[Dear You. . .]

[cassiesmom]

Dear Sunshine,

I am so happy to see you today! Please stick around awhile! If you could chase the rain down to Texas, they need it in the worst way down there.

Thank you,
Elyse


Dear Comp Med people, thank you for bringing your pet therapy dogs in yesterday for Take a Child to Work, even though they were already here on Wednesday for their regular day up on peds. I had a great time meeting and petting them! Thank you for inviting me for another petting session next week! It's true what they say-- a dog is like a chocolate cookie, once you enjoy one you need one every day. Thank you again!

[cassiesmom]

Dear Nice Summer Weather,

Where the heck do you think you're going? Stick around awhile!

Thanks,
elyse

[chocolatepuppy]

Dear grass,

please stop growing!

[Roxyluvsme13]

Dear last 11 days before I go back to college,

Please pass by very slowly. I'm not in the studying mood yet .

Love,
Bri

[sana]

Dear Good Weather

Where the heck have you gone!!?!!? Its extremely hot and we need some cool fresh air here! Come back soon! Like now!

Bye,
Sana

[tokolosh]

Dear kid,

Did I mention lately what a hero you are? I know you don't want to go emo on this, but I know how Limpet was part of your life. You did such a huge hero's job all the time she was sick, never avoiding or flinching or trying to hide from any of it to protect your own heart. I hated having to tell you, I hated how the story kept changing on you because we just didn't know what to tell you you could expect. You would have faced any of it, I just would have liked to reward your courage by giving you something better than 'we just have to hope'.

Remember when we brought her home? You were only ten. Remember how you looked at me when I told you - so carefully - that B and I had been talking about her all night and we had decided that if you agreed too, we'd like to pick this little cat and take her home - to be ours. I've never forgotten that look. Twenty-one years, and I've never seen a look quite like it on your face again. Never forgotten how you instantly plastered your tiny little self against the front of her cage so nobody else could see around you and somehow grab her away from behind you before my credit card cleared - even though the shelter was deserted and the attendant assured us it was already official and irreversible as soon as the sticker went up on her cage. You sat in the back of the car with her box on your lap and your fingers through the air holes so she'd have someone to reassure her, and you talked to her so gently, so carefully, so she'd feel safe. We both felt you vibing out joy until the whole car was thick with the silence of it. You might not have noticed this, but B drove home like a funeral car because you were so anxious about her getting bounced by a bump and he didn't want to cause you distress.

You're such a wonderful kid. You got such a wonderful cat. Remember how she was sick when she came home and we used to gather in an awed little circle of worship while she slept in her fever-cat way, and go 'Awwww' every time her sinus infection caused her to blow a little green snot-bubble that could have glowed in the dark? Remember the time you phoned me while I was working too late on some pointless project, and you said to me, all politely 'Could you excuse me for one moment, mom?' Then I heard you put the phone down and I heard your special loving firmness-with-Limpet voice saying 'NO cats on counters, Limpet.' I sat there thinking about how carefully you'd worked out a way of gathering your arms around her legs and gently 'hooshing' her towards the edge until she jumped down, since you were too small for the leverage to really lift her from such a high place. And then there was thumping, and some rustling, and some giggling sounds . . . and then awful silence. I sat there and tried to figure out how to freak out - I couldn't even start to imagine what could have happened. And at last I began to get more thumps and more bangs, and some distant heavy breathing mixed with giggles and an almighty crash. And finally your slightly-breathless I'm-not-giggling voice being all corporate so it could say 'Um, I'm afraid I'm going to have to phone you back.' Turned out she'd hooshed herself to the edge of the counter, into your arms, up onto your shoulders, and then from there walked down your back while you bent lower and lower to keep her stable, until she had you flat on the floor with your chin on the tiles, and she had settled down on your back for a nap. She started riding your shoulders quite naturally after that.

Never would do that with me, but with you it was perfectly normal for me to be standing in the kitchen stirring something, and have you mosey in in your sullen horrible how-dare-you-exist-in-the-same-world-as-me teenager way, fetch a bowl, fetch the cereal, open the fridge, bend down for the milk, pour the milk and the cereal, pivot, open the fridge, replace the milk and go back to your room with your dinner-spoiler . . . and all of it with Limpet happily settled down for the ride across your shoulders, kneading and purring like she was sitting in somebody's lap. You never cracked a smile, but don't tell me you weren't proud of it. Don't think I didn't notice how careful you were never to jolt her or knock her off balance, for all of your Great Stone Face act. There have been times when I've despaired of you, kid - any parent who's had a teenager is lying if they say they haven't felt the same fear. But seeing how you were with Limpet helped me to know that you'd be okay. No matter how foul your mood, you were always, always gentle with her.

I'm just trying to say. You were little when we got her and you would have agreed to anything then for her sake not even knowing what you were in for. But you turned 21 just days before she got sick, and you knew. To be honest, I didn't think you'd be able to deal with it all. I thought you'd look into the emotional chasm it all opened up, turn petrified at the depths that you saw, and back away. But you came to the vet the first time we checked her out and listened to the history and risks and what she would need. You came into the back room where they were preparing to put her into her box - and I thought you'd be afraid of the 'medical' look. She took one look when she saw it was you and leapt straight off the table onto your shoulders, sick as she was. There's no question that she needed you, and you knew it, and you came through for her.

The first tiime I thought I was obligated to put her to sleep because the vet said the turning point was when they gave up eating, did you know I seriously considered just announcing the fact and doing it while you were at school? That's my cowardice, but it's also habit. Time was only a few years ago when you would have chosen to do it that way. You would have tried to pretend it was not happening by backing away. It took me some guts to give you the choice of waiting until you were home and making the appointment for late in the day so you could be there. You said like it was automatic that you wanted to be there with her, like it was out of the question to let her be put her to sleep without you to see her through it. And you were there, when we finally did have to do it. For her sake, not yours. I saw it in the way you were gentling her. You were there because you've always been her touchstone just like she was yours, and it never even went through your mind to betray her on that.

Kid, you just don't know how proud I am of you.

[Roxyluvsme13]

Dear Pappy,

I miss you so much. I can't believe it's been ten months since your passing on. Every day, something little reminds me of you, and I feel my heart breaking all over again. I know you are not in pain anymore, and that you wish you were here for me, but I would give anything to spend another day with you.

I love you and miss you so much.

Love,
your favorite granddaughter, your little brown jug.

[sana]

Dear Pakistan

Congrats, its your 64th Birthday! I hope everything bad going on there stops.

Yours Truly,
Sana

Dear Weather,

Well, you've been pretty happy lately, eh? But, please don't be too happy, the rain floods the roads. Thank You!

Gooood Day!
Sana

Dear Full Moon,

What a beauty you are!! I'm soo happy seeing you! You really look like a cheese wheel My cousins, sister and I are going to get on the roof to see you! Hopefully we'll be able to!

Your truly,
Your lover
Sana

[mrspunkysmom]

Dear District,

Please rule in my favor.

[mrspunkysmom]

Dear both you, my employers,

What did I do to make you dislike me from the start? You've been after me to quit since I was transferred there. All I wanted was (and is still) to do the job right and hopefully to your expectations. I wanted to teach the students. But it seems through your actions and inactions over the last three years that your goal was to get me to leave, not to insure the students' success.

When I asked for your help (after you told me I was doing it wrong), your response was "I don't know, you're the teacher." Sending me on a few professional days doesn't help me in this rather unique program. Why do you change your rules after I've figured them out? Why didn't you teach me your rules instead of telling me the rules while reprimanding for breaking the rules?

You talk about L and L and how to use it with our students. Yet, you apply anger and insults when you deal with me. Do I anger you that much or are you just a hypocrite?

Have you noticed that I make more parent contacts than the other teachers? (Another teacher saw your list and told me.) And many of the End-of-course scores are passing, more for those that have been under my tutelage for a period of time. I'm told by a reliable source that more students have passed the test for me than the previous teachers.

I know that active earning occurs in my class. You wanted me to deliver expert plans, yet keep the students in their seats with a written assignment list to follow. You wanted me to encourage learning and cooperation, yet the students aren't supposed to talk at all.

I tried to talk to you. I tried to present my point of view professionally, and you wrote an official reprimand, much of it lies. I kept my silence and you created more lies. I'm not perfect and sometimes I was wrong. But I did not do all those things and you know it.

You've embarrassed me in my room in front of other teachers and students. I quit showing up after school at the bus line, because you would embarrass me in front of the students and teachers. I just stopped talking altogether, which is what you wanted. That is why your secretary told me I wasn't allowed to talk to another adult unless I was spoken to first. I was told that when I arrived. What a warm welcome.

You can't tell me when I've done right? I caught the girls last year that had got some drugs by your check-in staff. I got the fellow this year that did the same thing. I was doing my job and observing my students. I pointed out that we had a child that was almost shoeless. Another child had vision problems and I alerted the parent. Isn't that what I'm supposed to do? The other teachers know that I have pencils and paper for the students. The students know that if they need supplies for a project, I probably have it. And sometimes they offer to pay for it.

I have to prepare for up to 8 different subjects and can have 8 subjects per class period. I keep my students on task most of the period and the students et me know it too. Still I like them and they like and respect me. I know this because they will do as I need without me asking.

I hope you know what it is that you have done. If you don't pay for it in this lifetime, karma will catch up with you. Perhaps my friends' prayers will find their way to your heart and you can amend your ways. At this point I'm not able to forgive you. Perhaps some day I will.

[Roxyluvsme13]

Dear you,

I really like you. That hasn't happened in a while. The problem is, well, there's lots of problems with me admitting that. Right now, I'm okay with what we have and our friendship, but as time goes on, I don't know how I'm going to be with all of this.

Until then, I'm going to love every second I have with you.

-Me