Why can’t life be simple?

Ok, so I don’t really want life to be simple or simplistic because then life would be humdrum, and lallygaggingly boring! And we don’t really want that, at least that is not what I want. Some of you out there may actually desire boring lives and you have the right to the most boring life you can design for yourself. But what I mean with my head upturned, yelling into the heavens, “Why can’t life just be simple!!?” I refer unfortunately, yet again to Kyle’s multiple failed attempts at graduation. Not that he is a failure or that he is the failee, but the graduation itself failed to occur despite his repeated hoop jumping. (The full hoop jumping story to come to soon) Now nothing too drastic has occurred, just another swirling hoop. After weeks of living, eating, breathing and swimming in Spanish, specifically Spanish 3 and 4, on completion of the course work (minus the tests) we decided to reward ourselves with a little get away, and re-enter for a brief time period, the world of socializing; hence the last two posts, Maker’s Fair and Fun in H-town. The plan was to drive up to Austin, through San Marcos, to hand deliver (we currently have no trust of the post office) his entire packet of hard work into the hands of the correspondence office. We drive up to San Marcos, Kyle attempts to turn in his paperwork, but is halted. - All of his paperwork should be copied so that if they happen to loose it, we will have backup – sounds like a great plan to me. David, the correspondence guy suggests that he bring it back Monday.

Ok, that is not that big of a deal, just a little more driving right?

We drive onto Austin and then Houston and have unquantifiable amounts of social fun.

On the drive back into San Marcos, I am feeling upbeat and excited. I am so proud of Kyle for completing these assignments in superhuman time, considering how he loathes studying, and would rather be shooting his new air-soft gun. I wait in the car as Kyle runs to the building to turn in his accomplishments; 12 lessons, 6 lessons per class, two fully complete classes held tightly in his rather small man hands awaiting grading. But what happens next, should only be expected since we are talking about Mr. Bad Luck Kyle here. From the 12 lessons, they will only accept 2 lessons per week. They being Kyle’s professor, not the correspondence office. 12 divided by 2 is six, meaning six weeks, six more weeks!!! After he slaved hours upon hours to complete it as quickly as possible, they are telling us, “your hard work means nothing, nothing” followed by an evil laugh.
There is however streaks of possible silver in the this ominous cloud of evil misfortune, and that is that this rule is set by the professor, not by the school, and that she is said to be a reasonable person, that is if you can ever get her to respond to your emails/phone calls. We stayed in San Marcos for lunch, as we waited for her to respond to our desperate phone calls. It was the first meal out that we had had alone in several months, but I was feeling far from a celebratory mood. We didn’t hear from her the rest of the day. As soon as we arrived home, Kyle wrote an email explaining his situation and pleaded for an exception. He even ended the email with “In the words of my Chilean students, porfi profe, porfi” For those of you who don’t understand Chilean speak, that is short for por favor professor. Forty hours later, one email, and 7 phone calls later, she responds to Kyle’s email – “you may turn in multiple assignments.” We were thrilled upon hearing the news! I think Kyle was even more thrilled since I had turned into grumpy, zombie, scratch-your-eyes out one minute, cry-your-eyes out one minute Vanessa. I was like a pre-pubescent middle-schooler riding on a giant wooden rollercoaster of emotions. The more we continue down this impossible graduation path, the more I feel like I am back in the years when my emotions were out of control. One minute things are looking up and unicorns dance among the rainbows and another, we have hit a brick wall, fallen into a pit of slime and are having to wrestle with Joe the six-eyed swamp thing. I like rollercoasters, I enjoy the thrill of adrenaline running through my veins, but I am darn tired of this emotional rollercoaster we have been riding over a year and a half now. Every time I hear someone talk about graduating, I gawk in wonder at how graduation could be so simple. It should be simple, why can’t it be simple for Kyle? I keep praying that this will be the one, the final step, the one without the hoop of fire without a lion’s mouth to jump into, but we shall see. On a positive note, Kyle’s professor who hadn’t turned in his paperwork from an independent study Kyle took with her over two years ago, finally turned in the paperwork! So that is exciting! I would like to end this post with a list of things that I am grateful for. It is something that I try and do whenever something in life isn’t going my way, to remind me of all of the many blessings I have or have received.

Six things I am grateful for

1. I am grateful that Jake the cat, (Grandma Dee Dee’s cat) has started to warm up to me. You may not be aware that we are house sitting her house, and therefore Jake the cat, and up till now he has come in for meals and some weird meowing time when he was trying to communicate, but what we still are not sure. Currently he is sitting on top of my arms as I type, (not very comfortable and I think I may be loosing blood to my forearms)
2. I am grateful for my wonderful hubby, even when I am Oscara the grouch, or should I say especially when I am grouchy mcgrouchersons, he is extremely loving and attentive, giving me lots of kisses and being silly to try to put me in better spirits.
3. I am grateful for the cold front. I don’t like the cold, but I do LOVE making soups when it is cold.
4. I am grateful that we have friends nearby. I love Kyle and all, but friends are super important to us.
5. I am grateful that gas prices are going down. Although the economy is stinking like a pack of rapid skunks right now, I am grateful that we aren’t paying $4/gallon anymore!
6. I am grateful for NPR. That is probably the thing I look forward to most when I have to drive my car. Here is a super interesting podcast that was played today about trends during recessions.

What are some things that you are grateful for? And do you wish your life were simpler? How so?