Jazz drove to band practice, by himself, for the first time last night.
FOR. THE. FIRST. TIME.
I hate the first time solo driving. H.A.T.E. I.T
I’m a nervous wreck. My imagination goes crazy and until my boys text me to tell me they arrived safe and alive, I’m pretty sure I forget to breathe in that time period.
When Jazz arrived, he sent me this text:
“Had a nice relaxing drive over here.”
haha! I smiled. I chuckled. I savored my proud mom moment … and then I got to thinking, Wait. Was that really code for – I nearly got T-boned three times on the way over here??
See? My imagination is really a curse.
At 9:00 p.m. – I started watching the clock. It was time for him to come home and I was praying that we had practiced enough night driving for him to know how to handle it on his own. I started cursing myself for not taking him out night driving more often.
I was watching “Fringe”, (freaky series, by the way), when I heard the garage door open. (Kevin has been driving his car, instead of his truck, to save on gas, and he’s been parking in the garage. When Jazz starts driving to school this fall, he’ll park his car outside next to Dude).
I smiled. My chest swelled and I went out to meet him.
He was home safe and sound – I could begin breathing again.
Jazz got out of the car, smiling from ear-to-ear. He LOVED it. I knew he would. He’s like me in a lot of ways and I KNEW the moment he got a taste of freedom … it was all over. We have crossed that childhood/man threshold. One part of me is sad, two parts of me is ecstatic.
He said he got a lot of attention from his band members when they found out he drove himself to practice.
I said, “of course you got a lot of attention. I’m betting there were quite a few girls” (actually, two specifically come to mind because I’m pretty sure they have a crush on him) who immediately thought, “‘Oh COOL. Jazz is driving, which means he has a car, which means we can go out on a DATE!'”
He blushed, ducked his head and began to chuckle.
I knew by his reaction I had hit the nail on the head.
Now I’m a bit worried about his senior year .. haha!
I came home from work yesterday and Dude was gone.
My first reaction is to always freak out because Dude? NEVER goes anywhere unless he has somewhere to go. I knew class had been over for hours and curiously, his car was still parked in the driveway.
When I asked Jazz where he had gone, some friends had come by and picked him up.
Dude doesn’t have a lot of friends; Dude has a few GOOD friends.
His friends dropped him off while we were sitting at the dinner table.
We asked him some questions and Dude answered them – he never elaborates, so we have to ask him creative questions in order for us to find out anything.
He had hung out with his friends and had a good time.
Swell.
And then, just in casual conversation and in passing, Dude says something about going to a Japanese-style restaurant for lunch.
I don’t know why this shocked me, but it did.
Did he have money?? Was my first thought and yes, he had some money on him (his own money) and he paid for his own meal.
I was so proud of him. I know it’s silly, it’s lunch out, but it was with his friends and it was totally planned by him. I had absolutely nothing to do with it – I didn’t even know about any of this until after the fact.
And this is how it should be. I’m just proud because … he’s becoming his own person. He’s slowly coming out of his shell and exploring the world on his own.
It’s sort of exciting, to be honest.
I had a Gyno appointment yesterday. My doctor wanted to check on my periods. Remember when I said I haven’t had a period in a while (it’s been three months now). Well. The doctor doesn’t just want to come right out and tell me I’m in menopause, so he drew some blood and is going to run some tests to see what’s going on. He also gave me a prescription for something that is supposed to try and MAKE my body shed the lining of my girl parts – just to see if there’s anything still there, or if it’s clogged up or something.
Then he talked to me about taking hormones.
Now ya’ll KNOW how I feel about the flu vaccine (seriously, just search flu vaccine – there are a ton of entries), so you can guess how I feel about taking hormones. But I told the doctor I would do some research and get back to him.
So the verdict? I still don’t know if I’m peri-menopausal or not, but I’m guessing I’m definitely knocking on that specific aging door.
Write From Karen 