minutes later he calls back, yes, it's in the car at work with him. So I have to call the lady and explain all this to her and postpone the housecleaning for later that day, because I can't leave the house until my husband gets home from work with my pouch. Within 20-30 minutes of hanging up from talking to her, my cousins show up on my doorstep. (They live about 3 or 4 hours from us, and have never been here before, so this was rather a surprize I can tell you!) I had absolutely no clue they were coming. Her husband was complaining that MapQuest doesn't give proper directions to our house, and I'm explaining how very lucky they were to find us home at all, because I was supposed to be out of town cleaning house for the lady at that moment. They had come to pick up their laptop which my husband repaired for them, and after a bit of a misunderstanding about the cost of the repairs, they left to find some food. My husband left work on time (as opposed to getting overtime, so it was like he was leaving early) so that I could get up to the house and do the work I had agreed to do. Thankfully the housecleaning experience was without frustration or chaos, and went quite smoothly. However, I was very tired afterwards, and it was hot out, and we were about 2 hours past our normal dinner time and everyone was famished, so my husband decided it would be alright if we spend a little bit of his computer repair money on a cheap dinner at Wendy's. I very gratefully agreed to this idea. So I'm standing in line quietly, waiting my turn. There were about 2 people in front of me and 2 behind me. When I got to the register the lady behind the counter asked me, "Is this for here?" And I said, "No it's to go, I'm ordering for my whole family." She replies, "Oh dear." And then she looks at the man in line behind me, and asks him, "How many items will you be ordering, Sir?" to which he answers "Oh I don't know. Just a hamburger and cup of chili I guess. Not real sure yet." So she looks at me and asks, "Would you mind if he goes first?" I stand there for a moment of stunned silence, and then say, "But I was here first?". She waved her hand and said "Oh, well nevermind then."
I still can't beleive she said that... I have never had to defend my place in line at a place of business before to the chashier! In grade school when I was in line for the school lunch, kids used to push me out of line, and then tell the teacher I was taking cuts when I tried to reclaim my place. And I had kids push me out of the seats on the school bus when I was growing up. But supposedly we're all adults now, I've moved 1500 miles away from the town I grew up in. And this was a professional place of business. I'm planning to order 6 meals (which actually she didn't even know how many people were in my family because they were all out waiting in the car with my husband, all I said was that I was ordering for my family), which should equate to a fair amount of money in relation to the per-person sales. And she is asking me to step back in line? People are strange.
So, fast-forward to today, and we are again at a food establishment. This time, it is a city program to provide free lunches to the children in the community during the summer when public schools are not in session, adults pay a modest price if they wish to eat with their children. It seems like a good program. It provides meals to disadvantaged families and bored children alike in a very non-judgemental setting. There is no application fee, or disclosure of personal financial status. Just if you are a kid you eat free, if you are an adult you can opt out or pay a modest fee to eat. Neat huh? And then afterwards the kids can go out to the school yard and play on the playground. So I met a friend and her children at the cafeteria, I took the kids to eat, I had already eaten at home. My children, due to being homeschooled I suppose?, are not used to eating quickly and by the time they were done eating our friends had already left the playground. But I decided to let the kids play a while anyway. They have different toys on the school playground than at the city parks we usually go to, and it looked like fun.
I won't be taking the kids to the free lunch at the school again. While I was out on the playground with the kids after eating, one boy called me over "Hey Lady!" So I responded, and he said "Isn't Pot good for you?" I said "What?" He said "Pot is good for you right?" I said "No. No it is not." and he said "But it prevents cancer and stuff like that" It seemed he was trying to convince his friend to try pot. I said "No, it is not good for you. It destroys your brain cells and adulterates your behavior patterns so that you can't make wise decisions." And he said "But I can make wise decisions" and then started this lying game where one minute he says he never has smoked pot and the next he says he smokes it every day. I just gathered up the kids at that point and left.
I suppose this is the type of socialization that pubilc schooled children get that everyone says our children are missing out on? Thanks, but no thanks! I thank the Good LORD and our government legislators who have made it legal for me to school my children at home where I can teach them the difference between truth and lie, the difference between medicine and drug abuse, and the difference between right and wrong. From that brief interaction with that boy, I can see that such values are not upheld very highly among school children these days. I may be subject to random moments of uncontrollable chaos, but I like to hang on to as many variables as it's possible for me to control. And I am thankful for the chance to homeschool, a privledge we have in this country that I can control how my own children are educated, and by whom they are educated. People fuss a lot about freedoms, and lack of freedoms, in the news and media. But I would like to salute our American Soldiers who dedicate their lives to making sure that we have such freedoms as these.
God bless the USA!
-Sparkling
