(You know I’ve had a week when I’m writing this post Saturday morning instead of Friday night before bed.)

The thing about coming to the end of a school year is that the soft whimper only comes on the final day.  Once you get into the one month left territory, a tornado of activity explodes around you.  This is for students, teachers, and parents too.  Everyone scrambles to get everything done before the end.  Work is increased to make sure curriculums are done and students rush to finally do the assignments they’ve been putting off since October.  It’s like a ballet of chainsaws in a hurricane . . . I definitely feel hacked up too.

Let’s start with last weekend.  I really did think I could finish the outline for Darwin & the Beast Collector and the September posts.  Got halfway through the first and still have 5 posts to do.  I had so many errands and chores to do that I wasn’t able to really focus until Sunday.  Then, I realized the outline was in worse shape than I remembered and spent the entire afternoon trying to make sense of it.  This flowed into a graduation party for a coworker that night, which involved more sangria than I expected.  Didn’t get drunk or even buzzed, but my body didn’t quite like the following morning.  The heat and mugginess of my room pretty much sealed my fate on Memorial Day, so I snoozed for most of my time.

This is where the end of the school year stuff started to take a toll.  Work was really busy, which was to be expected.  That was fine.  It was my son getting more homework than we imagined and not always remembering telling me until nighttime that caused some troubles.  Multiple nights had us working until after 10 PM, which meant I didn’t get to watch any TV or relax.  He went to bed and then I got myself ready with Zzzquil to watch my ceiling fan until passing out.  I think I got an episode or two of ‘FUBAR’ on Wednesday after he was dropped off at his mom’s.  Didn’t really pay attention since I was worried about his workload.

There’s only 7 days of classes left too.  So, I’m staring at these projects and new lessons while wondering about reviewing for his cumulative finals.  As a student, I always feared these things because they encompassed the whole year.  That’s a lot and my son has a really tough time recalling past information.  This type of test doesn’t play to his strengths and requires a ton of studying beforehand.  That’s what we’re going to be doing this weekend for 4 subjects since the 5th hasn’t posted any review material.  All of this is on top of studying for two normal tests coming up this week.  I’m really hoping this whole mess sorts itself out by Wednesday, but I’m kind of sidelined after that in terms of helping him study for his finals.  Next weekend, he’s with his mother, so it’s all in her hands.

On the lighter side of my life, there were two events that took a bunch of time, but were worth it.  My school started a Unified Basketball team this year and joined a league that’s been around for 7 years.  These are teams made of both special education and general education students.  The Gen Ed kids are supposed to focus on getting the ball and passing it to the Special Ed kids who get to shoot the baskets.  Our team went undefeated into Tuesday’s semi-finals, which were very aggressive.  We won that and got into the finals on Wednesday, which was aggressive, but not as physical.  The final score was 34-40 with us losing, but our kids were still celebrating having fun.  Local news was there and got a lot of pictures, videos, and a few interviews with our kids.  Got to take my son to both games and he claimed a homemade ‘Fathead’ (I think) of one of our students, which he still waves around at times.  Really proud of them since they showed great sportsmanship and made this more experienced team work hard for a win.  Been saying this was our Rocky 1 year and next year will be Rocky 2 when he won.

This weekend is going to predominantly be studying for finals.  Might get a movie in today and we should get things done for video games tomorrow afternoon.  My niece is being dropped off tomorrow too, so that should be fun.  Not much else to say about that because it will be low key.

It’s the week that’s going to be crazy.  My son has an awards ceremony on Monday night, but also an orthodontist visit.  Stressful time management juggling.  There are his two tests that we need to study for on top of finals.  With it being the last full week of classes, I assume there is going to be a lot of rushing around and racing to get things down both at home and work.  It will be incredibly stressful and slide right into next Saturday morning where I have a doctor appointment.  Checking my blood pressure and blood tests, which I’m expecting will be all bad.  Trying to avoid going on medications is an impossible task when you’re being run ragged and have to graze on whatever is at hand to keep your energy up.  Obesity epidemic definitely isn’t helped by people having to be in survival mode and stressed out of their gourds so often.

Goals of the week:

1. Survive.
2. Help son study and get homework done.
3. Son’s award ceremony.
4. Biking
5. Get further in this damnable puzzle to clear the table for Lego sets.
6. Finish September posts if time allows.
7. (Next Saturday) Finish Darwin & the Beast Collector
8. Finish watching ‘FUBAR’ on Netflix.  It’s Arnold Schwarzenegger action and campy comedy, so I’m enjoying it.
9. I’m sure something involving the ex-wife is going to pop up like it’s been doing lately.
10. Order graduation present for student who is aging out.
11. Try to sleep better?