In real life, I really do say Dude this often.

Question: Gee, Molly, you've been notably absent from the internets lately. I mean, you've been logging in to facebook to play scrabble and whatnot, but no blog posts. What gives?

Answer: Dude. So much is going on. Too much, in fact.

Question: Like what? A fabulous vacation? A new hunky love interest?

Answer: No, dude. It's like I've traveled back in time to that one time The Kid was going to hospital school and my mom had eye surgery. Remember? I'm saying this because these exact things are going on right now. Again.

Question: Dude.

Answer: I know! But, apart from my mom and her retinal detachment (which we believe is going to be fine, she's just not seeing all that well yet, so we've moved house and home and cat over to her house to make her coffee and clean her house and wrestle in her bathroom*), this is all ultimately for good, and will have good results.

Question: So, putting The Kid in the hospital for school is a good thing?

Answer: Absolutely! His school was just about up to their ears in The Kid's horrible, difficult mood that is a direct result of his withdrawal from the biggest mistake I've ever made as a parent, Abilify (a psychiatric drug which is supposed to make children with various psychiatric and developmental disabled diagnoses less self-injurous and labile, but in The Kid did, um, nothing except make him gain 50 pounds). So, he was slowly going off of this med, and believe me he is not a dream to be with those first 7 days after a lower dose, and the school is on their last nerve, and while I agree they had every right to complain, they were kind of out of ideas for new interventions... Or at least, they weren't taking my suggestions and don't want to shell out the money for a 1 to 1 paraeducator for The Kid. Also, the class is too big and the teachers are stressed. Yes, it's all true. However, The Kid was not in the classroom for more than 70% of his days, and I just decided that he needed to finish out his last withdrawal period (HE'S DONE WITH THE ABILIFY!) and he needs to be assessed by the best. We need some new recommendations for helping him with his social skills, we need some new recommendations for how to help him focus when he avoids doing his work (we need to figure out what's going on in head that makes him avoid doing his work, first of all), we need to figure out why he behaves like a holy terror in school but not at home, we need to meet with someone regarding diet and supplements, and/or other alternative therapies (yes, the hospital actually has a clinic specializing in these things ready to meet with us and make recommendations. I may just be gluten free shortly, dude.). Most importantly, we need to see what he's really like without being given atypical anti-psychotics.

Question: Will he look different?

Answer: Well, physically, he's already lost three pounds. I do suspect we'll see different behavior. What it will look like, and how we should deal with it now that I've made my decision regarding certain medications, I do not know.

Question: Anything else going on?

Answer: Not really. I'm taking care of my mom, who rocks, taking care of The Kid, who also rocks, driving a lot (because they moved the hospital 20 miles further from home), which sucks, taking partial FML to do all of this, which also sucks but also, secretly, kind of doesn't suck. Seriously, a 30 hour week is just about ideal for a working mother. I can work, cook AND clean. Anyway, this doesn't leave me much time to do much of anything else, short of scrabble on facebook. Oh, except that I met about 40 other moms like me and I joined a supersecret club, but really that's just my business and not the business of the internets. However, if any of them read this, Hi. I'm so glad I found you.

The End.

*That would be The Kid and I. My mom isn't so much into the wrastling these days. Or any days.