As a *four-star complainer who still thinks that whining is something you can actually strive to be skilled at, I want to posit an earnest non-complaint here. I could be accused (mostly by myself) of looking too deeply into the bright side, or of still being a neophyte basking in the honeymoon glory, but guess what: Kindergarten is going well. Really well.

After writing about my kid-off-to-the-real-world (of public school) anxiety here,  I just wanted to check back in and say that my local public school is amazing. We won the lottery, apparently. At least it seems that way to me.

Every day after I drop my daughter off, I walk back to my car, taking note first, of course, of how late I am going to be when I finally get to work, and then I think to myself, “Wow, all of this is free!? How can that be?”  I then remind myself that I pay taxes and have been doing so since I first got that job at Marlene's at the mall when I was 15. And then I remind myself that my taxes also go to support a military presence that I don’t agree with, and, of course, a prison system that just keeps getting bigger and better---way to go State of California, the state that still won’t let my gay neighbors, who are raising three beautiful, wise and kind children who also go to our lovely public school, legally marry. I also have to remind myself that my husband and I still can’t afford our healthcare costs, even now that I have a job with the coveted bennies. But when I don’t go there, and there, and there, and there, I feel really lucky to be a parent of a child who is really lucky to be able to attend what appears to be a truly impressive public school.

And why is it so impressive? Having only been a parent for close to five years now, I can only account for my preschool experiences, which were good, but because we had to reach deep into our pockets to get there, I wonder sometimes if I thought they were good precisely because we were paying for them to be good. By far what is the most impressive thing about our local public school, and I will assume here that this might be true of all public schools, is that it is only as good as the community and parents who get involved with it.

That is to say, we have unusually high parent involvement. With an exceptional art docent program, an innovative music program, and a life lab program which includes a bountiful garden in which pumpkins, fava beans, tomatoes, corn, sunflowers, peppers, mint, basil and the like thrive for all to see and experience, I feel ecstatic about my local public school. So much of this is possible because of the passions of parents who make it happen, the school administrators who want it to happen, and the grants and funding that have enabled it to happen. In other words, it takes work and vision and people who can be engaged in the process, even with very little or no money for their efforts. (I wish this weren't the case.)

Before you try to burst my freshly blown bubble, let me just say I am fully aware, perhaps overly aware of the fact that there will be problems ahead. But for now,  in this moment in time, amid jaw-dropping budgets cuts and talk of doom and gloom, amid the financial cloud that seems to stubbornly hang over my own house, things are looking pretty bright.

You know that feeling, right? The I Did Something Right feeling. (And truthfully, I didn’t do it. Countless others have come before me. I am only reaping the benefits of their labor.) That feeling doesn’t always last long so I’m going to go park myself on a bench near where I work and savor it for a few minutes, try to make it last as long as I can.

Then I’m going to go pay some overdue parking tickets, and then call my insurance company to see why they won’t pay for my prescription. Just another day in the life of the underemployed.

**I referred to myself as a "four-star complainer." You should know that the star system was created by me. I haven’t received any revenue from the system, and I won’t be paying any taxes on it either.