Soapbox

The Chick has left the Nest

So I’ve got this kid…and yesterday, he left the nest.

Just a trial run, actually. He went to Puerto Rico for a week with a group from his school, and without me. He’s been away without me plenty of times before (sometimes with mixed success) but this is his first time leaving the continent!
The day was the culmination of a busy week. I had been making lists, both actual and mental, for a long time about what he should take, and doing shopping runs all week as something new occurred to us. His backpack was stuffed with snacks and amusements to while away the 3 1/2 hour layover, plus a few critical items in case his luggage got lost.
There was a very early reveille for the airport run. The boy was relaxed and slept like a log, but I was awake by 3 AM, a full hour before the alarm went off. He sucked down doughnuts, orange juice and cocoa, and after whispering to Katie that we’d be back before she had to get up, we set off in the pre-dawn snow flurries. When we arrived at 10 minutes to 5 there was a bit of confusion and milling about but soon all had their bags checked, ID ready for the security screening and turned to say goodbye to their parents.

The group of people making this trip consists of 3 teachers, nine girls and my son. Now Steve gets on with girls as well as with boys, which is to say, if they like theatre, satirical comedy, computer games or “Strongbad” (a computer comic strip) he’ll chat for hours. Otherwise he might not notice they’re in the room. So a week before the trip I had suggested to him that he make a point of talking to every person in the group at least once, every day.
“Don’t just sit by yourself and listen to your walkman, or whatever. Find something to say, even if it’s just to ask if they enjoyed the last activity you did.”
“Let’s see: sit by myself or talk to nine girls…myself, or the girls… I think I can handle this one, Mom.”
Well who knew?

Now, as I bid farewell to my still groggy oldest child (so groggy that he let me hug him, if you can believe that!) I had a last word of advice:
Take lots of pictures, wear lots of sunscreen, try new foods, buy yourself plenty of souveniers, write your Grandma and have fun.
OK, that’s more than one. Well, if he can manage just the last, it’ll be worth the trip. We drove home in the gusting flurries as the sun struggled not to rise and reflected on the fact that it was forcast to be 87 in San juan that day. Nice work if you can get it.

After the early start, the next few hours were a lull during which I changed the sheets in Steve’s room, threw out some dead plants he wouldn’t give up on (but which I knew were dead) and cleaned out Katie’s turtle tank. It was approaching superfund site status in its toxicity. I was waiting (just a bit nervously) for the phone call saying that the plane had landed safely.
I am on the top of the telephone tree, since I’m home more than the working moms, so I would get the call from San Juan, and then its my responsibility to pass the message on. Senora Perez said she’d call “..as soon as we get there” which was supposed to be 4 PM our time. At 4:45 I had enough of fretting and went to the airline web site and found that the plane had landed, but had been 20 minutes late. I was relieved, and figured they were still getting their bags or something. But I was still in a stew.

See, Katie had a game last night at 5, and the whole school was invited, After both the games everybody would go out to dinner to celebrate the team. Last year I missed this event completely, and last night I was going to have to miss the dinner afterwords for choir practice, but if I got the call on time I figured I could at least make the game.
I go to nearly every one of Steve’s play performances, even though they’re almost identical each time. The least I can do is go to most of Katie’s games, which are all different (with the exception of the fact that Clintonville Academy loses them all…but they’re getting better!) I’m so proud of her, and it’s an easy way to show it.
So, time passed… and I thought “well, I can still see the second half of the game”… then, “there’s still the last quarter”…Finally I left a message on the answering machine for Senora Perez to call my cell and took off driving like a crazy woman. Ted called before I was very far from home and said he’d been home for the call: all were safe and checked into their hotel ! No wonder it took so long for her to call. So I used my cell to call the phone tree (while driving! Bad me, but I was under the gun) and flew up the road.
By now it was dark, and the directions I had were wrong: they said the school is on the right, but it was on the left, and a half mile down the unmarked lane! By the time I dashed into the gym, the girls game was over and the boys were on the court! I nearly cried.
Katie was relieved to see me. “She was worried” the principal said. “She kept saying, ‘My mom said she was coming, and she wouldn’t just change her mind! Something must have happened. She said she’d be here to watch me!'”
I felt terrible. I listened to Katie describe the “incredible defensive steal I made in the second period- which you missed. mom” and made a decision. I went back into the hall and called Byron and told him that he’d have to run choir practice without me, because family comes first, and I was going to the team “dinner” at MacDonalds, darn it! Even though Katie spent the evening hanging with her friends instead of with me, she looked over at me from time to time and waved and mugged, and I know it was important that I was there (but quiet! Parents of 13 year olds should be seen, and not heard,as I’m sure you recall)
We made it home before 9. I fell into bed and was asleep by 9:45.
Today promises to be much more relaxed. I’m going to the library and do some more quilting on my crazy quilt while I listen to a book on tape, and maybe I”ll get a phone call from San Juan with an update. Or maybe they’ll be too busy having fun. It’s OK with me either way.