Sistah Pat

I watched Soul Surfer last night and loved it.  The film was a little Pollyanna.  I mean, the girl must have gotten downright angry occasionally but I still enjoyed it.  Some of it was filmed on Kauai and I recognized so many familiar places.  I’ve often snorkeled off Tunnels Beach where Bethany Hamilton was attacked by a shark but I stay inside the outer reef area.  Tunnels is an amazing place for snorkeling.  You can be floating along just above the reef, actually having to touch the reef to pull your body over it (while being careful not to grab a sea urchin) and then the bottom will just drop away and you’ll be looking through 40 feet of crystal clear water to the bottom.  A few times, I’ve felt a little worried.  Thoughts of sharks going through my mind but I keep asking myself, “Am I still within the boundaries of the reef?”

The very first time I went to Hawaii, I swam at Tunnels with a sea turtle.  He was huge and I was totally enthralled.  Since then, I’ve learned to be very careful around the turtles.  Sharks eat sea turtles.  If there are turtles in the area, there can be sharks, too.  Although, of course, the chances of encountering one are very, very slim.

I finally got DGS, Steven’s, charges all taken care of for school. They had emailed him his final bill for the semester and it showed us still owing another $1,885.00 and I knew that couldn’t be right.  I finally found out that, even though they show one of his Pell Grants being paid on the credits, they hadn’t deducted it from the total.  Sounds pretty simple to catch but, believe me, it wasn’t.  I’ve been tangled up in all this red tape since last spring.  There are charges and charges and charges and then there are credits and credits and credits and the two are never shown on the same page.  I kept adding up all the credits and they more than covered all the charges but they were still asking for almost $2,000 by August 23.  I could have sat down with someone in billing or financial aid and gotten it straightened out but that would have involved a 5 hour drive to go down there and back so I kept calling people and one person would refer me to another.  I was getting really stressed and aggravated so I’m really glad to have it all taken care of.

Steven is such a picky eater, I can almost count the items he’ll eat using my fingers.  Of course, a lot of them are frozen foods.  He eats pancakes and pizza and a couple of those frozen kiddy meals with chicken nuggets and fries.  They tell me that’s a part of the Aspergers Syndrome.  It’s really discouraging because, as he’s gotten older, instead of adding new foods to his repertoire, he drops items that he’s been eating for years and decides he doesn’t like them anymore.  So, I want to make sure he has a decent freezer for his room.  It wasn’t easy finding one.  Most of the mini refrigerator/freezers have a tiny little freezer that will barely hold an ice tray and they don’t get as cold as they should since they’re located inside the refrigerator itself.  I finally found one that will work perfectly.  It fits within the 5 cubic foot limit and has a separate freezer section.  Of course, they were out of it except for the floor model and I had to go ahead and pay for it without being able to take it home.  H. H. Gregg’s told me they would be getting it in within the next two days.  That was almost three weeks ago and they still don’t have it.  I’m not in a panic yet because Steven doesn’t leave for school for another two weeks but I’d feel better if I could actually get the thing.  Other than the fridge, I think we have him all set to go.

Enough blogging…I’m going to do my pool laps and try to enjoy one of my last days before going back to work.  Once Monday rolls around, I’ll be eaten alive.