chaotic dumb

 I think we were talking about Patrick Star when we said that, and/or our cats.

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It is also how things feel right now!

Status updates:
- me: everything hurts, the anniversary kosher dinner was good, i'm using my insurance 'free second medical opinion' service to figure out what to do about my heart thing because my primary dr left her practice and I'm not sure if she sent referral out.  I asked them 'who am i supposed to follow up with, what kind of dr, or not even worry about it, thanks'

-weekend: i took the kids to the trampoline park yesterday and realized oooh not only do I want to be careful because I get winded anyway but also right now i have a "Heart Condition" that I don't know if I'm supposed to be careful with yet. So I took it easy at any rate.  I didn't go down any rabbit holes of 'how can i avoid a stroke' yet. 

Meg was happy/hyper then crashed and got grumpy on the way, as is typical, BUT: as part of my 'it's my birthday soon' self-indulgence tour I insisted that the kids go to an escape room with me. M bitched most of the time, T tried to cheer her up, But - we got enough hints that we solved the thing with ONE SECOND TO SPARE.  The attendant laughed because she heard us cheer then heard the buzzer or whatever. M did not expect to win but we did! (We got 4 hints in an hour, and I feel fine about them - m says we didn't need one of them because *she* knew what to do next but she didn't communicate it to me & ty so oh well. And  like, when you have the clues but you don't know how the combo-lock numbers relate to the clue sheet, like use these two number AND these two numbers. Or even which lock they go with ;)   or 'which of this detritus is a clue'.  (We did a sherlock-holmes thing. Ty's first escape room - meg & my 2nd. T doesn't like the idea of escaping a room or being locked in so this was good for that because the door wasn't locked at all, however T didn't like the idea of rummaging through someone's stuff even though it was a set and not real).

Saturday I did stuff with rotary to try to raise money. there is a LITTLE drama because one lady who is the wife of a member volunteered with us and she won $500 so it wasn't against any rules but it made people nervous because she was selling the tickets.  Members can't win, is the only rule someone told me.
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meg status: i wonder if her dose of adderall is too high if she's 'hyper then irritable'. at least she has energy. AND I need to follow up with a doc on this. She is also every single day telling me how she doesn't want to go to school. the one day she didn't was halloween, which she was looking forward to, but it did not live up to her hopes and was the 'worst halloween ever.' I said i can accept that, she's had good ones, something's bound to be worst.

ty status: we visited 3rd (and final?) college on Friday and T loved it. here are the things I wanted to write down:  

• Academics: what he has in mind right now is animation as a major.  College 1 we visited specializes in students with autism and has comp-sci but no animation. college 2 does have digital media design, is a trad college, and 'supportive.'  This one is a state college, has animation as a film concentration and also has comp-sci majors.  We visited the Media Bldg (where film/journalism live) and the kids played in the broadcast studio. The prof let them. Then we went to sci building, visited the physics table (she had toys and a Svaha dress) and the comp sci table (ty was shy).  The comp sci prof is caribbean and kind. noticed ty's autism basically and said 'we find that students who may have special needs often have gifts in other areas.'  I said 'honestly that's why we're here, ty what programming languages can you use these days?' and he answered, and the prof was encouraging.   I also picked up a flyer about the 'applied physics' minor, and the sheet said 'if you combine this major with an applied physics minor you get..."  so what i dream for him is listed as: "comp sci + applied physics = video game design or computational physics,' with potentially a double-major in film-studies with animation as the concentration, but who knows.
• scholarships: he gets $1000 for visiting, probably another $3K for his GPA maybe. they also mentioned a talent scholarship for the film dept with 'shockingly low competition' meaning he should enter with a 3 min. film.  
• Also, i forgot this:  he has several tech classes under his belt, so that might equate to up to 8 college credits. And I think he'll take at least 1 college class next semester (online, ASL) and one more tech class. Savingsssss
• activities of daily living:  ty sAYS he can be independent enough to go here, and liked the dorms.  I think he might space out about filling out paperwork, deadlines, brushing his teeth ever, that kind of thing.  So what I propose is to get him into a 'summer college living experience' at landmark (college 1) where that's literally what they focus on. It's 5k but our disability services lady will try for a grant with that!  
• next steps: apply for schools & fin aid, and see how things go

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• Also interested in setting up BOTH kids at the same sleepaway summer-camp this year but need to find a fit. More on that at some point.

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I followed through with 'second medical opinion' service (included health) and they called me right away, and I explained various things to them, they understood me, and will help me get my q's answered. Seems promising!  Additional questions are 'should i avoid stimulants' and 'do i have any exercise restrictions.'