I overslept today (shocking, I know) and got my kids to school late. I tried to find a parking spot so I could go into the office and sign the kids in. No dice. The school only has a handful of parking spaces for visitors and they're always taken by faculty and staff despite the fact that there's a half empty "staff only" lot. So I trudge into school, through the snow, across the street, dragging four kids with me.
Once in the office, Clay heads over to the cup of pencils that sits on an end table in the waiting area. This is his routine. Whenever we set foot in the office, he grabs the pencils and plays with them. When it's time to leave, he puts the pencils back and we go. So, today, he headed over to the pencils and picked them up at which point the secretary told him, in a very snotty way, "Put those down! You can't touch them. They're not for children!"
Seriously? A cup of PENCILS sitting on a low table in a SCHOOL isn't for children?! Who are they for? Do they pass them out to adults? Are they only for visiting dignitaries? Are they reserved for teachers? Are they just a priceless decoration to be admired and never touched? They're PENCILS, for crying out loud and my son was just holding them. Not stealing them. Not throwing them. Not sticking them up his nose.
I was already flustered because we'd all overslept and I was trying to get four kids ready in five minutes and my ADHD son was out of control and belligerent this morning, so when she went off on Clay for no reason, it really ticked me off. I mean, that kid gets himself into enough trouble on his own and didn't deserve to be reprimanded for touching some pencils!
Upon leaving, I looked at the principal and stated, in an out-of-control sort of way,"You know what would be really nice? If VISITOR spots were left open for VISITORS instead of being taken by staff every day!" This has bothered me for a long time, but since I know the secretary parks in a visitor spot every day and she'd just ticked me off, I retaliated in a burst of anger.
I'm mad at myself for losing it like that. I should have stopped and thought that maybe the secretary had had a bad morning herself. Maybe she'd just had to deal with a kid who wasn't behaving in class. Maybe she'd gotten a phone call with bad news before she left for school. Who knows. Anyway, I should have been the bigger person and instead, I was just as nasty as she'd been.
See? When someone is nasty to you, it's easy to turn around and act the same way to someone else. I didn't need to chew out the principal. It's much harder to turn around and be nice to someone despite the way we were treated. On the flip side, (like those Coke commercials I like) when you do something nice/good for someone else, it's pretty easy for that person to pass the kindness on to someone else.
You guys have passed a lot of kindness on to Julian and his family. I want to thank everyone for checking out Michelle's auction to benefit Julian. After I posted it on my blog, the hits on the auction jumped up by leaps and bounds. You guys are great!
I have really bad news though. I just got an email from Mimi. The results of Julian's tests today were awful. The cancer has spread through his brain and his spine. He only has weeks to live. They'll be meeting with hospice tomorrow. :*(
I picked Clay up from kindergarten yesterday like I always do. He hopped in the car and I asked him, "How was school, Monkey?"
