YeeeeeeHaaaaaaw!!

Strap up your boot straps and hang on tight, we’re catching a ride on the "Rant Mobile!"  

I promise to make it worth your while, but, Oh, I’m so mad!!!  

(it doesn’t help, either, that I started writing this thing at 11 this morning, spent two hours on it between phone calls and errands and then lost EVERYTHING when Windows decided to unexpectedly shut down!!)

I am so ready to pull Wesley out of school!!!  These people have finally gone too far!  

After spending nine months fighting these people to do the MFE (Multi-Factored Evaluation) to put an IEP (Individualized Education Program) in place for my son, I finally managed to get them to do it after I went over their heads and called the special education director and complained to her!!

I’ll try to spare you all the re-telling of what’s taken place up until now, but if you’ve been following me, you already know.  I had mentioned in a recent post that these people (and I use the term "people," loosely) have it in their heads that I’m an ignorant moron and I’ll agree to transfer my son to "the school of hell," which they highly recommend.  

Well, after seeking the wise advice of Mrs. M., the family service coordinator, I called the school last Monday to say, "I’m sorry, but, I won’t be able to attend the tour of "other" school on Tuesday, something very important has come up that I can’t get out of, but, I’ll definitely be there on Monday, the 31st., for our evaluation meeting."  The news was received well by the school psychologist and she expressed her empathy with all the appropriate words, added she’ll call me later in the week to reschedule the tour (ha, fat chance!), confirmed my confirmation that I’ll be there on the 31st, and we hung up.  

Since that day I have received no less than 10…that’s TEN…phone call messages on my machine, either from her or the school principal, reminding me of the appointment on the 31st and telling me that they need to reschedule the tour.  Sorry folks but this just ticks me off to no end.  Why in the world would they assume that I, the person who insisted on and fought for this evaluation, forget or have no interest in attending the meeting that I’ve been waiting on for over a year and have confirmed I would attend???  MORONS!!!  Every time they called I was either in the shower, running errands, dropping off/picking up the kids and hubby, or at a Doctor’s appointment.  By the time I’d get back home and settled down enough to return their numerous calls, it would be too late.

This morning I’m sitting here at the computer, getting all the paperwork together that I need for Wesley’s last appointment with Dr. B., the Pediatric Psychologist, and the phone rings.  I, as usual, let the answering machine pick it up.  It’s the school psychologist AGAIN!!  She blah-blah-blahed her usual schpeel about rescheduling that damn tour and I just about lost it.  I immediately called Mrs. M. again and told her what was going on and she was absolutely livid.  

While Mrs. M. and I are on the phone and she’s advising me what I should do, not even 15 minutes after the phone message from the school, there’s a knock at the front door.  I looked through the peep hole and, "Oh my gosh!!  They’re on my front porch!"  Mrs. M. screams, "WHAT???"  "These people are on my front porch banging on my door!!  The principal and the psychologist!!"  Honestly, if I wasn’t so shocked and pissed off, I would have laughed at the sound coming out of the receiver!  Mrs. M. said, "Don’t you dare open that door, Lisa!  These people have gone too far!  This is boarding on harassment!!"  

I could almost swear I could see smoke coming out of my phone.  

I glance over to the window and see their shadows against the blinds as they tried to look in the window.  "Oh, Mrs. M.," I whispered, "I’m sneaking upstairs.  They’re trying to look in the windows, now."  As soon as I got to the top of the stairs I hear "BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG" on my back door!!!!  Mrs. M. heard it and said, "Are they trying to break the darn door down???"  I whisper back, "No, they’re at the back door now."  

Yep, the smoke is definitely coming out of my phone.

"Oh, the gall of these people!!  Lisa, don’t you worry a thing.  Just stay where you’re at and if they don’t leave in a couple of minutes, I’ll call the police.  They are not supposed to be doing this!"

"Yeah, but it’s my fault.  I haven’t been able to return their phone calls and I cancelled the tour."

"You were NOT obligated to attend that tour and I advised you not to.  I know how these people work.  If you had gone on that tour, they would have surrounded you like a pack of wolves and eaten you alive!  I was sparing you the grief of their intimidation tactics."

"And you have no idea how much a appreciate that Mrs. M.  I’m so afraid they’re going to run me through the ringer with the whole court system again like they tried to do last year……I think they finally left."

"I won’t give them the chance to.  If they do, I’ll reopen your case and take care of it.  They’re gone?  Good!  Now listen.  I want you to attend that meeting on Monday and as soon as you get back, you call me and tell me what they had to say.  If they try pressing you for a decision about transferring Wesley to that other school, just tell them that you’re not making any decisions without talking it over with your husband first.  If they try to get you to reschedule that damn tour, tell them that you don’t have your planner with you and you’re not sure what days you’d be available.  That will buy you some time and get you out of there with those papers in your hand, hopefully unscathed."  

"Okay, thank you so much Mrs. M."

That ended our conversation.  Of course, by this time, I was shaking like a drug addict going through withdrawal symptoms!  

Then I suddenly remembered, "Oh crap!  I have to pick up Wesley for lunch and let him get his Halloween costume on!" (today is the annual Halloween parade at the school)

I ran to Liz, told her everything that happened and said, "Okay, so here’s how it’s going to go.  I know for a fact that if that Mr. H. sees me in the car, he’s going to come up to me to gripe some more about that damn tour and the meeting on Monday.  If he asks why I didn’t answer the door, I want you to interrupt and say, ‘Oh, that was you Mr. H.?  I’m sorry but I don’t answer the door when my Mom isn’t home.’   He doesn’t know that I was home and it’s none of his business.  He also doesn’t know that you don’t have your license yet, so, as far as he’s concerned, you just picked me up from wherever and you’re now picking up Wesley."  

Liz is getting a very wide, evil grin on her face as I’m plotting out my survival plans, and let’s out a little giggle.  I stopped in mid-sentence, look at her and said, "You’re going to enjoy this, aren’t you?"  She let out another giggle and said, "Yep!  This is going to be fun!"

So, we take off for the school and sure enough, as soon as we’re in the line behind the rest of the cars in the parking lot, Mr. H. strolls up to the car and knocks on the window.  In a real suave, holier-than-thou tone of voice he says, "Hello Mrs. L., I thought I’d let you know that we’ve been trying to get a-hold of you to reschedule that tour at "other" school and to remind you that you have a meeting at "other" school on Monday morning.  (Looking like idiots, mine and Liz’s jaw drop down in surprise but he acts like he doesn’t notice)  Oh and we stopped by your house to drop off those evaluation forms for you to look over before the meeting."  

I’m busy in the passenger seat trying to look too ill to drive.  

I leaned forward, said, "Oh, okay.  I haven’t ha…."  

"yeah, yeah, yeah….," he mumbled as he walked away!

HE.  WALKED.  AWAY!!!!

Liz rolled the window back up, looked at me and stuttered out a few incoherent words and then said, "DANG!  HE DIDN’T EVEN GIVE ME THE CHANCE!! He’s such a…a…a whatever he is!!!  By the way, what were you going to say?"  

"I haven’t had the chance to tell you to go eat $hit."

(I wouldn’t have actually, but I sure wanted to!)

Liz burst out in peels of laughter as I sat there pondering what he said.  Suddenly I snap my head around to face Liz again with my eyes wide open and my mouth in a big "O".  

"That low down, dirty, rotten son-of-a-!!!!!  He said "other" school!!!  That evaluation meeting wasn’t supposed to be at "other" school, it was supposed to be at "present" school!!!  ALL of those phone messages said NOTHING about "other" school!!"

"Oh, boy, Mom, what are ya going to do now?"  

"I’m going to go.  I have to.  I need their signature on those forms and they need mine to prove the meeting took place.  It’s the only way to keep all this legal because once that’s done, those son’s of guns are going to eat their words!!!"

…to be continued…