I promised no more whining, but can I help it if things just keep happening? After all the "fun" of last week, to top it off, on Friday afternoon I learned that my high school band director had died. My mom pointed out that I haven't really had any contact with him in more than 25 years, so this could hardly be a case of bad things happening to people I know, but it didn't help my mood. And then I came down with either a really bad allergy attack or a mild cold, or possibly an unholy combination of both. It was strangely a relief to have something bad actually happen directly to me because then I didn't feel like I was being self-indulgent or making it all about me to feel pitiful and wallow in my misery. I was fortunate that although I've had all the symptoms on the Nyquil bottle, I never had them all at once. They came in phases. I started with the runny nose, fever and sneezing on Friday, which continued on Saturday. By Sunday, the fever was gone and I'd stopped dripping but had become stuffy. Today the sneezing seems to be gone, but I'm still stuffy and now I'm coughing.
And, wouldn't you know it, it was one Sunday when I couldn't stay home. I was directing the combined preschool and kindergarten choirs to sing in the early service, and I was the one with the sheet music for the pianist. Then it was my Sunday to lead the preschool singing in Sunday school, and then if I was already there, I didn't want to miss the piece we were singing in the late service. I was feeling a lot better and wasn't running fever (and if it was a cold rather than allergies I probably caught it from the little germ machines), so I dragged myself in at 8 in the morning.
It seems my assessment of Mole Boy, that his behavior was about seeking attention rather than true timidity, was correct, since he was the one kid who refused to wear a choir robe and stood front and center in the group, not singing and glaring straight ahead. Since his older brother is in the kindergarten choir, I figure that if he'd been truly timid and afraid of being noticed, he'd have done exactly what his brother did and clung to him. A timid kid definitely wouldn't have made himself stand out by being the only one not wearing a robe. He may be too shy to outright demand attention, but he's trying to get attention. I think he thinks he's somehow punishing his parents by refusing to get involved and have fun at things they're making him do, and he's too young to realize that he's the only one he's really hurting. At least he stood there and didn't crawl under something. We had a few meltdowns in the choir room, but only one big one while performing, when the most outgoing girl in the group, our class clown, burst into tears and ran off in the middle of the song. It turned out that she'd walked into a wall on her way out of the choir room (because she was goofing around) and hurt her nose, so it was a hurt thing, not a stage fright thing. And then my choir director's son wouldn't go on with the choir without his dad being next to him. I'll get lots of teasing mileage out of that. I may tell the choir director I can't sing unless my dad stands with me (though my dad would object to that, I'm sure). The nice thing is that with kids this young, they're so cute that it really doesn't matter how they perform, and, really, the more crazy stuff that happens, the more the congregation enjoys it because it's that much cuter.
Needless to say, I got home and collapsed. Today I'm a lot better and am functioning without medication so far. There may still be napping this afternoon, and I'm kind of hazy, so I'm not anticipating high productivity. I've got a busy week and weekend ahead, so getting better is priority #1.
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