Sozlet stories

All is well.

I apologized to her for getting too mad... it was stupendously frustrating but in the scheme of things not that big of a deal.

She knew the password because we had a visitor for a while earlier this week and E.G. yelled the password to him from another room when he was trying to access Wifi. I didn't know this. (It's a nonsense word/ number combo so she gets props for remembering.)

I fixed whatever the problem was myself. (Don't ask me how, I did this and that and then it worked.)

Hopefully it stays that way.

I finished one of the two things I had left, the more important one, will have to do the other in the a.m.

Also managed to get to the evening event on time.

Sozlet appreciated my apology but was contrite and helpful for the rest of the evening.

So I guess it's not so infuriating as all that.

Aaaah....you both did something a little dumbish, it's over.

Clever you for fixing the thing again! Computers is the worst at times.

Sozlet just got her braces off. (Woo-hoo!!!) (She's actually far less happy than I was when I got mine off -- I think because she didn't mind them that much in the first place. She's happy though.) One of the first things she wanted to do was get some gum, which she hasn't had in over a year because of the braces.

So she's been chewing that a lot, which I don't love because it's a lot harder to lipread her.

Last night she asked again, and I demurred. (I didn't say "no," just "ehhhh....") She was about to do her homework and launched her campaign: "Studies show that when you chew gum it helps you focus!" She was heading to the computer to prove it but I'd started laughing at "studies show," she knows her audience. She got her gum.

(I was curious just now though, and found this.)

Are you telling me she's going to be even smarter now? That's scary! How long until the Evil Genius gets relegated to the status of Deputy?

Just read the article. The boost only lasts 20 minutes. That's reassuring.

20 minutes over what period of time? what is the re-set time?

I was curious about that too, it didn't say.

Basically the idea is save gum for the toughest part of the test, and chew for those 20 minutes.

(Poor fellow-test takers. That would have driven me INSANE when I could still hear.)

More studies: Gum prevents cavities, too! You're practically committing child abuse if you get between Sozlet and her gum.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/your-assignment-for-today-chew-gum/

So, this is more a her-whole-grade story than a sozlet story, but I found it kind of sweet.

They all whistle. I don't know how it started, if it's just them or if all 6th graders whistle constantly, or what, but they whistle. A lot.

It drives E.G. crazy and even though it doesn't make sense, it drives me crazy. When I see it I hear whistling (I don't think it has much to do with the sound she actually makes, but I hear it) (my brain creates the sound, in case that's not clear, does that with a lot of things). If I'm doing something while she's whistling on the periphery I also keep thinking she's saying something. So I snap to alert, what is she saying? Oh, whistling. Bah. Oh, what's she saying now? Etc.

So, she knows not to whistle at home, even though she has a hard time. Her whistle-y friends (i.e. all of them) know that I don't care about whistling if I can't see them, but E.G. cares if he's home and I care if I can see them.

One of her teachers (a specialist, only there one hour/day) also is extremely whistle-averse. She's evidently an outlier -- all of the other teachers seem to be fine with the whistling, since the point of the story was how hard it was to exert self-control in this one class. I was asking more about this and she said that someone will start a song and everyone will join in. The whole class is whistling the same music?, I asked. She said "yeah," in a way that indicated she thought that would be obvious. Tunes from band, pop music, all sorts of things.

Anyway, so whistle-averse teacher cracks down on them if they whistle. (This seems to amount to mostly giving them a glare and pointing.) So they exert tremendous amounts of willpower to avoid whistling. Then the bell rings for the end of the day (it's the last class) and they all burst into whistle-song harmony and stream out the door.

Great story.

I could never whistle much of a toot, so I've admired it, rather like I do with people who can sing well. Thus, when I first moved to Venice Beach and started going for walks on Ocean Front Walk, I was startled and pleased to hear a guy whistle his way down the few mile promenade. It wasn't very busy on early mornings. Classical music. At this point I can't remember exactly what classical music but I knew it at the time. Alas, he must have moved as I only heard him off and on for a year or so. I'd never known people could whistle like that. I took him for a music major or teacher at UCLA music department.

Dammit, now I have Monty Python's "always look on the bright side of life" whistle in my head.

LOVE it!

soz, Gotta tell ya, kid. The thought of all that whistling makes me cringe. Makes my hairs stand up on end. Makes me grit my teeth. Makes my skin crawl.

The kids are great and funny. But I'm somehow going to have to get that whistling thought out of my head.

Help.

Ooh, I sympathize! Really.

Um, caroling? Does that help? (I usually can only drive out one set of mental noise with another...)

Caroling!!! No! It'll fade on its own, thanks.

In case you couldn't guess, I'm very sensitive to noises. It's one of the reasons I'm up all night. Quiet. Aaaaah.

I was too, back before I became deaf. It was bad enough that it's one un-ironic reason I'm glad that I did become deaf. (There are many others, as sucky as the whole thing is most of the time.) A major childhood memory is laying in bed with a pillow pulled around my ears, trying to block out noises so I could fall asleep.

I feel badly for coming back only to ask a deadly boring question, so here's something juicier. It's part sozlet story but more a community story, like the penguin huddle.

There is a boy who she has strongly suspected had a crush on her for quite a while. I'll call him Zach.

This was common knowledge among the boys, as she found out about a month ago from a mutual (male) friend. The standard greeting from all the boys to Zach was, "have you asked her out yet?" He'd mumble and try to change the subject.

When she's had a crush on someone from third grade to now, it's often been him, but he was right to be hesitant. She'd pretty much decided that 6th grade was too young for dating, and she has too many close male friends to let crushes get in the way of anything. She was worried about how to respond if he did ask her -- she didn't want to say yes, she didn't want to say no.

However, in just the last couple of weeks, that started to change. She didn't tell me about it.

On the last day of school, they sat together to watch a movie (last days of school are kinda useless instruction-wise), and basically the whole grade decided OK, This Must Be Resolved.

Recess was after the movie, and two camps formed. Boy Camp resolved to get Zach to ask out sozlet. Girl camp resolved to get sozlet to say yes.

When this still wasn't producing results, Kay, sozlet's BFF since kindergarten, took charge of the situation. "ASK HER OUT," she commanded.

Zach looked at sozlet and shrugged in a "what do you think?" sort of way. She grimaced -- she didn't like the peer-pressure component.

He saw this (they know each other really well) then locked eyes and, "Sozlet, I like you."

She blushed and grinned and admitted it was mutual.

And the whole grade went apeshit.

There were cheers (cheers, I'm telling you), and the boys were high-fiving Zach, and there was general mayhem.

Everyone would NOT shut up about it for the rest of the day (and into the next).

One of her friends wasn't there but shortly thereafter came rushing up to her saying "I just heard the good news!!" in the gushiest way possible. He's an enormous football player/ wrestler.

I just found it hilarious that everyone was so INVESTED.

One of sozlet's friends explained to me that while there has been dating in their grade, this was the first couple that everyone could see really like each other and are more than just a one-date thing.

(They've had two or three dates so far, depending on how you're counting.)

I'm not happy about how young they are. I said to sozlet, "but you're in 6th grade!" This was about 3 hours after the last day of school, and her comeback was "No, 7th grade!" (That's how they do it here, the minute you're out of one grade you're considered to be in the next.)

But at this age it seems to be little more than social sanction for hanging out. She always gets so much hassling for hanging out with her male friends, and it's been nice for her to be able to shut down the whole "ooooh, you liiiiike him" thing. ("Yep.")

Her friends actually purposely give her space now.

He's had some big Romantic moments already -- probably the best one was when he admitted he hadn't told his mom yet because he was worried that she would think they were too young. She said "If she disapproves, we can just wait." He did the eye-locking thing and said, very serious, "I can't wait."

Awwwww.

(His mom is totally fine with it, I filled her in on a bunch of details because he only gave her the briefest version, she agrees that the whole thing is hilarious. And seemed impressed/ surprised by his bravery.)

Heh heh

Now that is just story book adorable.

I think it's great that everyone's interested in their happiness.

Poor Zach, though. Wanting to do things on his own schedule, and getting railroaded.

Knowing Sozlet, she'd have just asked him out if she wanted to do so.