The Eclectic Mix

I’m trying to decide if we’ve purposely made processes and procedures in life difficult just because we don’t want to do the work required, or if we just enjoy inflicting pain and suffering through bureaucracy.

Take the current quest for a new school for Patrick: Today, I arranged to receive one application packet from one district, got the one page PDF form for another district, and submitted an online application (in under 5 minutes) for the third. All three of these districts are public school districts. It’s as simple as saying you want your child to go there. If there’s room and there aren’t any kind of outstanding disciplinary actions in his file at his current school, they usually let them in.

Blake, on the other hand, is still a thorn in my side. I started working up well reasoned, intelligent, flattering-yet-truthful long answers for their application. And the killer is that I’m going to pay for the privilege to send this to them. All so that they can either laugh me out of the process, or maybe see their way to setting Patrick on the path of a great school future. And once the application is sent to Blake, there’s more to the process. Interviews, tours, financial aid requests…

And from St. Anthony, we’ll get a yes or no in about a month, after filling out the online form in the time that it took me to eat a small bag of Triscuits at lunch.

It seems almost counter-intuitive. You’d ordinarily expect the government-based organization to have the over-complicated application process, especially to send your kid across district lines to a school that some years ago he would not have had the rights to go to. But open enrollment has, against all odds and expectations, eliminated the hoops that you need to jump through to make it happen. Tell the district about your child (name, birthdate, current district and school), tell them about you (parent/guardian info), and send it in. The administrative pixies do the rest.

I talked to one such administrative pixie today. She was actually putting my name on an address label for an envelope while we were on the phone.

And I half expect the administration at Blake to greet us in black robes and carrying sceptres and torches when we go to visit them later. I know at some point I’ll have a dream where they’ll disqualify Patrick simply because I improperly referenced the Crimean War’s relationship to Toyotas in one of the long answers in his application.

Oh well. I was going to work on it tonight, but I just don’t have the mojo going tonight. I’ll work on it tomorrow at lunch, and I’ll still give it the best of my well-reasoned, well-intentioned, over-thought effort. It’s that important to me.

I’ll spill my angst-ridden guts at the feet of my shrink on Thursday.

And don’t get me started on tax forms and medical billing…

See you tomorrow.

Stick with me on this one…The thread is there. And I’m pretty proud of it.

Okay, warnings out of the way…Here we go.

Started up a handful of things today: one was the application for Patrick to join the Northstar Online Math program. I realized that the quarter ends sometime toward the end of the month, so I needed to get that filled out to set that in motion. I actually finished that application and submitted it online. Now they need to get in touch with Patrick’s principal and send us some paper forms to fill out and return.

Yeah, paperless society, my ass…

I got in about 30 minutes to re-re-rework the start of the treatment for the Prince Michael novel. I need to have that in place before I get to the first three chapters (since the first is about 70% written and just needs some massaging, I’ve sort of got a head start). And after getting the tongue lashing from my wife and parents last night about getting to it and not missing the publisher’s deadline, I thought I should get some time into it.

I also started work on our application to get Patrick into Blake. Got through the rote stuff, and now it’s up to the essay portion of the exam…Er, it’s the long answer section, asking us to describe Patrick using only three syllable words based on purely Latin or Francophonic roots. They even prefer to have a photo of him. I’m not sure what that really helps, but I’m sure we’ll do it in the end. Anyway, that’s going in online, too. I’ve just got to work some stuff up and pass it by Jenni and we’ll see what sticks. I’m just wondering if we can grovel for money online using the same form: “Please explain why we should forgo our exclusivity to allow your urchinesque offspring to darken our hallways pro bono.”

Perhaps I should make sure to not give them the link to the blog here when I submit his application.

I was going to watch, or at least begin to watch Finding Neverland, the latest Netflix DVD to collect dust on my desk. But I just ran out of time tonight, and I don’t really want to start it up this late.

In the meantime, in case you’ve been living under a rock, or don’t know that the Vikings chronically lose games of any importance, they lost today, ending that season. Now they can focus full-time on trying to pawn off the stadium as a public works project, while really their search for a quarterback should be the real public works project.

But the end of their season is all fine and good, because then the local media can focus entirely on tomorrow’s expected certification of the senatorial election.

Franken has a lead of 225 votes, or so screams the Strib’s headline this morning. Even if it’s certified tomorrow for either side, the lawyers will take their turn to suck on whatever’s left of the campaign funds and argue that “[candidate name] was wronged by the (choose one: recount process, unclear voting instructions, Monday night football results the evening before, new math) which have resulted in there being x-hundred heretofore unrealized, uncounted, rejected, folded, spindled, and multilated ballots which would clearly correct these unjust results.”

By now, it matters very little anymore. The Senate enters it’s new session on Tuesday, and Minnesota will be underrepresented. Now granted, we’ll be equally underrepresented with states like New York, Illinois (probably), and Colorado, but it doesn’t help matters when you need your newly elected senator to score some meaningful and important committee appointments. Since Coleman can’t be seated either, one thinks he’ll lose some seniority and may even not be given some of the appointments he’s already had.

So while theoretically, the election ends tomorrow, it won’t. Not for a while. Courts don’t move quickly, supreme courts even less so, weighed down by their ultrasuede robes, chainmail armor, and hot pink punk hairstyles.

Oh wait. That was some people I saw downtown over the weekend.

But a new week dawns, fresh and full of expectation and potential. School’s back for 80% of my family, and it’s not a moment too soon. As much as they all hate it, routine is just about the only thing that keeps them sane.

Enjoy your week.

See you tomorrow.

Jenni says…

When I told Paul I would write once a week for him, I thought I would have pages and pages of interesting things to say. Well, I don’t.

Paul writes pithy commentary on family life. I read for class. Paul shares funny stories of work. I read for class. Paul shares deep insights into politics. I read for class. When he wrote sweet words about our anniversary, I was probably writing a paper. You know, just to shake things up.

My life is all about school. When I’m not reading for class (that leaves, what, 20 hours a week?) or writing papers (15 hours left), I’m preparing or working at my church job (I think I actually owe hours to someone, now). I haven’t had the time to follow politics. I’m way behind on my television watching and we won’t talk about how long I’ve had my Netflix movie.

Maybe we could talk about new non-text books I’ve purchased recently. Let’s see I purchased a toddler Bible for teaching Sunday School, I purchased a book study on the Chronicles of Narnia for an event… Hmmm, those are work related. Well, for fun I purchased Crazy Talk: A Not-so-stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms for my family and The Lutheran Handbook I and II. Those last three books are really great, but, well, they’re related to school, too.

I guess the truth is right now school is taking every conscious moment of my life. Unless you want to hear some frightening and some not-so-frightening statistics about the state of our families and youth today, unless you want to spend a little bit of time talking about God and creation, unless you want to hear more about the prophet Micah and his comments on justice, then I just don’t know if I have anything interesting to tell you. But if you do want to hear a little bit of that stuff, maybe I’ll just start sharing some of my knew knowledge.

Any one interested?

Jenni says…

When I saw that Paul was determined to write every day, I said to him, “No, darling, really, I shan’t like to see you expend so much of your manly energy having to be so creative every day of the week after a hard day sitting on your behind on the computer. Please, let my humble self take one day off of your broad, hairy shoulders and try to assist you in the little way that I, as your wife, can, to make your life easier.” Or something like that.

I’ve always told him that the blog entries didn’t need to be really long as he likes to do. Just put in the fun things you find on the Web. There are a bazillion funny things out there, share them.

So I sit down to write and…nothing. I haven’t had the time to find funny things on the Web. I am busy with two part-time jobs and getting ready for this upcoming week which is full of Sunday school, youth group, vacation bible school and my own kids. Plus a couple freelance jobs. And the kids. And doctor/orthodontist/eye doctor appointments.

The rest of the summer won’t be much better. This fall, at school, I have to take the BPE and have to spend the next few months studying for it. What, you may be asking yourselves, is a BPE? Oh, the BPE—Bible Proficiency Exam—is something fun that all students at Luther Seminary must take before their second year (since I’m part-time, my second year isn’t until after the fall term). It’s just a silly little test. We just need to be able to locate about 50 bible verses, have Middle East geography from 2000+ years ago down pat, have almost 3000 years worth of dates at hand (do YOU know what year the Temple was first destroyed? Then rebuilt? Then destroyed again?). We need to know all of the books of the Bible, what they’re about, who the major players were, what the different Jewish customs and celebrations were for… You know, that easy stuff. Every student must pass the test to graduate from the seminary, even those not going on to become ordained ministers (such as my self).

Of course I want to know this stuff…Doesn’t everyone want their ministry leaders to know a little something about the Bible? But I’m a little overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of what I don’t know after 35+ years. So, that’s what the rest of my summer is going to be spent doing: Studying for the BPE.

So, oh, um, ah, that’s why I don’t have fun things to share with you. No videos, funny links, nothing. I do have a Harry Potter Joke, though. But if you want the answer, you have to do your part!

Me: Knock, knock!

You: Who’s there?

Me: You Know

You: …