Final Halloween Plan

Well, after talking with Junior, Picasso and Oldest Brady Boy, here's the plan. I will be here passing out candy until 5 p.m. tomorrow. Then I'll take my fog machine and whatever kids want to go with me over to St. Joe's and hang out at their party. Then we'll come back and have a small party (I devoutly hope!) in the basement here. I told those guys they can have up to 10 people but not more than that. We will see if that works out.

A few other highlights from today: School Lady came past my house tonight with Meg and Beth and their baby cousin in tow. They told me that Jo, the one at Kennedy, earned $250 toward college at progress reports for her grades. They were all smiles about this. Meg said she is doing well at Lozano Alternative High School, too. "For once school is going well," she said.

Picasso finally gave me his schedule at Curie with his teachers' names. He's getting As and Bs in everything except Survey Literature, his English class. He's not real happy with his teacher. "She takes everything literally. She can't take a joke," he said. But he wrote a good first draft of his personal narrative. It's about his older brother's death, the funeral, and the impact all of this is having on him so far. It's been less than a month since it happened. I was impressed he could write about it so soon afterwards. I wrote a lot about my dad right after he died, but nothing about the immediate events like the funeral. That would have been way too hard for me.

I called a friend in the Curie English department and she has promised to put me in touch with Picasso's English teacher. I don't know any of his teachers personally and I really want to find one who will keep an eye on Picasso, maybe help him find good things to do at school, and let me know when he needs some outside backup.

I had a long talk with Alicia from up the street, whom I hadn't seen in way, way too long. Then I went and talked to her mother, which was even more interesting but since it's much too late to be writing I will have to save it for another day.