Too Much at Once

A collection of random thoughts today:

Check out the billboard at the Ashland Orange Line Stop. The Chicago Foundation for Women is a cosponsor of a campaign about violence against women that features a diverse group of people making various comments about how they can help stop this problem. One of them is Fr. Bruce Wellems, playing a sports coach. Basketball? He says something about how he can work with his team, but I forget the specific. It was funny--I saw it getting off the train and I was like, "Is that Bruce?...Oh, let me see if it's related to Chicago Foundation for Women." Susy Schultz, their communications director, is a friend of his. So that's the connection.

I hadn't been over to Dawn's house in ages, despite the fact they live next door. (I've been writing for pay, not for fun, at night for much of the last month, it seems.) Joey came over here and wrote something very quickly we can take to his evaluation tomorrow, and I found some books in the house for him to arrange in order of easy, medium, hard. It would be nice if he had actually read them, I suppose. Sigh. His voice is changing. Dear God I hope we get him in San Miguel. His mom didn't hear him come in the house--he went over there before I did when we finished--and she immediately assumed he just hadn't come home. Ay, Dios mio.

Someone who knows me but I don't know her was over with her daughter. I think her daughter knows me too--or else she's just really friendly-she gave me a big smile when I walked in. We talked a bit in Spanish. She was very nice about my Spanish. She asked if I was American and I said Irish, my grandmother came over and I'm going back to see my great-aunts this summer. I had some calabaza--it looked like zucchini--it was spicy and good. For once I ate healthier over there than I would have here. I was planning to eat nachos at home but the calabaza and a couple of tortillas was plenty!

After some chow and chat with the grownups, I went back in the living room to watch TV and hang with the kids, especially baby Angel, who I hadn't seen in way too long. Dawn had her packet of info from the Road Less Traveled and we started looking through it. Then she told me there's a parent meeting tomorrow at 11:45. I tried to sound calmer than I felt when I said, "Your mom will be with me and Joey then. This thing doesn't end til noon and it's downtown." Then we started figuring out how they would do this. Her dad gets home about 8 a.m. (he works 10 pm to 6 am these days, God love him). He'll just have to stay up, I guess, so one parent can go to the Road Less Traveled meeting and one can go with me and Joey. Dawn says most of the time her dad sleeps from three to nine or so before he goes to work. Ugh.

Then Dawn and I started talking about tomorrow's travel. As I suspected, if her mom and Angel go with me, I'll have to drive them downtown and park in the Grant Park garage. (Her mom is probably not up to driving in an underground garage, which I can understand.) Good thing I took out some cash tonight--the garage parking is not cheap. The thing is, I'll have to drive the car back out and pull over somewhere so her mom can take over the wheel and go home. Dawn thinks her mom can navigate her way home OK. I was worried I'd have to drive her out of downtown back to familiar territory, and then I'd be embarrassingly late to my afternoon meeting. If her dad decides to go with me I don't know what we'll do. Maybe he'll drive around and look for street parking while we go in. That would be easier on me since he could just deal with the car afterwards. Bueno, vamos a ver...

I should do a separate post about Dawn's exhibition. At her house tonight we were talking about what else happened today at school. They had a discussion about GPA's today--she wants to get hers up. It's a 2.4 now. I told her she needs to shoot for a 3.0. Her buddy Gladys leads the class with a 3.5. Dawn said she was surprised when she realized how high Gladys' average was. "I'm not surprised," I laughed. I know a fellow geek when I see one.

While we were talking about Road Less Traveled stuff and I was explaining various things, like what an unaccompanied minor is, the little girl visiting asked me, "Are you a tutor?"

"No," I said. "I live next door."

"She's Aunt Maureen," Dawn told her.

"A very geeky, nerdy aunt," I said.

"Naw," said Dawn, smiling.