Sunday, November 7, 2021

 Sunday, November 7, 2021

 

    I had a troubled night’s sleep. I was agitated because of two of the characters on Offspring. I think the series is excellent, but the neurosis of those two women is too close to mine.  It’s triggering me. Sort of the opposite of soothing music. 

    I had the third session of the week with sisters W &M.  First-grade M worked on a combination of Phase I and Phase II on the words in the story she wrote. She decoded the words because and hungry. Then I had her read a Carpenter story she had read only once or twice before and was still struggling with. Then I moved her into Carpenter story #7, which she had never read before. She worked her way through that. I can see her reading has improved. Moreover, her confidence has improved, her willingness to take on a challenge. We will be moving through the material much more quickly from here on in.

    W worked on her story and then some reading. There has been a complete change in her attitude. When we started the cowriting activity, she pleaded she couldn’t write stories.  Yesterday, I managed to pull ideas for a story out of her. I wrote down anything that came out of her mouth.  It didn’t have to be sequential; she could put down two contradictory ideas, anything.  It was going to need work to be a structured story.  I read her notes out loud. Before she started to dictate, I told her we had to set the scene, to begin with. We had to tell the audience where the story was taking place and who, or what, was in it.  I assumed I would have to give her a frame of reference paragraph after paragraph. Once she got started, she soared through the story. It wasn’t quite the same as her original one was, but it was a well-structured story.  I left the editing for our next session. We have to reread the story and see if there is any place it doesn’t hang together, or we want to include more detail. This is the part she doesn’t like to do.  My goal is to get her excited about the craft of writing.

    For the rest of the session, W and I worked on reading. I continued with the sixth-grade material since she did so well on it yesterday. She read two paragraphs. While she read them perfectly, only missing the word for reading it as of, she hates doing it.  I need to find out what she experiences and see if I can help her overcome that negative feeling. 

   My neighborhood friend called to tell me the results of her husband’s melanoma diagnosis. The biopsies proved that his case wasn’t that bad. The lesion on his arm didn’t qualify for a rating; the one on his back was at a level two.  I shared her alarm at the original news. I mentioned the diagnosis to several friends. Three told me stories of people they knew who recovered without further incidence.  I passed that news on to my friend. Those reports were good news, but nothing compares to the good news from the doctor.

       Damon called to say he would not be coming for Christmas.  My guess is this is what has been weighing on me, making me feel lousy. He’s been sitting on this news for several days, avoiding the moment when he had to break the news to me.  I suspect that his burden has weighed me down. Yes, I believe people can be impacted by the thoughts of others, when it involves them.  Based on my experience, when people come to mind unexpectedly and repeatedly, I find out they’ve been thinking of me. Once contact is made, the intrusive thoughts stop.  Some are angry at me or want to resolve an issue, not necessarily in my favor.

On the other hand, some people are so encapsulated that they don’t think of the other person, or their energy is so confined that they never impact others.  Poor Damie Doo. I felt sad, but I wouldn’t hold it against him. I’m thrilled he even felt bad about having to tell me.  Also, the only reason I feel bad is that I have a wonderful relationship with him. I assured him I wasn’t counting on it (while looking forward to it). I know how his life goes.  

   He can’t come because of a change in the schedule at work. Damon is a producer at a movie studio. The film he has been working on is just about ready for release. The musical score had to be included. That work was supposed to happen in early December. Damon would fly to London to meet with the composer and be back in time to have a few weeks before flying to Hawaii for Christmas. The schedule changed to later in December. The family decided to make it a travel event as well. His wife has a good college friend who lives in the Cotswold’s.  They will visit her and do some sightseeing. They will fly back to the states on December 24.  They will need a break.  He promises to come in either January or over spring break.  As I said about this Christmas visit, I’ll believe it when I see it.  He hasn’t been here since we interred Mike in February of 2020, right before the pandemic took off.