Halloweening

This weekend was a rush of Halloween stuff, and yet next weekend is even more packed. You wanted the pandemic over so we can all get back to life as it was? Be careful what you wish for. I can honestly say, though, do I find social gatherings more exhausting now because I haven’t done them in eighteen months? No, they were always exhausting. Everything is exhausting when you’re middle aged. 

After a couple of weeks of back and forth and printers failing and children failing to remember to return evaluation request forms…turns out Bobby doesn’t need to be evaluated after all; apparently his OLSAT score still qualifies him to apply for gifted programs. He’s “high ability”. I sure wish someone had just told me this in the first place. But, no harm, no foul - I still have time to apply for the schools we want. Right now I’m focusing on Eagle Rock jr/sr high as my first choice. It’s an International Baccalaureate program, has high college placement, and excellent scores (especially for this area). My only concern is it may be too intense for us - the last thing I want is my kid bogged down with hours and hours of homework like I was at that age; it was miserable. But we’ll never know if Bobby can rise to the challenge if we don’t at least try to have him in an intense program. Also, he may not even be accepted. So there’s that. But in discussing with other parents it does seem the smart thing to do is apply to Eagle Rock only this year (it doesn’t start until 7th grade) and then apply again next year, and next year list the back up schools, which would be Luther Burbank and one other, possibly Washington Irving, which apparently can be gotten into even late. So Bobby will either go to Eagle Rock for 7th and if he doesn’t get in, Luther Burbank for 6th. So at least I have some clarity now. I’m going to an Eagle Rock zoom tonight to get a better picture of the place, and then on Thursday I’ll drive around to look at other schools at least from the outside. 

The city of LA grant was supposed to have launched today - it has not. Also, I was supposed to have a wedding planner from the desert call yesterday after two; she didn’t. And two places I’m waiting on for estimates for catering never answered me. The contractor was supposed to start the cabin this week after two months of neglect; he now says it’ll be next week. Sigh. And so it goes. 

We’re all really “doing” Halloween this year - everyone’s dressing up (me - bumble bee, the F - a frog, Theo - blow up alien carrying kid, Bobby - some scary Harry Potter thing that I don’t know about because Gen X); we’re going back to our Before Times trick or treat spot; I’m going to a Halloween dance on Thursday that I’ve not attended in years; I’m helping out at the school’s drive-through Halloween thing (called In N Ouch - see what they did there??). It’s a lot. But it’s also a lot of fun. It’s not lost on me that one day soon these Halloween-with-kids days will be over forever, so I’m going to enjoy the heck out of every single one we have left.