Suzanne Calling

Friday afternoon, lunch break. I had just sat down in the break room, laptop in front of me with plans of banging out another page on this literature review that has been all consuming lately. My phone rings, and strangely, it's my friend, Jenn. She honestly has NEVER called me in the middle of the day. The reason for the call is one of her coworkers, whose son is, like GameTeen, on the Autism spectrum. Alas, the coworker has no local support network. To be honest, I don't, either, but I've cobbled a pretty good one on the Internet over the years. 'M' and her husband need help in finding an appropriate school for their son, as the local school district hasn't met the son's needs. They've mirrored our path through the educational system, with their son clearly needing a one to one aide. The school district keeps on stating that their son must stay in a school which triggers meltdowns. Not very logical. They've contemplating moving, as t...

One of my friends and fellow coworkers is a volunteer with a local cat rescue organization. Since she started with them, she has fostered a few kitties to keep them from being euthanized at the local high-kill shelter. Spay and neuter your animals, people! Several weeks ago, she went to take pictures of the kitties after work and found that one of the little guys was slated for euthanization the next morning. She signed the papers to foster and posted a picture on the way home of the little guy, perched on her shoulder. She'd left her carrier at home, because she honestly was not expecting yet another foster to come back to her apartment. That picture cracked me up, for the little guy looked like Toothless from "How to Train Your Dragon". He came home with the name Toaster, and the next morning at work, we were talking about various names, and I suggested Java for the black as night kitten. Then I heard stories about the little guy and was absolutely charmed. ...