mothers on the verge

Recently, I've been cryptic of the things in our lives that have been causing problems in our household. No more details but I will say they basically manage to cover all the bases of normal life stresses: work concerns, lawyers who steal money from you, best friends of 15 years who drop you because you don't want to discuss politics, and your children. Very normal stuff. But lately I have found that instead of wanting to rant about these things, I have become a bit of a recluse. Clammed up. Shied away from most contact other than that forced upon me, like when picking up The Rabbit, smiling at The (S)mothers and trying very hard not to make eye contact so as to not have to engage even in that normal banter: "How ya doing!" I guess I know I should just smile and say, "Great." But it's so that I'm afraid if I open my mouth, swarms of flies and bees will erupt out and cause perfectly normal G-d fearing folk to back away in stunned repulsion. And so I...

So according to a new study , the more stressed a pre-K teacher is, the more likely they are to expel a student. Hmmm. So the more of a misfit a teacher, the more likely an innocent child is to be harmed, perhaps permanently, in school. The numbers are very striking: Of teachers who reported "high stress," 14.3 percent had a student that was expelled, from the 4,000 pre-K classes that were randomly surveyed for the report. But of teachers who reported "low stress," just 4.9 percent expelled a student. Boys? Expelled 4 and a half times more often than girls. Older children and African Americans? Also more at risk, according to the Foundation for Child Development, a private, low-income child-focused organization. Okay, some children are just not ready for school. And many teachers are in impossible situations. But it seems to me we have a serious problem here, some big red flags, and I have to wonder how No Child Left Behind, that munchkin-land like solution to real ...

When The Prince and I were dating we took one of those personality tests. You know. The ones where you're assigned a series of letters that attempt to clarify your uniqueness. Anyway...so when we went back to see our results, this guy had put some numbers on the floor. I was told to stand at one end, and The Prince at the other. This was the gap in our way of handling situations. Basically, I'm close to an atomic stress ball and he's a Zen master. How does that work in our life? Welcome to our holidays: I have 15 lists, in different colors, in a spiral bound notebook. The Prince has a six-pack in the fridge.

The Prince is changing jobs and has a few days off before his next NEW gig starts Monday (yeah!!!!!!!!) and so today we're taking a mini-holiday, about 4 hours while The Rabbit's in school and before we pick her up to just walk around the city. It's a gorgeous day -- about 65 today -- perfect Fall like weather IF YOU LIVE IN ARIZONA. (I don't ever want to hear again that Global Warming is a myth.) And so we're going to look for a new suit for him, maybe a birthday present for me, maybe even a cup of coffee some place we've never been. Some place quiet. Where people smile. I really need this day. He and I have been sniping at each other, and I just need a serious break from the phone and the computer -- no more calls about legal stress, work stress, family stress. I just need a few hours with him, with me, to just be. Tomorrow we're taking The Rabbit out of school (her magical teacher is thrilled -- she said to me yesterday, "Family time is so importan...