Waking in the Blue

Pre-9 A.M. blues. Both kids on the bus. Primera is reading something called The Phantom Stallion, but it beats the Junie B. Jones books she'd been reading, which are Ramona the Pest lite. The vocabulary, at least, is more advanced, and the social situations are more complicated. My new rubric for evaluating fiction.

I bought this social skills tape for Primera, who didn't like it because the voice-over narrator guy annoyed her. Secundo, OTOH, loved it. It's his favorite tape and he watches it over and over. It's interesting: I see him as having some shadow versions of ASD issues, and yet he's quite socially perceptive when I ask him questions. But the, I have shadow issues and I can be quite perceptive, as long as the event isn't happening in real time and I don't have to respond to it personally. But as a kibitzer I am nonpareil.

The bad new version of IDEA is I'm sure about to be rolled out. The disability community really, really needs to get its shit together. Who are our lobbyists? And could they start going to the same gym the AIPAC guys go to? We just really suck. Why weren't there more intensive efforts? There was this frenzy of activity when HR 1350 was being rolled out, and then it just died after that.

I'm one cranky mama this week anyway. Had bad parent-teacher conferences for both kids. Secundo, the "easy" one, cries every day at school. About Primera, there was nary a positive word. The spousal unit is calling up the principal to have a little chat. Good. He is an excellent backup guy. It's important to have someone wtih a penis making these calls. Still. And as long as them's the rules....