Cross this one off the calendar ASAP

What a crummy week this has been. I knew it would be a humdinger just from looking at the calendar: Brian's annual IEP team meeting on Tuesday; Abby's on Thursday (we had actually met with her team a couple of weeks ago but we called another meeting to work out some points); and my studio recitals, coming up this Sunday. I also had scheduled a dentist appointment and an interview with a subject for an upcoming magazine assignment. Plus teaching and all the normal stuff that goes on -- all in all, a busy week.

And then I got sick. Not the swine flu, but just a general, stupid, annoying, miserable head cold that somehow is also making me cough, simultaneously. (Usually it's the sniffles for a week, and then the coughing for a week, and then I'm all done.) So I'm not at my best.

Tuesday's meeting with Brian's team actually was actually very good. For the first time, in our 5 year history of developing IEPs for our children, there was no pre-written IEP (draft or otherwise) by the school district. The entire IEP, from start to finish, was a collaborative effort. It was great, and in such an atmosphere of respect, it was much easier, for example, to voice an opinion and then ask specialists for theirs. We knew that no matter what they said -- whether they agreed or disagreed -- that we would be able to take the information at hand and, as a team, work out something that would be appropriate for Brian and that we could all be comfortable with.

Unfortunately, the meeting on Thursday with Abby's team wasn't as comfortable of a process.
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I just wrote about 500 words, detailing why this meeting was so uncomfortable, and decided to delete them. Given that one of the reasons the meeting was so uncomfortable was a misunderstanding about something I had written in an email for another audience, I think it's best to hold this story close, for now.

What is most important here is Abby's IEP, and I am hopeful that we are close to having the whole thing completed and settled. I just want to get the thing, sign it, and put it to bed.