Suddenly Single Journey

Batten down the hatches!

Author: thenicknick

Sometimes, the world is not ready for us.  Okay…most of the time.  Take…well…all of last night, for example.

I left work at the end of an unusually long day to pick up Rachel.  She stayed after school for Justin tutoring.  Apparently Justin was simply a bonus.  And we spoke as I drove.  See, we were supposed to go to the Harris YMCA with Spring and the kids at 6pm.  Then there was a conflict because of meet the teacher night at her school.  Hmm. Swimming or school.  Swimming or school.  Being seen in public in a bathing suit or being seen as a supportive and caring parent.  Yeah.  We went with school.

Only, by the time we decided to go, we had just over an hour to kill.  I suggested that we spend it picking up some necessities from the grocery store.  After all, I hadn’t been in a grocery store in two days.  I’m sure they were missing me.  Add Rachel and it’s quite a party there.

So, we hit the Teeter nearest her school.  We stopped at the Red Box first and rented a movie.  I’m not telling what it is because I’m not having it ruined before I watch it.  (Inevitably someone spoils it…)

Well, we started picking out items for the basket.  I went with a basket rather than a cart because I only needed a few things.  Instead, as usual, overflowing.  And this is relevant because of the shampoo.  We needed some.  So Rachel and I started checking out what was on sale and what smelled best and what we could share…since we have to share.  Herbal Essences it is.  Only, we had a few snafoos.

The first came in the form of the questionable looking squirt of conditioner that landed on my sleeve when I opened the container to sniff it.  (Hey!  The scent is important!)

Rachel: That just looks wrong.

And I stared at her for a moment, letting her know that I suspect she knows more than she sometimes lets on.

Rachel: And I can’t believe I just said that in front of my mother.

Once we selected a scent and type, I reached waaaay up on the top shelf to get it.  Oh, but we can’t take the first one.  It’s Rachel’s thing.  We always have to take the second one back.  So, in my effort to try to snag the second one back, my soiled sleeve snagged a shampoo…and then it promptly plummeted to the floor…where it separated the cap from the bottle and spilled out into a purple puddle.  (Smelled great though.)

Being the responsible adult that I am, I went to the customer service so they could announce a clean up on aisle nine or whatever it happened to be.  The kid who came to clean up was really nice.  I was apologizing profusely, which would not be difficult for anyone who knows me to imagine.  And since we had done all the damage we could, we paid and headed to the school.

This is one of the few events that I like.  The spring meet and greet is all easy breezy.  We don’t have to follow some schedule.  (I always buck the system anyway.)  We had a plan.  And we had ice cream threatening to melt in the car.  Guess that means we were also motivated.

Get Rachel in front of an audience and the girl can really perform.  So tonight was yet another edition of masterpiece theater.  She skipped in between classes.  She described how she made it from class to class.  (Most of these stories began with…and Justin waits for me here…or…I meet Justin over there.)

She proudly introduced me to her aerobics teacher…the same woman she had last year for PE.

PE: Are you Rachel’s mom?

me: Depends.  Do you like Rachel?

PE: Yes!

me: Yup.  I’m the mom.

And I met her English teacher again.  And told her the story of why I still am making fudge for Ms. Austin.  And we met the English teacher’s mom.  Yeah.  I don’t know.

ET: Well, this is a new Rachel.  She’s so lively.

me: She’s always like this at home.

Rachel: Yeah, she once threatened to taser me.

The teachers exchanged alarmed/shocked looks.

me: No, I didn’t.  I threatened to tranq you.

So I had to tell the story.

The highlight of the evening?  We ran into Kayla and her mom.  You may remember Kayla as the girl we nearly blew up in a freak fireworks accident in The Bubble.  Well, there was a lot of hugging and phone number exchange.  And Kayla was trying to be her normal teenage self.  She said something that was kind of condescending.

me: I should have blown you up when I had the chance.

And soon we were all laughing and joking around.  As usual.

Finally, it was time to go home.  I had traipsed all over the dark cold campus.  I was tired.  And I had earned my baby Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie with the cute baby spoon under the lid.  We headed to the car.

Rachel: Call me.  I need theme music.

And so I called her.  And she danced her way to the car on her ring tone.  Most of the other parents were there without their kids.  And I wonder about that.  I want Rachel there.  I want to share in the experience with her, even if it means I have to suffer through the play by play of her daily routine.  The other parents were watching us.  I am familiar with that by now.  That’s how it always is.  We attract a lot of attention what with all of our joking around, our unbridled happiness, our uncensored take on life.  It isn’t for everyone, but it works for us.  And soon strangers were joining in, joking with us.  That’s just how I like it.  Welcome to the party.

Quick Karma:

• delight someone
  

This entry was posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 5:07 am and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.