The Family Meeting

Well, Kayla, you just missed out on another fine "family meeting."  You can imagine how excited Tyler and Brittany were when I called the meeting.  Immediately Brittany looked confused and asked what she did wrong.  Tyler sat back with his arms folded over his chest and I could see his wheels spinning trying to come up with something to say to mock me for calling a "family meeting."  All he could come up with was, "Could I be Bobby Brady?  He was my favorite."  Not funny.

Anyhow, the purpose of today's meeting was to institute (once again) "quiet time."  This was met with moans and groans so loud you would have thought I was pulling out their teeth one by one.  For those readers who aren't familiar with quiet time, this is a one-hour period each night where there are no cell phones, no computers, and no TV.  It's supposed to be a one-hour time frame when the kids can focus on their homework and not get interrupted.  Tyler acted like he never heard of it, so I explained that there will be no electronics. So, he said, "Well, if there's no electronics, then we have to shut off all of the lights, too.  The lights run off electricity." 

I think after having the week he had, he better just accept quiet time and zip it!  I had a phone call from his band teacher saying that he has not gone to his trumpet lessons and we had an e-mail from his German teacher saying he's not "working up to potential."  When I asked him why he's not going to his trumpet lessons, he said, "It's because I can't play the trumpet."  He joined band thinking it would be an easy A.  Then when we asked him what's going on in German class, he said, "The teacher just doesn't like Manfred."  (His German name is Manfred.)

So, we are beginning the process of an attitute adjustment here in Minocqua.  Even with me.  I was not looking forward to the day when you graduated, but now, I am really looking forward to the next graduation from LUHS in 2014!  If we make it!

Lost in the city...yes, again.

You know how they say do something every day that scares you? Well, I'm taking that to heart every time I embark back to my middle school after the traumatic trip home this Monday. Allow me to explain:

Volunteering went fabulous, as always, but it happened to be the first time I did it after the daylight savings time change, meaning it gets darker way earlier. Now, I had thought I had figured out the bus system, but that was in the daylight of 5:30 pm when the sun was still out. This week however, the sun had disappeared by the time I started to embark back to campus from the school. So, all happy and whatnot with a few more Thank-You cards in my purse, I got off at the stop I had always been getting off at to get back to my dorm. Well, I thought it was my stop. As soon as the bus pulled away, a few expletives ran through my mind, and perhaps came out of my mouth along with my breath that I could vividly see because of the frigid Minneapolis temperature. I realized that I had absolutely no idea where I was, that because of the stupid darkness I mistook my bus stop for a totally different stop that I was not supposed to be near. Being the smart girl that I am, I started to walk. Why Kayla, why?! Why would I start to walk?! I think I thought that maybe I would eventually hit a landmark I knew. After a few steps I figured out, why would I know any landmarks?! I'M NOT FROM HERE! I instantly started to panic and called my friend from across the hall. The worst was when she asked me where I was and I told her, in a shaking voice in-between tears, the intersection I was at and her response was "Ohhhhhh noo Kayla." Want to know where this small-town-girl-thrust-into-the-metro was in relation to campus? Take a look. Point B is my dorm, my destination. Point A is where my frantic self was crying.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Minneapolis&1s=MN&1a=E+Hennepin+Ave+%26+12th+Ave+SE&1z=55414&1y=US&1l=44.99144&1g=-93.23458&1v=INTERSECTION&2c=Minneapolis&2s=MN&2a=701+Fulton+St+SE&2z=55455-0358&2y=US&2l=44.97027&2g=-93.228614&2v=ADDRESS

YEAH, I KNOW! Now that you can see where I was, hopefully now you can feel my pain and fright. It was 6:00. Dark. Cold. I was hungry and in a bad part of the city, so I am told. I don't even feel ashamed that I cried. I was totally entitled to bawl and call my dad from a random bench sobbing about how much I am not cut out for the city. I literally was just gonna give up. The thought actually crossed my mind, "I can't do it. I'm done. I'm just gonna sit here and cry." And then some sort of sense kicked in and I realized I wasn't in a video game and had to get back, obviously! After multiple confusing phone conversations with the girl I basically owe my life to trying to explain to me what buses to take and where to get on and off, 75 minutes and $7.25 later, I was back, and completely a wreck. I ate my baked potato in a blur and was completely a mess of emotions.

So all's well that ends well, I guess. I survived, barely didn't get mugged, and my friend even made me a beautiful yellow-construction paper map/direction sheet of how to and, more importantly, from the school. I'll be testing out that, along with my emotional endurance and night intelligence each time I volunteer from now on until May. I really can't let a terrible experience like that ruin something so great, so I'm not going to let it. Plus, Mom and Dad made me put campus security in my phone and made it clear that the next time I get off at the wrong spot, don't pretend to know where I'm going.

New college lesson: I suck at sense of direction. And still suck at the bus.