Real Life Mean Girls

Some days I look around and feel like I’m living in a real life version of Mean Girls. I thought that cliques and passive aggressive behavior was reserved for high schoolers.  But evidently I was wrong. Very, very wrong. This past month has been extremely stressful and the true colors of people have come out more than I ever thought possible.

In the first part of the month my personal life was hit with a huge blow. The school district we live in decided they were going to close 3 out of our 9 elementary schools. THREE!! And there was not one thing any of us parents could do. Then the next week boundary changes were released. Over half our children are going to switch schools. And some kids will have an hour long bus ride or more! Each way. To top it off now our schools will be at 97% or more with the school my daughter is set to attend at 100% capacity.  No longer having a choice of where your child attends school be an option, unless you want to enroll your child in private school. Needless to say it’s been extremely stressful. One of the wonderful attributes of our school district was the 9 elementary schools, each one with a unique atmosphere. We had choice. We could visit each school and decide what environment was best for our child. There are also several new developments being built in our district. Where are these children going to attend school? If the school is already at capacity and there are 4 new housing developments going up in that boundary where are those kids going to attend? Parents are upset. There is outcry. Now parents are being pitted against each other. It’s all just crazy! The comments being thrown on around on Facebook pages that were meant to be support for the families during a time of duress have just turned ugly. Like mean girl ugly.

During all the turmoil with trying to figure out where my daughter would be attending school I became ill. Extremely ill. With my asthma out of control I was diagnosed with bronchitis and given a round of antibiotics and steroids trying to knock it back down. All it ended up doing was taking me out for 3-4 days. When I was able to function somewhat I still felt like crap. Like I could barely function but there’s work to do and a child to raise so I kept plugging along. I knew spring break was just right around the corner and I just needed to get there and we would be fine.

Well, the Friday before spring break I received a phone call at 3 in the afternoon that Peyton had come down with a fever of 102.8 and was not responsive. I rushed her to urgent care where she was diagnosed with strep throat. At first I wasn’t too concerned because with our past experiences strep throat has always been knocked out within 24 hours of being put on an antibiotic. But not this time. The first time I gave Peyton her z pack she threw up within 5 minutes. All over my bed and herself. I wasn’t too concerned with her getting the medicine all in her as I thought some had gotten in. So I gave her a bath and tried to make her comfortable. The next morning I tried to give her another dose. Within 5 minutes it all came back up. For some reason it seemed she was having an issue with this antibiotic. She still had a high fever and was not engaging me in any conversation so we went back to urgent care.

While we were at urgent care the doctor noticed my cough and decided I needed to be seen too. So here we are two sickies. Come to find out my bronchitis has turned into pneumonia and I was running a fever of 101. I had been so busy taking care of Peyton I didn’t even realize I was running a fever myself! We left urgent care with a list of prescriptions to pick up at Target. What a way to start spring break!! As the day went on my fever increased and I started to feel worse.

The next 4 days were pretty much a blur. My fever hovered around 103 and I was in and out of it, sleeping most of the time. Peyton started to respond after being on the antibiotic a few days.  So she only missed a few days of spring break. Thankfully I had her enrolled in a camp for spring break and she went there the remainder of the week while I stayed in bed trying to get better.  The Friday before Easter I was still running a fever and having a hard time breathing so I went back to the doctor. This time I was put on a heavy duty antibiotic and assured it would kick the pneumonia out of my body. Then Easter came. Well it came and went in our house with no big hoopla about it at all. I felt so bad for Peyton. No egg hunt. No coloring of eggs. No big brunch. Just a sloppily thrown together Easter basket and that was it. I slept most of the weekend and she just played in her room.

Now fast forward a week and I’m finally starting to feel like normal! But I look around my house and it’s trashed. Being a single parent means there is no one to pick up when you are sick in bed. It just piles up. And none of my work got done either. Not one article was written from the 17th on. I just couldn’t even focus to write. I feel I’m out of the woods. I still have a mild cough but haven’t had a fever in a few days. However,  I learned a lot over the past month. I learned who I could count on. Who would step up and help me get Peyton to and from camp. Who checked in on me. Who was truly concerned. The true colors of people came out. So what now?

Well first I need to go grocery shopping. We need milk and all the other perishables. Next I’m doing laundry. There’s about a month of it piled up and we are getting to the last of our clean clothes. Then it’s time to write like I have never written before and get as much done as quickly as possible. Email PR Reps and apologize from here to the moon about missing deadlines. Try to repair friendships that were strained. And then let it all go. I cannot control how someone else feels. I can only control myself. And if I apologize and explain the situation there is no more I can do.