Today I went downtown to pick up Maria’s Tech Talk augmentative communication device. They were supposed to give it to our state “Support” Coordinator. I use the term “support” very loosely. I’ve been trying to get another support coordinator for more than a year now and his supervisor keeps stalling. Because of the severe budget cuts, mandatory furloughs, and lay offs, I don’t want to keep bugging him. The whole state government is in turmoil.
But I digress… Anyway, the communication device lady let me pick up the device so I wouldn’t have to deal with our coordinator. Everytime Maria gets a new piece of equipment, I go through a period of mourning or depression or angst or whatever the hell it is. One guy at work asked me why I wasn’t excited about the Tech Talk and my reply was, “a parent should not have to get a communication device for her child. A parent should be yelling at their child for cussing, or taking her to soccer practice, or having tea parites.” Sensing a bit of emotion, he quickly changed the subject by saying, “well my son is flunking art.” We all have our crosses to bear, don’t we.
As I was saying, I’m never going to be happy or excited about another piece of effing equipment. But I eventually get through it, make peace with it, and appreciate the thing that may make Maria’s life a little bit easier or more fun.
The last couple days haven’t been so great. Tuesday, Sue called in sick, so I tried to get in touch with Manolis but couldn’t, so I left a message on his cell phone, which he never got. So as I got out of my meeting, my cell phone rang. It was the teaching wondering if someone was going to pick Maria up. She was very sweet about it and Maria was fine, she got to hang out with them at lunch; but it was upsetting to all of us. We all were at fault, so it was hard to know where to focus the anger. I think we’re all getting a bit freaked about Manolis going back to Greece for several months. Just like the equipment, we know it’s necessary, but we don’t have to like it!
Tomorrow’s the last day of the season for hippotherapy; then the speech therapist will show us what to do with that damn Tech Talk….just not quite ready for it yet…maybe it’ll be better with wine.