Boo

Did I scare you?
I know it's been awhile since I checked in.

Since I last showed up here, several things have happened.

I was still not feeling well the rest of the week. In fact, I am not at 100% even now, although I'm functioning pretty well.

On Tuesday morning, Eric and Alyssa drove Bob to the airport. EARLY. His flight was at six AM, meaning he wanted to be there about five. I went back to bed after saying goodbye. I was still not feeling very good.

I went to see my doctor on Monday morning and we discussed the whole situation. Another day or so and I would have been dealing with tests and other crazy things, so I'm glad things slowed down when they did.

I had an opportunity to ask her about the instructions found on my bottle(s) of Imodium. The instructions are to take two tablets with your first, um, problem, then one each time you have the same problem. But not to exceed six in a 24 hour period.

Only problem with that is that the explosions were happening six times in twenty four minutes at their worst. Not a good experience. Ugh.

She said that the main danger from taking too many is that it can have the opposite effect. Which is also not good.
"I have geriatric patients who do this all the time," she told me. "And then because things have slowed down, they worry and take a laxative. Apparently they think they need to go every day, and if they haven't, it causes them to mess with their system in a way that's not necessarily good for their health.

So yeah. That has 'passed'. Ha.
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All week last week the kids were just bouncing off the walls. And each other. One of the craziest weeks in memory at this job.

They were disrespectful to each other, weren't listening to me, and were physical, crabby and moody and loud. And physical. And mean. And pushing each other around both physically and verbally. I saw actual bullying, three boys ganging up on a fourth. A big surprise, as the boys who were being mean generally would never even consider behaving that way.

The worst part was that the kid they were yelling at hadn't even done anything.

Timmy had brought his book outside and left it on a bench. The wind was fierce and there were leaves and papers and other debris blowing around. When it was time to come in, he walked over to the bench to get his book and found it on the ground. Harry* was the closest person to the bench, so Timmy started yelling at him. "Why did you throw my book on the ground?!!?!"

Harry looked mystified. "Huh?" he said. "I didn't touch your book!"

And then the two Davids joined Timmy in yelling at Harry. They were about six inches from his face, shouting at him. Of course I intervened. And because it had been witnessed by every child in the group, I talked to the three boys in front of the group.

"First, Harry didn't touch your book, Timmy. If you've been paying attention, you know that it's very windy out here. Your book fell on the ground because you didn't weigh it down with anything and you walked away and left it. It's not okay for you to yell at Harry about it. And YOU two," I said, turning to the Davids, "You two have NO business joining in. It's not your book. You had nothing to do with it. All three of you are behaving in an appalling manner. What's it called when several kids gang up on someone like this? Anyone?"

A chorus of "Being a bully/bullying/being mean."

Yeah. That. "And do we do that here?"

Another chorus. Most of the kids said no, except Bill* the class clown, who yelled out an enthusiastic YES.
He thinks he's funny.
And sometimes he actually is.

But he hasn't figured out when to keep his mouth closed yet. I have high hopes that eventually, he will.

I turned to him and said, "Bill. If you don't have something to contribute to this conversation that's helpful, please keep your opinions to yourself. You're not helping with this at all. Did you not notice that Harry is feeling bad and that these three," I gestured toward them, "are causing ugliness in the middle of our group? You shouting out an inappropriate response in the middle of the mess isn't appreciated or wanted. I'm not really thrilled to hear this from you."

He knew better than to say anything else. But he'll do it again. Because he's Bill.

Timmy spent the rest of the afternoon beating himself up. Every time I looked over at him, he was looking down, looking sad. I did go talk with him about it, and told him that the incident was closed. "If you can remember not to do that to someone again, then you've learned from it, Timmy. That's all I ask."

He didn't brighten up a whole lot. One reason I try not to be too hard on him is that he is much meaner to himself than I could ever be to him.
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And I have more to say. Lots more. But today is our 35th wedding anniversary and we're going to go out and do anniversary-type stuff.
So you'll have to check in tomorrow for more.

35 years. Huh.