Carefree

Once the warm weather hits, attendance in my afternoon classes noticeably drops. There is a park on the river that I pass on the way to and from my car every day. Today every surface was covered in scantily clad men and women. The scent of coconut suntan oil was wafting in the breeze. As I was walking by in my "uniform" of jeans and t-shirt I wished for a moment that I was young and carefree. The only concern I would have is if my tan was even or not. Even when I was their age, I was older than my years and never was the type to sit out in the park and soak up the sun. Oh to be young again, never mind, I wouldn't want to go back again anyhow.

Zoo

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It was a beautiful Sunday today! As soon as Cole woke up this morning he wanted to go to the zoo. Since the weather was perfect my mom and I took him. We had a great time. I had given Cole my old camera and he took lots of pictures. These photos are from my new camera!

New Camera

I made a big purchase for myself. With a portion of my tax return I bought myself a new digital camera. My previous camera was old and didn't have many features. Since pretty much any free time I have is spent making memories with Cole, I thought it was a worthwhile expense. I really like my new camera, it takes great pictures and the features aren't too hard for me to figure out. The best part is the USB port so I can download right to my laptop (no more taking the memory card to Target to get a CD made). Here are some pictures of Cole I took tonight in his practice uniform (notice the remnants of his Scarlet Fever around his poor mouth).

Strep Throat part Deuce

Cole is sick again :-(. After swimming lessons on Thursday his cheeks were flushed. When we got home I took his temp and it was 101. It had hit 102.5 by the morning. I had to take him to work with me Friday, which was stressful when I know he really needed to be home resting. We went to the doctor late in the afternoon and sure enough he has strep and an ear infection again. Here we go with the struggling of giving medications again, at least this antibiotic is only once a day. This am when I woke up for work he was covered head to toe in a rash, the ear that had the infection in was swollen and blistered. I called the after-hours clinic and made an appointment. They wanted to see him right away to make sure it wasn't a reaction to the antibiotic. Again I had to work, so I had to write a letter of consent for my mom to take him. The additional diagnosis, Scarlet Fever. Looks like we will be spending a weekend with Scooby Doo and the gang.

A good man in the making

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. My mom had taken Cole shopping for me last weekend. The funny thing is he always wants to buy me jewelry and he knows what he wants to buy me when he sees it. He had kept his secret all week. On the way to school yesterday morning, Cole sleepily said, "I can't wait to get home tonight to give you your Valentimes gift." When I agreed that I couldn't wait to get home to exchange gifts as well, he said "I might have gotten you a necklace, or....I might not have." "If I got you a necklace it might be a circle with a heart....or It might not." "If I got you a necklace with a circle and a heart, don't put it on Tasha or Dozier (the dogs) because it might break". Hmmm....wonder what my gift was :-)

At school they exchanged Valentines, had a party and a Valentine Dance. When I went to pick him up, the ladies could not wait to tell me how much he danced, they said there was some Saturday Night Fever moves and lots of rump shaking (must be all those nights at the Broken Spoke) and they were in stitches the whole time. One of the moms video taped the event and is going to make me a copy.

So this got me thinking....he puts the toilet seat down, puts in clothes in the laundry hamper, is affectionate, buys jewelry for all the right occasions, and loves to dance, seems like he'll be a good man in the making (although R would say he'll be gay, because anytime a man does something thoughtful or respectful to a woman, this was a sign of weakness to him). Anyway...Happy Valentines Day!

Cole is dirty

Tonight after reading the Austin American Statesman my mom and I were talking about the proposed coal plants in Austin. My mom was holding up several pages from the metro section that had ads that said "Coal is dirty" "Coal is dirty". I heard a sharp intake of breath and looked over at COLE who by now had an indigent look on his face and said, "Granny I'm not dirty!" We cracked up. Oops.

Tonight after picking Cole up from school, he found a dandelion. He picked it up and said he was going to make a wish...

I wish for a telescope
I wish to drive a dump truck
I wish for some candy
I wish for me to be mom's boyfriend
I wish for mom to be my Valentime

I'm blogging this stuff, so when Cole hits his teenage years, I can show him how much he loved me :-)

Judgement

We all judge other people. We may not like to admit it but we do. It might be based on their clothes, their car, they way they speak, or the color of their skin but we do judge them.

There is a girl in three of my classes that sits next to me. She is a single parent and lives in Austin. The first ten minutes of the first day of class she wanted my phone number, e-mail address, and wanted to arrange car pooling. I agreed to the first two, but politely declined the last offer. As the days of school have turned into weeks, she has shared more and more of her life (without any prompting on my part - I assure you). Each morning is a monologue of how horrible her weekend or evening was, etc. Her son is 5 and in kindergarten which her mom takes to school everyday. She is divorced and the dad pays child support and has custody every other weekend, which he sticks to religiously (which irritates her, ironically). She has a boyfriend, they haven't been dating long, don't live together and she is pregnant with his kid. To date they haven't discussed any plans for becoming a family. Today she went on and on about her life and I can't help but judge her. I don't want to, but I was. I can't help but compare us. She was complaining about being tired and the girl that sits next to us and also hears the stories, said she didn't know how we go to school and are parents. She takes 8 hours and works part-time and is exhausted. The "monologue girl", said well I'm taking 8 hours and don't work and can barely stand it. She went off in a tirade about how her mom and friends say that she should work so she has some money. The other girl said if you don't work at all, how do you live? She said off child support. She lives in a government assisted housing project, has Medicaid, food stamps and financial aid and now about to have another child. When the other girl asked me how much I work and how many hours I'm taking (full-time and 15 hours) she just exchanged a glance with me over "monologue girl". Later in the morning, when "monologue girl" was complaining again about not having any money, the other girl asked why doesn't she move in with her mom, stating it would be easier on her to have some support and her mom who is shuttling the kid back and forth. She went on another tirade about how she tried living at home and would get into huge fights with her mom, because her mom didn't like how she disciplined her kid. When the other girl asked, what you mean she said "you know like if I spank or slap at him." When she saw us again exchanging glances, she turned to me and said, "What you don't spank your son?" giving me an incredulous look. I said, "No, I never have." She said, "Never? You mean you have never once whacked his hand with a brush to get his attention or spanked his bottom?" Again, "No". Before anymore 'sharing' could begin we were saved by the start of our last morning class together. So, yes I do judge her, I admit it. I'm sure I will the rest of the semester, since we have damn assigned seats.