Month: August 2019 (Page 2 of 2)

The first morning of high school went as well as we could have hoped. M woke up on her own, on time, got ready, and was pretty cheerful once she came downstairs. She was pleasant during the obligatory photo session and was chatty on the way to school. She admitted she was nervous but equally excited to get things started.

The first day of the school year is always a big deal at CHS, as the seniors teepee the trees on the long hill that leads to campus, and then line the street to cheer the other students as they drive in. There are always extra folks hanging around so the traffic is super tough to navigate. It is probably with that in mind that the first class begins 30 minutes later than normal. I had been warned by other parents about the nightmare of first-day traffic and those warnings were legit. We made it roughly a half mile from campus when we hit the gridlock. It took 20 minutes to travel about two blocks, thanks to traffic backing up through the one entrance to campus, and three directions of traffic coming together the way we were arriving from. Once we cleared the logjam of back-to-back lights, it was only five minutes up the hill to drop her off. We left a little later today than we normally will, but it was a good exercise to confirm if we don’t leave early next week, the sisters will be late getting to St. P’s.

We’ll see tonight, after she goes to cross country practice, how the first day went.

In the midst of all this M-centric posting recently, I forgot another huge story from her life: she went to her first concert last week.

Well, she was supposed to.

She and her three best friends lucked into free, suite tickets to see Cardi B at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse. They were crazy excited. The parents organized who would drop them off and pick them up, the girls were given very clear instructions on how to get to the suite, how to never walk around alone, etc. There was very little discussion amongst the parents, probably owing to the fact that these four girls are all smart, rule-followers.

That said, I don’t think any of us parents were upset when the concert was cancelled at the last moment because of an “unspecified threat.” M called me and told me there had been a bomb threat, but that has never been confirmed. After a couple days word leaked that Cardi B was either too drunk or too hungover during her sound check and decided to call the show off. That has not been confirmed, either.

So instead the girls went out to dinner and shopped together before hanging out one last time for the summer.¹ I was picking M up when I heard them all shrieking. They had just gotten word from the classmate that gave them the tickets that his family would let the girls use them for the makeup show in September. We’ll see if that actually happens.

On the way home, M was very dramatic, sighing heavily and saying things like, “Of course this has to happen at the concert I go to,” and “Why did this have to happen in Indianapolis instead of some other city?” I listened to her quietly while laughing at her in my head for her drama. I also did my best to reassure her that it was better to cancel the show than let it occur and let some crazy person do something awful. We were all glad the girls were not yet in the arena and the mom driving them could just turn around and come back. Three St. P’s 8th graders made the paper in a photo of them sitting on a curb, staring at their phones in disbelief.

The best part, though, was last Saturday at CHS orientation, one of the dads said to me, “I had never listened to any of Cardi B’s music before. I listened to a few songs the other night. They’re really awful! She says terrible things!” I chuckled, thinking of some of the stuff I listened to when I was a teenager. I’m hopeful as with how my parents raised me, M has enough sense to know that it is all a show and not to take any of it too seriously.

Days are getting marked off the calendar, this meeting or that passes, and we keep getting closer and closer to M’s first day of high school.

Last week she took part in a three-day study skills workshop. I must share that this was not her choice. But it was the better end of a bargain she struck with us for making up for slacking off in her final quarter of 8th grade. We hope she picked up something from the sessions that will help make the transition to high school academics a little easier. She came home Friday kind of excited about things, and being able to explain these wacky, new-fangled high school class schedules to me.¹ And she met a few more kids.

Saturday was a long, family orientation session. Everyone checked in at 3:00 before the kids went one direction, parents another, for about 90 minutes of presentations. We reconvened in the gym for a mass, which was brutal because the sound system was not working. It was amusing to watch all the kids who are not Catholic approach during communion for a blessing, unsure how to properly act. One kid was making me laugh because he had his arms very rigidly crossed across his chest and was nervously looking around to make sure he was doing it right the entire time he was in line. Been there, done that, young fella.

After that we ate and then parents went home while the kids hung out for another four hours. They played games, there was a dance, and then a quick candle ceremony outside at pickup before midnight. We think M had fun. She didn’t talk too much about it. We know she met a few more new kids. It was funny to see her going around hugging all these girls we’ve never seen before during the registration process. If nothing else the various summer activities she’s participated in have helped her make some connections so she won’t walk into classes Thursday not knowing anyone.

Oh, she had told me after the first day of the study skills workshop that there was a kid who is 6’8” in her grade. He was right behind us as we were getting our name tags Saturday and she was elbowing me to look. Kid is a legit 6’8”, 6’10” with his puffy hair. In fact, I saw a whole group of freshmen boys that are all much taller than me. If they are basketball players CHS is in good shape. If they’re football players, they need to get on a program because these kids were skinny.

This morning was the first official cross country practice of the fall. She did not wake up fresh as a daisy, rarin’ to go. But she is running as I type this. Or at least I hope she is. One more, final, technology orientation session Wednesday morning and then she’ll be off Thursday.

In semi-related news, we’ve started checking out the drivers ed options. She is very eager to get started. I’d be fine with her waiting awhile. If my mom and stepdad were still alive I’d ask them what the hell they were thinking letting me start driving at 16. And I think I was way more mature than M is. But what are you going to do?