August 30, 2007
Bring the DRAMA
If you know me personally, you know that I am not a morning person. I find no joy in seeing a good sunrise. I’d much rather be looking at the inside of my eyelids. When I was in college, I was frequently a no-show at any classes that started before 10 11 12, which is why I scheduled once a week three-hour long night classes instead whenever I could. Night I can do; morning I can not.
Knowing this, you can appreciate the fact that I was up at 6:50 a.m. this morning for Big I’s first day of school. By 7 a.m. I was dressed and my hair was actually brushed. That kind of action doesn’t usually happen until around noon. Hair brushing and college classes have the same standards.
At 7 a.m. I woke up a teary and very nervous Big I, helped her get a shower and blow dried her hair for her. By 7:35 a.m. the girls and I had eaten a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast and we were out the door by 7: 39 a.m. in order to be about seven minutes early for the bus.
Last year, I drove Big I to school every day. This year, we decided we’d give the bus a try in the morning and I would pick her up in the afternoon. So, there we were, standing at the bus stop. Big I was pacing nervously and breaking out into the occasional jumping jack to ease the nerves. Lil C was standing there in her jammies and croc’s nibbling on a piece of toast. . . and there was no bus to be found.
I forgot to bring my cell phone to the bus stop so I didn’t know what time it was, but I was starting to get nervous. Some landscaper guys pulled up nearby and I yelled to them and asked them what time it was.
8:00 a.m. on the dot.
WHAT????
The kids line up at 8:05 to go up to their classrooms. Obviously the bus was not coming.
We ran to the car and I drove like a maniac to get to school. As I was getting the girls out, Big I’s bus pulled up. I walked over and said, "Hi, you were supposed to pick my daughter up this morning and you didn’t." She smiled, and then said "Oh, where do you live?" I told her, and she said, "Oh, I forgot about that stop today. I’ll be there next week. Sorry about that."
WHAT????
How do you just forget about a stop? What if I didn’t have a car? Big I would have missed her first day!?! I’m thinking this whole bus riding thing just might not happen. Thank God she’s not riding the bus home. What if the driver just "forgot about that stop" and never brought her home?
So, we ran inside the school. There were crying Mom’s. I’ve SO been there. There were crying kids who were refusing to go to their class (all Kindergarten boys); and there was mass confusion. Despite the fact that Big I packed her lunch today, they made her get in the lunch token line just so she "gets used to it." While in line behind about 20 first graders, they called her class to line up. The class lined up and left.
Eventually, Big I made her way through the token line, and found her way over to the other lost first graders. They made their way up the stairs and I certainly hope she made her way to her classroom. The good thing is that with all the chaos, she didn’t even have a chance to be upset or nervous at school. I’m just hoping that when I pick her up today, she is all smiles, like she was yesterday lounging with her sister.
Only 1 hour and 43 minutes until I’ll find out.
Yeah, I’m missing her terribly.
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It is not uncommon for buses to screw up on the first day. You’d think they’d do a dry run without the kids a few days before, but no. It’s almost par for the course for there to be screwups on the first day. I’m expecting it for us when my guy starts 1st grade next week. One thing that he’ll have in his favor is that he was in all day kindergarten last year, so he already knows the lunch line routine, thankfully. But, 1st grade is still different from kindergarten, and being that he’s got special needs classes going on as well as regular ones, he’ll probably have a new routine, since he has different teachers. I’m afraid for different reasons. If I had Big I, I’d have no worries. She seems to have a good head about her.
i hope it went well!
that’s just not ok about the bus.
Yeah, I have been doing the school bus thing for 13 years now. I just assume there will be bus issues the first couple days.
When my oldest, now a senior, first started kindergarten, her bus never showed up the first day, so I drove her in. THEN the bus driver didn’t know where her stop was, so she was on the bus for an hour and a half.
I drove her in for a week and a half to daily exclamations of, “No way, not again!” from the school office ladies.
THEN the superintendent wanted her bus stop to be on a blind curve or on a main highway, not on our road. Yeah, uh, no. I had to meet him AT the stop I wanted, so he could decide if they would do it. He was very nice; they moved her stop.
A month and a half later we moved from a rural area to the suburbs. We had no trouble with the bus picking her up right in front of our house (that was the stop they assigned, woo hoo!), where my two younger kids have gotten on the bus, too.
But yeah, I expect the bus to be late, at the very least, every year for the first couple days.
How did the day go?
Wow! Big I looks a lot like you BBM. Huh. I guess they ought to have mandatory crack tests for bus drivers. That just isn’t professional or cool. That’d be like if you karate teacher just randomly decided to not teach certain ranks at class. Imagine, “Okay, I want all the green belts to go sit down and watch. I won’t be teaching you this class.”
She looks so cute in her uniform 🙂 I’m glad she had a decent first day 🙂
Okay, I know this isn’t what your post was about, but MAN, your kids are beautiful. Big I is growing up so much — and they are both just cute as kittens. Smart, happy kittens that don’t bat paper clips around for fun, ya know.