How Do You Make an Obsessive-Compulsive Happy?

Stick to the plan.

I was blissfully alone this morning as I got up, Wii'ed, and went about my recently revised morning routine. Not that the Hubs would have gotten in my way if he'd been up; we pass in the morning like ships in the night. But he was taking the day off today so he slept in, and K had nothing to do today so she was going to sleep in, too.

*sigh* I heart my routine. The only strange thing was that when everything that needed to be done was done, and I still had five minutes before leaving the house, I crashed. I sat down to read diaries, and suddenly my eyes got heavy and started to close. I pulled myself together and came to work, but once the testing started in the building and the library was empty, I put my head down on my desk for ten minutes and more or less slept. Very strange, because I both slept last night and had nice solid protein for breakfast. (When I'm Crohnish, I crave protein, and could have eggs three times a day.)

Ah, the sleeping. In response to a comment, I did try melatonin several years ago, but it had no effect on me at all. The Valerian Root Oil capsules that I'm taking now, though, are very good. Even the nights I've had trouble falling asleep for the last week -- and that was caused by a late phone call that disrupted my sleep routine for many days -- the Valerian helps me sleep more deeply once I do fall asleep. So I'm a fan of the Valerian.

Why, you may wonder, does K have nothing to do today? Ah, the joy of being the parent of a crazed student. I have these two daughters, you know. R started to read on her own at three, did a book report on The Little House in the Big Woods in kindergarten, did fourth grade math in first grade, and then proceeded to never do homework as long as she lived, and never care whether any assignment was in on time or at all. She got good SAT scores and decent, but not outstanding, grades. As long as her English teachers kept giving her books to read that weren't in the curriculum, she was happy.

The other one, however, learned to read in kindergarten like everyone else, and was on grade level with all her other subjects, but always complained about every assignment: she would never finish it on time, she would fail, she couldn't do it. Naturally, I assumed that this one was a struggling student; it took me years to realize that she was the crazy bright one, but had stress issues. I don't think she every missed a homework assignment from first grade up, and I don't know if she ever got less than an A in anything except advanced science in high school. She even got A's in math in high school, although she retained absolutely none of it. (That's my kid.) Whereas the other one intuitively understood all math (thanks to her dad) just as she had intuited reading; the only reason she didn't get A's was because she didn't do the homework. She got A's on all the tests.

I digress. K's big final project for her Methods of Teaching class is due on Thursday. It's the biggest deal in the education program other than student teaching. It's a teaching unit that consists of a minimum of six lessons. Early last week, she said she was going to get started on it, but with the holiday coming, she didn't see how she could finish it. She would have to work all day Friday, for starters, but we ended up having lunch with the Hubs' family on Friday. Oh, she was so behind!

(Note: I did not know at this point that "get started on it" meant that she already had her complete outline and four or five of the lessons done.)

She worked all weekend. No, it was never gonna happen, and if it did, it wouldn't be what her professors wanted. She couldn't fit it into six lessons; it was looking more like ten. It would be too long. It wouldn't be enough. And anyway, she had four other minor assignments to do, also due on Thursday. Couldn't be done.

We discussed some of it Sunday night. She said that on Monday she would show what crap she had to one of the professors so she would have time to do it all over, but then he didn't show up for his office hours. Yesterday morning, I printed it out for her in school -- about 125 pages -- and she went and got a binder and plastic sleeves and put it together. She made an appointment to see the other professor, who looked it over and beamed at her. It was perfect, he said, and wouldn't even give it back to her for more tweaking; consider it turned in. And about those other four assignments, he would speak to his co-teacher and see if he could get those cut back.

After dinner last night, she said, I don't know what to do! Should I take a break now? Work all day tomorrow? I still have that other stuff to do! An hour later, she came back downstairs and said she was all done.

It's exhausting to be her parent. But she's gonna be the most prepared teacher in America once she gets going.

Oh, and I was going to comment on the so-called Christmas wars thing. If someone says Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to me, it's all the same, and I take it in the spirit it was meant. Everybody needs to chill out on this one. When you are a minority in a country or an area, you need to accept that the world is not being tailored to you. I sang Christmas carols in school as a child, and with the Girl Scouts, and that's the way it was, even when my class was 90% Jewish and so was the teacher teaching us the songs. (I remember Mr. Miller the music teacher, who was both Jewish and gay before any of us knew what gay was, teaching us In Excelcis Deo in 7th grade chorus, and I thought it was such a beautiful song.) Those of us in these religious minorities, whatever they happen to be, either need to get used to the way it is here or live someplace else where it's different. No one is forcing us to believe, or even behave, in any way, which is what the Constitution protects us from. And if someone in a store says Merry Christmas to a Muslim, the Constitution protects the right to do that, too. It's not meant as an offense, it's meant as a gesture of goodwill. Take it from whence it comes, and let the rest go.


WATCHING FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #1926
READING: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd