The Art of Letting Go. Which I Have NOT Mastered.

This has been the year of lessons learned. The biggest lesson has been that of learning to let go. I've gotten better at it, but not quite perfect. As a matter of fact, THIS was me the other night:

 

I know I posted this on Facebook and y'all thought I was just some lunatic mom, so let me

 clarify to make myself look indefinitely better than what you are thinking about me right now:

1- I was practicing with one of my other kids in this pic, no actual spying going on....
2- I was planning on spying only on my own kid, not some other random person. NO creeper here.

All this started about 10 days ago. The kids and I were hanging out at the Boulder City Pool, because that's what we do. It's right next to the High School, which is 3 minutes from my house and I said, "Wow, if you went to school in town, things would be so close and convenient..."  Why did I randomly say this 2 weeks before the kids' private school was supposed to start? Well, it wasn't quite arbitrary. His school starts 10 days earlier than all the other schools in Clark County and honestly I wasn't ready for him to leave yet. So, the next best solution was for him to SWITCH schools, that way I would have him 10 more days. Logical.

So, I SUCCESSFULLY got my kid to switch schools. I really have very limited experience with US High Schools and High School life and what I saw in Boulder City reminded me of what's on the kid show "Zoe 101" and the fictitious PCA and I could totally picture some of the episodes taking place there, so I decided it was great. And he was going to go to school there, and we would record a series there, like BCH Academy and it was settled. Also, I had my kid for longer.

We registered the kid and the lady was lovely and totally looked like a "Barb" and she was a Barb. And on the phone before we went over she told me she likes Dr. Pepper, because people tell me that sort of stuff, and we brought her one, like a really large one and I think I made a friend for life. So, everything worked out fine. I had bought myself 2 weeks. We left our info with the Athletic Director for soccer and went back home. I promised my kid I would play Call of Duty and then Seb said that if I really wanted to be nice to him I would NOT play, so I went to the others and offered to play and they muttered something about having their own lives so I went back and told Seb we had to make lists of things, like the kind of how to act in High School, and he suggested he write one for me, like how NOT to act as a mom in High School and one of the first things he said was that it would be nice if I would just go ahead and shut up, generally speaking, every once in a while.

So I rolled around the bed feeling sorry for myself and then I got a call back saying that my kid was to show for a physical at 4pm (one hour) and his tryouts and consequent practices were at 6pm. And then my kids said, "OK, you're on. Drop me off and I will call you when its over."

So I went into hysterics and flailed around the house, whining to everyone and anyone, the dogs barking in confusion and then Thorsten said, "If this freaks you out this bad, borrow my binoculars."

And that was that. A new world of possibilities opened up. I was purring like a fat cat, practicing with Julian for the next hour or so how to lay in the grass and look camouflage-y. Thus the green shirt. And I got really good at focusing and all that stuff.

Then I dropped off Sebastian and to his great relief left right away. I parked in the main parking lot and Julian and I crept back through the gate, laying low on the upper berm of the field.

And life was good for about 3 minutes. I watched  them and he smiled at people and the coach seemed nice and I was happy. I could also see the tree I was next to so beautifully and I could focus in on the leaves of the one low-hanging branch and it was a picturesque moment. I put the binoculars down, and started fishing around in my pockets to get my phone for this photo-op when all of a sudden the team came running by. Under the berm but umm, right under me and my binoculars and my bag of Gummibears, and I held out my bag and offered and they just stared and whispered things and kept running and there was Seb, he looked at me and I can't swear on it, he definitely won't confirm, but he might have been giving me the finger.

So, needless to say the lessons I learned:

1-  I still "lost" my kid.
2- I am banned from any games unless I wear a hat and sunglasses, per Seb.
3- Gummibears aren't good bribing material for soccer players.
4- Stay in the car if you are creeping.