Today I decided to ride my bike the 15 miles to Talidra’s school. I started getting ready early to give myself enough time to get there. I walked the dogs at 10:30am and was out the door with a bottle of water, a sandwich, two brownie cupcakes, a book, a CD, my iPod and camera. I stopped along the way to take pictures of birds, the marsh, and sky.   I was able to take the bike lane mostly but sometimes I had to use the busy sidewalk full of bus benches and their crowds and individuals holding advertising billboards.

I saw what I thought might be a Star Wars hat across the street and then realized a guy had his dog on his shoulder while riding his bike. I passed a lady on a horse and a dog in an auto-shop. The kids couldn’t talk at lunch, when I arrived, so I took Talidra outside for some reading where she took a picture of me; she should get into photography. In class, we got to use glue to help with visual aids for learning fractions.

After we clean most the glue out of the carpet, that got spilled due to a clogged lid, school is done for the day, but not for me, nor for the other 30 odd kids that stay in an extended program until their parents can pick them up. Talidra reads me a book and then it is time for my PTA duties. The PTA President and I print out some agendas for tonight’s meeting at 6:00pm; we are hoping for a turnout of 25; we are in for a surprise.

We bring in some drinks and cookies and as the last child leaves for the day we realize we only have five adults and two children attending. We still hold the meeting professionally between the PTA president, VP, the Principal, the recorder, and a parent that gets elected as the new treasurer. A planned 30 minute meeting turns into an hour and a half discussion. I wonder how long we would’ve been there if more people would’ve shown, but that left enough fudge cookies to go around.

Photo by: Talidra

The school is doing good, but we could be doing better if only we send out a few extra messages a week to get more parent involvement. I hope to see more participation at the future meeting as the prior one had ten in attendance with equal parents and teachers. A small group leaves little to clean up and we are so absorbed in our conversation that I nearly don’t hear my husband banging on the front door of the school as he sees us pass. A few minutes later and I leave the dark locked-up school.

I never realized how many people come so early and stay so late. It is great to still see dedication where there is a continuing lack of funds. Caleb missed the chance to donate blood today because of a sudden cancellation and went disc-golfing with a few of the guys after work. He lost another disc to the pond and gave a putter away, but was able to find six new ones. He bought me dinner at Moe’s, a Subway version of burritos, and had my bike on the car ready to go when I came outside.