Lauren is home sick today (bad cold or flu), and for a change, Christopher is not. He's been out due to vomiting off and on since the school year started. Two weeks ago, he finally told us that he was being bullied by various kids in his classes. One kid in particular spent a lot of time digging at him, calling him "gay" and so on. We've encouraged both kids to use words to fight back, so Christopher's been doing that very successfully. I just wish he'd mentioned it sooner! This has been a tough year for him, stresswise, and all of it stems from the weird (and vicious) social dynamics of middle school. The year started out with him being dumped on by one of the few elementary-school friends who'd also chosen to do 6th grade at middle school. Apparently, finding a target for other kids to laugh at was how THAT boy dealt with his stress. Whee. But (since this is the kid Christopher said was "blocking his life-path" in second grade), I did find out that the social-bullying thing is something this boy drifts into, and that's why Christopher isn't always close to him.
Randomly (I do not know how this started), HalfshellHusband has been playing Tom Lehrer for Christopher. So now he'll be the only kid his age who knows the lyrics to The Vatican Rag, much as I was, years ago. Except that my Dad also had a lot of Spike Jones records, so that was satire times two.
Several people have said it's safe to catch up on S6 of Supernatural, so I'll try to get that started this weekend.
Now I leave you with a fascinating and disturbing article from Outside Magazine that I read at the gym yesterday: Chernobyl, My Primeval, Teeming, Irradiated Eden. The map of the current "Exclusion Zone"—which shows a river running through the irradiated area and dumping into a lake that is outside the Exclusion Zone—pretty much summarizes the horrific lack of fear and understanding that people there ought to have for the dangers of what befell them and threatens them still.
