Tag: post-high school

taking up the . . .

Taking up the . . . Like in “the slack.” 

The direct opposite of what I scribbled one day in November 2014.

Rarely do I wake up before Julia these days and get to plunge immediately onto the page.  Into the page?  Okay, so I washed my face, brushed my teeth, made a latte with three shots of espresso—the third a treat for the day—made the bed and then opened the laptop.

The morning light streams into the living room making it almost difficult to type.  I haven’t lived in this house in the autumn but I am almost sure that this is what autumn light will be like.  The angle of summer light coming into the living room has shifted. This new light is gentler, smoother than what has shined in since late May.

Everywhere.  Everywhere all around me, the season is changing.  A few days ago on a walk, Julia and I spotted some brown leaves on the ground.  Very early victims of the transformation or just unfortunate late summer victims of overwatering?  No matter they are the harbinger of change.

Facebook posts aplenty of children being driven to move-in days at their colleges and parents feeling the first sting of empty nesting.  Oh my friends, you will endure and prosper very soon.  Younger families posting pictures of first days of many, many grades. Smiling faces, new sneakers, expectation galore. And hope.

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Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 0

tasting failure

Very rough day. Somewhere around 10 a.m., I received this email from a program director:

“It was great to see you and meet[] Julia this week. Our team felt that what we provide and the environment could be over stimulating for Julia. We think a smaller size structure program will be a good fit for her. I did reached out to Nancy from DDS with feedback. I am sure you will be able to find a program for Julia.”

That last sentence — “sure you will be able to find a program” — really stung.

Julia and I visited the program, Delta Projects, on Tuesday. Julia’s behavior was not perfect but by the time that we left, she was in conversation with some of the staff and a few of the participants. I was hoping that Delta Projects was a possibility for her. The director’s email quashed that hope.

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Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 3

post arts camp

Julia finished her month of arts camp. She still doesn’t have her phone and her internet use is limited. Sometimes her behavior is challenging but overall, she is returning to our real world. PYD, who ran the camp, is staffed with supportive and loving people and Julia responded well to their kindness and attention.

Next week, she doesn’t have a schedule but I am not sending her back to Elliot House. She will go to a sleep-away camp the following week. We have a tour of a program on Monday and during the week, we will go to the gym often. Tuesday, her wonderful therapist, Michelle, is taking her on Codzilla. Michelle also bought her a pair of boxing gloves and learning boxing is an ongoing activity with the hope that it . Perhaps this will be a good outlet for some anger.

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Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 1

expertise

I wrote this piece for the memoir class I am taking. It is the last of five garden related pieces. I is also where we are today, where I am. And so, I’m putting it here.

Julia’s new, shorter hair cut. So very happy she finally agreed to it.

I am a gardener.

I notice what goes on in gardens: flowers and vegetables and herbs, perennials, biennials and abundantly blooming annuals that don’t stop until the first frost.  I notice trees and bushes, decorative, productive and the volunteers that can be the bane in a gardener’s vision.  I notice what the bunnies are eating, what cannot survive without six hours of sun, what the weeds are choking out and what thrives in a microclimate close to a dryer vent on the north side of a house.  I know which tulips were planted as bulbs last autumn and which were planted full grown two weeks ago along a walkway with a carefully planned casualness. I admire the window boxes on Beacon Hill—lush, overfull and overflowing, miniature landscapes in harmonies of pinks and creams and lavenders punctuated with trailing greens.

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Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 0

an equinox

Two weeks old

I went up to Cheshire and Justin’s house on Wednesday with the promise of holding Wilbur for an hour or two.  Two weeks old and not spending too much time with eyes open.  He had a doctor’s appointment earlier in the day and it tired him out.  He nestled in my arms, moving his extremities the way a new baby does—random and without purpose.  Amazing how dear such movements can be.  And I cannot help but remember when his mother was that age and we brought her home to First Avenue in the East Village.

All is well at Wilbur’s house.  Baby sleeping in adequate chunks of time; his bodily functions all working at full tilt.  When else is farting charming? He has a good suck, fills his diaper regularly and cries in protest every time his little body is without clothes. Mama and Papa are content, and not as exhausted as I remember being.

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Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 1

make it so

A blue ribbon and a fourth place ribbon during the sectional track meet. Julia was extremely proud of herself!

We had Julia’s last IEP meeting yesterday.  She will leave the school system in January when she turns 22. The participants included transition specialists from DDS and MRC, both agencies will loom large in Julia’s future.  Her inclusion facilitator conducted the meeting.  Two aides, the speech therapist, Julia’s out of school therapist were also there.  

Julia presented a power point about where she is and where she wants to go.  She has done this for a few years and this one was the best.  She likes working at the library, she wants to work more, she wants to live with room mates, she wants to take care of her nephew who is not yet born. She has gotten better at cooking and she is interested in making money.  I am leaving a few things out that I’ve forgotten.  Each slide was pretty appropriately illustrated with anime pictures that she copied.

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Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 0

summer profile

Facebook  memories pop up:  3 years ago today, we were at Coogee Beach in Australia; 4 years ago we were cruising in Alaska; 5 years ago we were in the lovely town of Orta San Giulio in Italy and 6 years ago, we were with Julia’s China Sisters in Ohio.  We are going to Ohio tomorrow and I hope for some fun.  But today I gather my thoughts to write where Julia is these days and ask for help.

This morning I arrived at sudden clarity after months of confusion and muddle, and maybe a little hope that some of my greatest concerns could work themselves out. Nothing has worked out “by itself.” There are no answers this morning, but I can see where we are with Julia’s life, the little that is going well and all the rest.  

This was excruciating to write; however, necessary.  The four weeks of ESY (Extended School Year) have not gone well.  Every week Julia has had some days of refusing to do the work of the day, threatening self-harm at school and having rough mornings or evenings at home. Nothing I have done at home in previous years is working.  Before the school year and the new transition program begins, I need to work out some things that help  Julia.  She is NOT going to blend in and get adjusted by herself.  She is NOT going to transition without effort.  She is still on high alert and on the brink of meltdown every day.  She is as hypervigilent and affected by trauma as she was 12 years ago. 

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Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 5