My son is off on an eleven day vacation road trip, spending a day and a half with his dad in the Chicago area before driving to the East Coast with two of his buddies and one of their girlfriends (who I have also known since she was in the third grade.
They have planned the route, budgeted the money, rented a condo, and thought of all the little details like bottled water, GPS, weather reports, what to pack, and how to save money by packing a cooler.
It is the longest span of time he and I will have eve been separated.
I have been trying to plan activities to keep myself busy. I am teaching summer school. I have a couple movies to see, a book to read, some painting to finish. Faithful Companion, my boxer Cinnamon, has told me she is more than willing to step up the snuggling and greet me when I arrive home.
This fall when my Handsome Son spreads his wings and takes off to college I have been making a list of other activities to fill the spaces that he would normally fill. I haven't decided whether to follow the basketball team that will, I think, sorely be missing their "big man" in the middle, but not as much as I will miss his presence on the court. I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
For now, as my dad put it last night, I am a "child orphan", something the spread of his kids over some 35-odd years denied him of the sudden bereft feeling.
I guess I have always been an all or nothing kind of girl.
He is like my sudden divine lightning in human form. He told me the condo is on the coast, if there is a storm and lightning strikes, he has promised me a piece of beach glass for "our" trips' rock collection.
All or nothing.
When both my kids had left for college I remember feeling similarly bereft. I remember I started spending a lot more time and money on bird feeding. But fear not: they don't disappear. Especially since it sounds like you have a really good kid.
ReplyDeleteI hope he is a good one. All my eggs are in one basket with that one, for both me and his dad. I kid my brother over his "surplus" of boys (3). So far he has been willing to share, "Cookies all around!"
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