The Stress of Waiting

This was, in some ways, a rough week. It's interesting -- I was planning on writing a post to the online support group about how to cope with the waiting, when I found someone else had already done it on the same day. The advice was good, I guess: take one day at a time, be thankful that you're in a position to be able to do so, etc. Still hard, though. We'd all like to do something, but it's really not worth beginning treatment.

I think it's getting to the kids a little bit, too, especially Peter, who was the only one who seemed to have avoided a breakdown up to this point. Well, it finally came. Last Sunday, when the Patriots lost, he took it very hard. He's a die-hard Pats and Sox fan, but I think at least some of his reaction was just three weeks or so of build-up from all of this, and he finally let it out. So he's been a little bit up and down this week. John and Catherine, too, though it seems less so for them because they've been that way from the start. John's birthday was Tuesday, so that helped brighten up the middle of the week, anyway.

It's a stressful time of year overall. February doldrums. Even the dog is itching to get outside, so she's getting into trouble now, too. All three kids are also scheduled to compete in the Connecticut Young Musicians Festival in a month or so, so they're stressed about their performace peices. All three will play piano. It's a non-competative, judged event, so they'll play two pieces and then two judges will give them scores between 1 and 5. Peter has scored perfect 5's for two years; John had 5's last year. This is Catherine's first year. They'll do fine -- they went through this same stress last year -- it's just a little harder and more stressful this year with everything else going on.

(In other music news: Peter auditioned a couple of weeks ago for the All-State Bands in alto sax. It's for all of the Catholic schools in Connecticut, grades 5-8. There are four levels, and he was chosen for Symphonic Band, which is second highest. Impressive for a 5th grader, since this is the first eyar he could try out. Any of you who knew him as a baby knew even then how musical he was. The band will give several concerts this spring, including one in front of Lincon Center in New York City. John and Catherine are both singing in their choirs this week. Catherine has a brief solo. It's nice to have a house full of music. Cheers things up. Except for when they bang the keyboard in frustration.....)

Isabel is handling things well, keeping me positive when I start to feel down, but I'm sure the stress of waiting gets to her, too. Send some love her way sometime.

My parents are coming for the weekend, so that will help distract the kids a little, maybe get them out of their mini-funk. February vacation is coming soon. That will be nice, too. Maybe we'll plan something extra special for that.

Busy weekend for me and Isabel, so I probably won't post again until Monday.

In the meantime, while you're watching and waiting, try watching this. I promised a friend I'd give a shout out to Tom Jones, so here it is. Watch the whole thing -- the freaky dancing at the beginning is repeated at the end. Plus, for the first time, he gets to kiss two sisters!

Stay positive.