I have a headache
…both literally and figuratively. My figurative headache is speech therapy. Yesterday (the Monday of the last week of school, mind you, two days before Zeke’s last speech therapy session of the year) I received a letter from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools notifying me that they are restructuring special ed services next year. Instead of going to the elementary school down the street for speech therapy, Zeke will be going to a school in another neighborhood. There are transportation issues, about which I am purposely not stressing, because I am hoping that by the end of August I will be able to drive him, and besides, we might move by then.
More importantly, he is going to have to get used to a new therapist. It takes him a while to warm up to new people. He’s been with his current therapist for two years. He is comfortable with her and he’s been making progress. She is good at her job, and she and I communicate well. We just plain like her. Zeke’s going to be sad to say goodbye to her, and I will, too. I’m so pissed at CMS. You know what gets me the most? The letter said that the changes were made “to better serve these students.” No, they weren’t. Everyone knows they weren’t. Just be honest, CMS. Say they were made because of budget cuts.
I need to rant and rave for a few days, but then I guess I’ll hope for the best. No sense in assuming the worst or seeing all change as a bad thing. For all I know, his next therapist might be fantastic. I was wary when we started with his current therapist, and she’s actually really great. And I want to set a good example for Zeke, and make sure he knows I have faith in his ability to handle a new situation and thrive in it.
On a happier note… Look what we did with my parents on Sunday:
The Charlotte Knights are our local Minor League team, the AAA team for the Chicago White Sox. While I might complain about the lameness of not having a Major League team here, the truth is we couldn’t afford to go to Major League games anyway. The Knights are, if I recall correctly, $11 for the cheap seats and $13 for the good ones, which makes a baseball game an affordable family outing. Um, unless you get hungry, or you think, as do I, that baseball games are made even more enjoyable by consuming copious amounts of junk food. The food has the same unreal price point, and lousy quality, as airport food. And they check your bags for contraband, so it’s not like you can bring your own. Still, it’s a great thing to do with the family on a nice sunny Sunday, and we had a fantastic time.
We left during the seventh-inning stretch, because we wanted to rest before our next activity, and the Knights were losing badly enough that we were pretty sure they couldn’t come back (we turned out to be right). We went home, chilled out, gathered picnic supplies, and then…
We went to Pops in the Park. We try to go every week it’s on in the summer. So. Much. Fun. We bring a blanket, some yummies, and some wine, but we don’t get super-fancy. Some people, though, go all out with tables, tablecloths, china, crystal, candles, the whole shebang. It’s a Charlotte institution. I love it. We always sit on the lawn outside Coca-Cola’s corporate offices, across the street from Symphony Park. We can still hear the music, but it’s much less crowded, and the kids can run around.
It was an absolutely perfect Sunday.