eastbound and down

here is a rundown of my day this past friday:

5:45- wake up, shower, get coffee
6:00- wake em up for shower
6:20- wake wil up for shower
6:40- make sure em has all of her halloween costume stuff, make sure wil has packed everything for his crew trip, grab another cup of coffee
7:00- load car, leave for upper school
7:10- meet em's friends in dining hall to have breakfast and make sure all "rockettes" have everything they need, try to not watch wil with his friends across the room : )
7:30- race to lower school, check emails, get things ready for my classes for the day
9:00- pick up pb and race back to middle school to watch the halloween parade, try to stay warm...freezing, snap some photos
10:00- head back to lower school for a day of 6 straight classes and a bunch of kids jacked up on halloween candy
2:50- leave school, hair day...
3:15- pb runs to upper school to pick up wil. this takes almost an hour. line is backed up, wil is running late, etc.
4:00- pb and wil go home to get wil's things for his overnight crew trip. he has to play at the football game with stadium band for part of the game and then the crew team loads up at 9:00 for the trek headed northeast, to oak ridge, tennessee. he doesn't want to go. pb talks to him about following through with his commitment. wil is dropped off back at school in a rather pitiful state.
5:00- meanwhile, i am having hair day with my bff, who arrived dressed as lady gaga. i know that she is going to be proposed to on saturday. she doesn't. excited and nervous for her. we smuggled a bottle of wine into the salon for tgif communion. i'm trying to relax but worried about wil and knowing that pb is right. he needs to go. he made a commitment and he loves crew. he just doesn't like going somewhere without his buds. he is the last freshman standing on the team.
6:00- get home, talk about the day with pb, then we go to harvest moon for dinner. (em is at a tumbling, dance lesson marathon til 8:00.) eat yummy cobb stack salad, pb eats burger. more lamenting (from me) over wil. i just want him to have a good time.
7:45- pick up em and friends at tumbling. take one friend home and take em and 2nd friend to football game.
9:00- crew bus has left the game. not long until wil texts pb saying "i'm alone, cold and hungry. there is no one to talk to. this is terrible." pb notes, "this from a boy that never gets cold?" now i am about to get in the car and go get baby boy. the last thing he really needs. herein lies the issue. (i will address this later.) so, i text wil back, "how's it going? you alright?" he responds, "not in the slightest. this is terrible. shouldn't have come." so now i am about to come unglued. i know i am wrong but the thought of him being on the bus, cold, and not talking to any friends makes me so sad! (also keep in mind that he is great at painting a picture of how terrible things are if he is slightly ill at ease).
9:30- go back to upper school for 3rd time today to pick up em. she is there with her friends, without us, and wants to stay. my worlds are colliding at this point. i want to get both of them home and in the bed, but the one that wants to come is on a bus headed to tennessee. he is so much like me.
10:00- home, em tucked in, we are in bed and again discussing that wil is going to be fine. he needs to get out of his comfort zone. i know this is true. i know he will be fine. hoping he is not cold or hungry though. pitiful painting...sold! i am so wrapped.

we went through our saturday and had a great day with em, trick or treating, pb cheering auburn through another win, and finally picked up wil at the boat ramp at midnight. when i got there, i waited just a few minutes before the bus pulled into the lot. i strained to see him get off the bus, making sure he looked fine. he got off and was dressed in all of his crew gear, looking grown up and cool in his toboggan. he threw his stuff in the truck and said he had to help unload boats. i thought, he must be okay if he is not dying to get out of here. when he finally got in the truck he could not stop talking. 12:30a.m. and he is beaming and chattering about how the race was one of the most "intense" things of his life and how they were like a "family" out there rowing. they got 4th out of 18 boats. he was ecstatic.

when we got home he re-told the entire thing to pb. i could not look in pb's direction because of the "i told you so" look i would have gotten. and he was right. i knew that all along. but when it is your baby boy...

so thankful for the "voice of reason". wil needed to go. he needed to be pushed out of his comfort zone, without his freshman buddies, and go out of town to row with his team. my tenderness has a place in his raising...just not in cases like this. tough love.

btw, reading this to pb for preview. his only comment? they should be waking themselves up in the morning...
love you wil.