Coincidences Come in Threes

You almost couldn't make this stuff up and get away with it, but because it's true I have to tell you.

First of all, I went to a conference for work yesterday. It was exactly two work days after our IEP, so I was behind with my responsibilities (the IEP and related travel took half a day) so I considered bailing out on the conference to catch up on the avalance that is my desk, but then I figured a day of immersive learning would take my mind off things, especially the dark insinuations of that district psychologist you're probably sick or reading about. Right? So I'm in a software seminar with a professional development focus, and I'm loving not just the content, which is right up my alley, but the presenter, whose Southern accent comes from the same place I do. Suddenly, she sits down and says she's sharing her seminar time with a group that wants to showcase new IEP sofware, and I have been selected (by a pink sticker on my computer) to come up for a ROLE PLAY. I am told to do the IEP of a child who is having trouble getting along with classmates and who has oppositional behavior. I have been assigned the role of the school psychologist. The woman pretending to be the parent acts defensive. The man assigned to be school principal makes jokes. Everyone groans about how much IEPs suck. I am the epitome of the "affective filter" I learned about in education -- sometimes students can't really hear the message of the lesson when the emotional stakes feel to high to them for personal reasons that might be unknown to the teacher.

I don't know about you, but the whole thing struck me as a weird coincidence. Not a good one.

But to balance out the scales, it just so happens that our neighbors directly across and one house down have a little boy, Sweet D, who has a spectrum diagnosis. We found this out not long after we moved in about six months ago, and that was coincidence enough at the time (though we were as yet undiagnosed), but just the other day we found out that Sweet D, who gets OT and speech at home, and who also happens to be just four weeks younger than the rooster, needs a partner for his floor time and speech therapies. His mom offered, since the district covers the price for them anyway, for the rooster to come try out a little free therapy! And, it just so happens that the rooster has no school this Friday (parent conference day), so my husband was planning to stay home with him anyway -- the very day that Sweet D has floor time with the therapist. A plan is hatched. I think even the rooster will be thrilled -- Sweet D has a double swing set and everything.

Weird stuff and gray hairs usually come to me in threes. So I am wondering: what coincidence does tomorrow have in store for me?