Guess What?

Last Friday, I drove myself and Kate to our weekend sports getaway in Charlotte, NC. Second weekend in a row. It was a perfectly normal road trip, except for lots of construction on one stretch of I-85 through SC and NC which made my knuckles white and my pedaling foot tired. We arrived at our hotel, got parked and checked in, and then quickly drove to the site of the first basketball game of the tournament, to watch our boys' team.

I found a seat on the bleachers. The phone buzzed. "Guess what" from Alex.

It was around 5:30; I thought for sure the cats had finally knocked over my vase of flowers from Valentine's Day. But no: The next message was this:

Y'all, I was overcome. I loudly gasped right there in the gym. Thank goodness I was with friends, who were so sweet and congratulatory and understanding when I got SO teary. OUR BOY IS GOING TO COLLEGE. What a moment. WHAT a blessing! Bless dear Alex, for sharing it with me! My heart still gets going when I think about receiving the news. 

It's been hard, since he didn't apply early decision, seeing lots of his peers start receiving their letters already. I thought we would have to wait all the way to March, so this was a huge surprise in the middle of February.

Of course, he still has 2 more schools from which to hear, before he makes a decision. But this utter RELIEF that yes, he WILL go to a university and not be resigned to the commuter college down the street (which is a good school, but you know). 

HE DID IT.

Road Trips

One of my favorite road trip memories from childhood is when we listened to books on tape. Remember those? You could check them out from the library or buy them, and they were a set of 4 cassettes or something. On one 7-hour drive from Hereford to Dallas, I seem to recall that we heard James and the Giant Peach, and on another, it was The Secret Garden. Both were such good stories, of course, and I just loved that we were listening together.

Does your family ever play the cows road-trip game? If you see them on your side of the car, you claim them, and try to estimate/count how many... but if you pass a cemetery you "lose" them and go back to zero. Shawn and I did that once or twice before kids. There's also the alphabet game, the license plate game... twenty questions... 

I had some vague hope that my road trip with Kate last weekend would include similar fun -- not with a book on tape, obviously but maybe with a podcast -- Office Ladies, for example. We'd been listening to it after school several months ago, but not in a while. Music would've been be fun, too; typically when she gets in my car these days she plugs in her phone immediately and starts up the Taylor Swift/One Direction playlist. I'm not an official Swiftie, but I have to admit I have my favorites. ;) 

Alas, it was not meant to be. And I guess it's my own fault: When the kids were little we fastened the dual-screen DVD player to the backs of our headrests and gave them the book of DVDs. They never learned to look out the window! Curious George, the dreaded Caillou, and Ben 10 were the discs of choice. And The Princess Diaries -- I remember Kate asking for that one Every. Time. (Poor Alex.) We trained her precisely to watch movies on long road trips, and so this past weekend, that is what she did. For 3 hours straight, all the way to Montgomery. With AirPods.

We've graduated to streaming Netflix or Disney+ with our unlimited data plan (I can't say I fully understand what that means because there are times when we still get "you have almost reached your limit" notifications) in the year 2022. I know she watched a few Gilmore Girls episodes, and finished the movie Inside Out. I was left to play my own music, softly and with the Fade/Balance turned all the way to the driver's side so it wouldn't disturb her (!). It was less than satisfying. On the other hand, I was driving, which is a rarity for road trips in my married life, so I had to pay attention.

This weekend we're loading up the Ford again and headed north, to Charlotte NC. I volunteered to drive one of Kate's teammates. She is happy about that. I bet they will not even acknowledge my presence, this being the usual method of teens. I will be the invisible Driver. I'm fine with it, really -- again, the need to concentrate on the road. 

Orrrr... I wonder how far I can push to be "Fun Mom" and make it a "Road Trip" before I embarrass her? Should I find Hair Nation and turn up/sing Bon Jovi real loud? Or buy some Twizzlers and hang them out of my mouth? 

Volleyball Mom: I'm learning

Here are a few things I learned this weekend about club volleyball tournaments:

1. They are equally as exciting/nerve-wracking for a parent as marching band competitions
2. You can enjoy them while not fully understanding all the rules of the game (and believe me, I do not fully understand!)
3. You can meet new parents as you cheer on your kids together
4. You should definitely bring a book for the hour-long breaks between your player's games, when her team has to referee for two other teams that you don't care much about (I'm so glad I had one!)
5. Bring snacks and drinks not only for your player, but for yourself
6. Or you can go get drink-drinks with your cousins who are club volleyball pros, and this is a better option
7. The merch table is a dangerous pit -- do not go near unless you're ready to part with a lot of dollars (of course I did)
8. You will be tired and cranky by 5pm if you don't eat any actual meal

So, we traveled across town to Kate's tournament this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. Long days. I'm actually so GLAD that Alex had other things to do -- it was his Honor Band weekend for the county/district, so he had a whole day rehearsal on Saturday and a performance Sunday afternoon. He would have been bored at the volleyball thing, and would probably have felt a little out of place.

(I also learned that I really don't like having to miss one kid's big moments while watching another kid's. Thank goodness for video.) 

Anyway, we went, and we invited Lara and Jeff on Saturday, whose daughters played club volleyball about 8-10 years ago. That was a good call and added some fun to it for us. 

Kate's team lost every single set they played on Saturday. It was terrible! After they lost the first one, they just couldn't muster any positive energy. None of them played like they usually play! But Sunday, they managed to come back and win a match, which helped their morale a lot. It's really fun to watch them as they're learning these big sports/life lessons.

Next week is our travel weekend, and we'll go to Montgomery, AL for a 2-day tournament. Just a couple hours' drive from here, but it's exciting to stay at a hotel and all. The parents are making plans and goody bags and I hope it's a good time. 

Alex has a percussion competition (he's playing cymbals this semester in the percussion ensemble!) the same day, so Shawn will attend that instead. I really hate missing things. But I suppose it's time to start getting used to that, as the first kid prepares to leave the nest in the fall.... IF he gets in where he wants to (Georgia Tech), of course. We're waiting on pins and needles until Spring Break, I guess, when those decisions get made. 

Tonight is an 8th grade night at the high school so I'm taking Kate. So much transitioning to new things lately! Maybe that's why I feel a little ...adrift? Unsettled? Something. I can't quite get solid bearings; everything feels like it's swirling around me a little bit. I sit down to work and am unfocused. I try my best to do one thing at a time, but it's hard. 

I'm not stressed over it (yet), although I did have a stressful moment Sunday night when every group I'm part of started text threads at the same time. Band moms, Volleyball moms, basketball moms, and just regular friends, ding! ding! Ding-ding! I nearly turned the phone off altogether. And meanwhile, teens and preteens were sighing loudly at me (and speaking like teens speak to parents, which is to say, somewhat unkindly).

This is the time of our lives, right? :) 

No cooking this week! Well, I have some salmon I might make on Thursday, we'll see.