A Strange and Unpleasant Morning at School

I awoke in the middle of the night really, really pissed. After trying to get in touch with D-Man's science teacher through phone and e-mail for well over a week about a very pressing problem, on Tuesday morning I resorted to calling the vice principal. He assured me he would take care of it, yet alas, as of Wednesday evening, I had heard nothing.

So during what has now become now my standard 1:00 a.m. wake up call with Flanders, I started stewing to the point that I just couldn't get back to sleep.

I showed up at the school this morning at 8:15 a.m. and vowed to wait in the office until VP arrived. And wait I did.

After over an hour (oh yes, it's been a fine week for Gropius), Husband and I were becoming increasingly agitated.  A semi-comic relief entered the office area, and it was just so bizarre at the time...but now, of course I'm feeling the terror of what she actually described. Terror for the animal that is.
 
So picture it. We're sitting there, arms crossed in frustration, watching the scene...

• Lingering students who, for whatever reason, weren't in class
• Non-English speaking parents struggling to converse with the receptionist about a bus stop at a seemingly non-existent address
• A grandmother storming in with her grandson who had been bullied on the bus
• A half dressed mother enrolling her student in school

"Middle school in 2010," I thought. "Jesus, is this a school...for real?"

Now that you have the scene in your mind, enter stage right a very overweight woman wearing a sundress and lots of bling on the fingers. She's carrying a dog that is dressed in a baby's onesie. Um okay, now we have dogs in the school? (And keep in mind, I am a dog lover, but really, at school?)  She sits down beside Larry and allows the dog to start running around the office. No one seems to care.

And then it gets weirder. She begins to tell us--along with everyone else within a 300 ft. radius who isn't consumed with the other disturbing issues going on--about how she really "don't know nothing about no dogs." ...How her former dog was "just like this one," but "I stepped on it in the middle of the night and caused trauma to its head" and "after I paid $2,000 in vet bills they had to put it to sleep anyway."

"So I just up and got a new one. $2,000 this one cost me too. Mmmm hmmm," she continued.

She got up and left, came back in with the dog 5 or 10 minutes later and left again. I have no freaking idea what she was even doing in the office. It was like a scene from Candid Camera, except no one came in to surprise us with the big joke.

I wish this had an interesting ending, but that's all she wrote for my storytelling skills tonight. I'm absolutely exhausted. And wondering if I'm still in the after 1 a.m. realm...maybe this day never happened.

Yes--I wish. But today was only a day, and there are much worse things going for others. Perspective: I try.