It's been a while

Today I came back from Tustin, CA where I was on another validation visit at a high school. For those of you who don't know, Tustin is about an hour and a half north of here, in Orange County. I went with coworker, which, aside from her company, made the drive go a lot faster since we could use the carpool lane. The school was not as impressive as the one in Blythe. The AVID program was strong. The kids who were in it were mostly first in their families to go to college, had college plans and were on task and engaged in the lessons. The Socratic Seminar and tutorials were interesting to observe. Something was a little amiss, and I think it was the fact that AVID seemed like it was a niche program in the school. My main recommendation was that the school create more of a college-going culture to open access and expand opportunities to more students.

Yesterday, last night and this morning I suffered from a migraine. Knowing I had to make the trip out of town, I took lots of drugs. I took 400 ml of Alleve twice and 2 Fiorecet. That is a lot of medication but it was necesary.

Everytime I get a headache, I get discouraged about Dr. G. But I have to remember that now it seems really bad headaches come a lot less frequently. It wasn't that long ago when 9 Imitrex did not last me a month.

If any of you have not caught the latest on Ben's blog, you should. It is written by Ben's friend, Lil Ben and it is absolutely hilarious. We are all sitting on pins and needles waiting for the next chapter of the Cairo trip.

Mikayla is barely keeping her head above water with school, homework, tennis, choir and the overwhelming job of college aps, SATs and essays. I have been helping her finalize her list of colleges to apply to. The whole task is daunting. I think kids should be offered a degree of completion once they finally get accepted to a college for acknowledging the effort it takes to get into college these days.

I am exhausted from getting up at 5 a.m., the long drive and the migraine, which is lingering like a bad smell. I have no more words. My thoughts are drifting into the haziness of dreams. Like talking in my sleep, I better stop typing or I might reveal something I will regret. G'night.