The Ides of June, the Last Day of School, and Rocking in the Car

We had a couple of reasons to be hesitant to take Charlie on the ferris wheel ride he’d been asking for this past week.

• Friday, the Ides of June, was his (nervously anticipated) last day of school.
• Starting at the end of last week, Charlie has had trouble going to sleep. This past week passed with one insomniac night after another, with Charlie only — after manic, stomping runs, hand-slaps on the wall and a great deal of pacing and music-listening — finally sleeping at 3 or 4am. Tuesday, he couldn’t wake up at till 1pm. He missed school and some really ragged, very long nights followed.
• Last time we went to a carnival in a city whose name begins with the same letter as Veracruz, Charlie had his first-in-a-long-time major panic attack (galloping running, rolling on the ground, carnival security hovering) and a long session of weeping once he was back in the silver car.

Charlie wasn’t thrilled to get up Friday morning. But he did make it to his last day of school and after a bike ride by the bay, he was ready for the ferris wheel.

Jim chose a route (over the Bay Bridge and through San Francisco) that meant we’d be pretty much constantly in motion. We parked the car on the edge of a huge lot and both Jim and I were very careful to note landmarks so we could easily find it and speedily depart. I only bought enough tickets for two rides (the ferris wheel and the Yellow Slide); we had agreed in advance to skip the swing, Charlie’s once-favorite.

Charlie was nervous and excited on the ride down the Peninsula to the fairgrounds. Several times he rocked so hard that the car shook as it proceeded down 101.

Charlie had a grand (and short) time and happily called out for ‘shrimp chow fun white rice’ as we drove home up the interstate.