I received the kindergarten registration packet in the mail toward the end of the week, and spent a good chunk of time filling out the paperwork. There’s a lot of information in there, and I need to dig some things out that we’ll need to take with us (birth certificate, proofs of residency, etc.), but there was 1 reaction I wasn’t expecting to have. Ok, maybe I’m not totally surprised, because I’ve been known to react this way as a nervous response to the absurdity or awkwardness of a situation.
I got to the part of the medical forms where I had to not only explain why I checked “yes” for a question, but also had to list any primary care physicians and/or specialists that has seen Judith. There were 2, yes 2, small little boxes to list all of these people.
All I could do was laugh hysterically.
That’s probably not the most mature reaction, and for a very typical kid with absolutely no issues, 2 boxes may be sufficient. For us? Hell no!
Of course I wrote “see attached” for both parts, and even went as far as putting numbers next to the little “yes” boxes to organize my responses for all of them. I like to be thorough, but that’s also my OCD kicking in. As I responded in a conversation on Facebook about this topic, I joked that I would need the heavy-duty industrial stapler to attach the essay I was including, or even go as far as to get that awesome plastic spiral binding to put this book together.
I came to a few realizations during this process:
- Holy shit, this is HAPPENING. I’m still super excited to send Judith to kindergarten, and I don’t envision that changing. She loves school, and I have a feeling she’ll enjoy kindergarten.
- We’re not new to the world of organizing paperwork. We’ve been doing this schtick for 5 years now, although it was easier to manage previously because it wasn’t all coming at once. Now I feel like I need an entire room with those fancy, moveable lateral filing systems to manage the mountains of paperwork that are coming and will be coming.
- #2 isn’t practical.
- We should probably consider upgrading our all-in-1 printer to a newer, more powerful model that has a really good scanner on it, and invest in an external hard drive. That way I can scan this stuff, and shred the paper hard copies that are older.
- I remembered why I really appreciate being able to fill out forms and whatnot on the computer, because I haven’t had to write this much by hand in years. College was probably the last time I really had to do a ton of handwriting.
It’s overwhelming trying to keep tabs on everything right now. I had a feeling that it was going to be this way, what with transitioning to a new clinic, fielding a ton of appointments (medical and educational), and working our way through the transitional and re-evaluation process. Being the Type A personality that I am, if I don’t have a great organizational system in place, I go crazy. Plus this is giving me an excuse to fuel my office supply obsession, and purchase some new things.
The Confessional 
