Some "Me" Time...With 3 Bus Loads of Teens

It's been a long year. We've had more downs than ups but it's the "UPS" that have gotten us through. God, family and friends have urged us on and shown us the way.

Tomorrow is the big end of the year competition at the Ga. Dome for Massey and I am excited to be spending the entire day with Massey and the band.

It was a long hot summer of endless practices and trips to physical therapy for her knee. It was squeezing in trips to the school when I could and many friends squeezing Massey into their car to bring her home from practice when I had to work.

It has been a year of getting to know this Guard and being amazed at the resiliency  teens can show at such an early adult age.

The thing I love about this band program is that even with petty differences and sometimes tremendous drama...when competition time comes, THEY ARE ONE!

I can SO not afford to take Saturday off...but I can so NOT afford to miss this event in my daughter's young life. When I went to last year's BOA I just didn't realize what an event it really was. Last year it was on Halloween...a full moon to boot. Like the idiot I am I decided to ride Marta by myself to the Dome. I hadn't ridden Marta in years and even had to get someone to show me how to buy a ticket. By the time I approached the transfer station to the dome I was terrified. Being alone and not knowing where to go,  I was a nervous wreck when I finally spotted a man wearing an ECHS sweatshirt and hung to him like stink on poop til I arrived at the Dome.

This year I am riding with some neighbors down the street who's daughter is also in the band. I am going to stay and ride back with the band on the bus after finals (around 11PM.)

Having daughters is totally different from having sons. My son's love me...preferably from a distance. Massey loves me as close as she can get me.

Both my boy's say I spoil her and I most probably do. Her room looks like a disaster area and she leaves a trail like bread crumbs everywhere she goes. But I have NEVER had to rag her about her grades or   meet with her principal in one of those humiliating "I really AM a good parent" meetings.

Boys mature at a much slower rate than girls (that's why women make such good wives) and once they think they are "Men" would rather you leave them alone anyway...until they get in deep do-do. Then it's "Hey Mommy, it's me...I need your help."

Massey wants my help on a daily...no, HOURLY...no,  minute by minute basis. She doesn't mind me being at the school with her (Zach would rather stick needles in his eyes) and we have a very close relationship.

I have missed all of her competitions this year and have only seen one halftime show.

Tomorrow makes up for all of this.

I lost my mother when I was seventeen years old. What it the past repeats itself and I only have two more years?

I try to bond with Zach but we are WAY too much alike. We don't bond...we butt heads.

 Massey is more like her father and I think that is one of the reasons we are so close. Actually she is like her father with a big splash of me thrown in. She is a Cotton Gypsy...fluttering here and there but always being dramatic and metaphorically shaking her tambourine.

I'll be there with her all day tomorrow when she has  meltdowns over missing bobby pins and text's missed. I'll be there when the guard has nervous break down tantrums. I'll be there when they make up and hug and I'll be there when they all tell each other "I love you...you did GREAT."

What's important is that I'll be THERE with my girl and she will be tickled pink that I am . I won't be at work...won't be sending her texts... but sending her looks of love and giving her hugs that she can actually feel.

I wish my boys wanted me around as much as my girl does. I know my boys love me but like to keep their distance for appearances sake...I wish they knew how close I was and how well I can keep a secret.