today

I'm a libra, see, and I guess that's why I need to measure everything. Why a vacation has to have both a glass half full and a glass half empty point of view. Why I need to always take the other side of every argument (according to my husband, anyway). And why a day like today has to be remembered not only for the good that happened.

Our interview for the private autism school was very good. As advised, I really tried to listen to my gut throughout. And I got a good vibe. This spring I started a post (but never finished it) about a new private autism school that I visited in my quest for a summer placement for Henry. I was near hysterical by the time the tour ended. You could say my gut didn't like the place.

Because of that experience, my expectations for this more established school were heightened. I was told when we scheduled the interview that they would be getting to know Henry, we would be getting to know the school at this time, and then I would be contacted later on with their decision. But the administrator who met with us told me after about 20 minutes that she thought Henry would be just right for the position available, and she would reserve it for us. (I attribute this not only to my son's charm, but also to this woman's soft heart. She told me that she's only allowed to do a certain number of intake interviews, because she has such a hard time turning anyone away.)

My head is spinning. The place where we interviewed was the high school location (a former athletic club). The elementary school is several miles away, in a former day care center, and we have scheduled a tour there later this week. I mean, I can't just sign my kid up without visiting the school!

If you're interested in knowing more about the school, e-mail me privately. In brief, they have around 300 students in preschool through 12, and actually have some graduates who are remaining to take community college classes. Henry would initially be placed in an "intensive educational and social classroom" with the aim of being quickly integrated with the peer models.

After we briefly discussed Henry's strengths and weaknesses, Dr. M told me that they would be likely to work closely with Henry to determine why he has such a deficit with math, but also would encourage his reading strength "focusing on his interests", to see how far he could take this ability. "Maybe he could help in the library" is another idea she tossed out, which just about made me melt out of my chair.

We stopped over at the elementary location, just to see where it was and to schedule a tour. Things were chaotic, as it was pick-up time for the summer program. But I kind of liked that. I saw lots of affectionate, smiling teachers, smiling kids, smiling parents. Kind of like any other school, but with a bit more oversight. And as we were getting back into the car, a young woman driving by smiled and waved. It was the same teacher I had met at gymnastics, back when I started thinking about this school again. I haven't seen her since, but she remembered us. Seemed like a good sign.

Assuming we don't think of any reason why we shouldn't grab this opportunity, my next step is to contact the special ed director for our district and basically ask her if they will pay for Henry to attend this school. Dr. M thought they might, because she thinks it's actually cheaper for them than the county program he is now placed in. But if they don't, we will have other options.

Now I guess I was riding some kind of uber-autism-mom wave after the interview, and took both boys to Toys R Us. After exhaustive consideration, Thomas picked out a Batmobile. Henry picked out a 101 Dalmations DVD, which we already have. He's been talking about it for weeks, ever since he lost the papers that were in the first copy.

I've been trying to use logic with him, which is, of course, useless. "Henry, I really don't want to spend $20 for a DVD we already have, just so you can get the papers inside."

His response? "It doesn't cost $20."

Um, actually it does.

I'm not usually one to ask for special treatment because my son is autistic. But today I decided to give it a shot. I went up to the customer service counter, explained the situation, and asked if there was any way we could open up a dvd, take out the papers, and they could, like, wrap it back up and still sell it. A manager was called over, who listened politely, but answered in the negative.

So I bought Henry another copy of 101 Dalmations. And now I'm pissed. I'm pissed because if I were Jenny McCarthy and had a million dollars, I would just buy my kid whatever he wanted to satisfy his perseveration.

But, if I were Jenny McCarthy and went on Larry King and talked about how my son loves the papers from inside DVDs, every yahoo in America would pack up their DVD papers and send them to me.

So, that's why today had a little bit of bad in it, but mostly good :-)

And I do have some other ideas about the DVD papers- I can try asking movie rental places or libraries. And if anyone out there would like a copy of 101 Dalmations (minus the ads inside of course), let me know.