I don’t know about you, but here in Georgia we like to kick off Back to School in the middle of the summer. Can you feel me rolling my eyes?

We had a sort of trial run this morning.

I heard Gil’s alarm go off at some ungodly hour, but I rolled over and covered my eyes with the greatest invention ever, The Nod Pod. It’s a weighted blanket for your eyes, and I could do an entire post about how much I adore this thing.

I heard him get into the shower, and I must have dozed back to sleep because the next thing I remember is being jolted awake by Gil shaking my shoulder asking if I knew where his brown shoes were.

Now this really made me roll my eyes, but I kept my snarky comments to myself. I’ve learned this makes for a more harmonious marriage. I told him they were on a shoe shelf in the laundry room.

He returned to our room to ask if I had seen a certain pair of khaki slacks.

At this point I was just annoyed. I get up early (6-6:30), but this was around 5:00. I wanted to sleep a little longer.

Once I was up, I realized that the dog was dancing around my feet.

“Gil! Lola has to go out in the morning!”

Gil was still bumbling around the house searching for all the lost things.

“She didn’t act like she had to go.”

Again… I kept the snarky comments to myself. It was entirely too early. My neurons weren’t even firing yet.

I was pouring myself a much needed cup of coffee when I heard Gil yelling for Wallace to get up.

Then I remembered that Gil had casually mentioned a few days ago that he wanted Wallace to go to some business breakfast with him because there was a guy speaking that builds some kind of fancy guitars. Wallace is very into music. He plays guitar and piano, and he even spent last summer building an electric guitar.

After Gil confirmed that today was in fact the day for this event, Wallace appeared in the kitchen. I quickly realized that it had been days since I’d seen Wallace without a hat, and boy did he have a surprising amount of unruly hair.

He looked extremely unenthusiastic about this 5am business. In his defense, he did work until 11:30 last night.

“What am I supposed to wear to this thing?”

“Business Casual!!” Gil yelled from across the house.

That elicited a giant eye roll from Wallace.

I was gulping down a cup of coffee and sizing up my youngest son wondering if he even had clothes that fit. I think he may have had another growth spurt over the past few months. At seventeen, he’s now over six feet tall, and his shoulders seem to get broader by the day.

I sent him down the hall to get dressed and told him I’d find him a shirt. Gil stormed in and announced that he needed to go to his office first because that’s where he keeps his sports coats. I rolled my eyes yet again, but really I was just happy that he knew where they were.

“Wallace, we have to go!”

“Dad I’m in the shower.”

“How much longer?!”

“I don’t know. Like ten minutes. Do I have to wear a jacket?”

“Most people do.”

“I’m not going to wear one.”

“You probably should.”

“Okay, just tell me what to wear. Geez.”

Oh my GOD. I decided to interrupt.

“YES WALLACE! You need to wear a coat.”

Gil looked at me, “Why are you yelling?”

“Oh trust me, Gil, this is not yelling. I’m using a lot of restraint. But he is in the shower with the door shut.”

“Viv, I can’t stand here and chitchat. I gotta go. I’ll text you the address. Can you drop him on your way to work?”

&*&%$#$@ #*&^D%$ &*##

Sure…even though I was planning to work from home today. It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s all FINE.

Wallace stood in the doorway wearing nice pants and a button-down. Awww, he looks so handsome.

“Mom, do you know where my brown belt is?”

Why can no one find ANYTHING this morning?

I grabbed the belt while Wallace sat at the table lacing up his shoe. He looked up…

“Do you know where my other shoe like this is?”

SERIOUSLY!?

I located the shoe, and while he was putting it on I said a silent prayer to please let his sports coat fit.

Meanwhile, I threw on some clothes, filled my cup with more coffee – the nectar of the gods, and grabbed my purse and keys.

In walked Wallace. Fully dressed. His sports coat was a smidge too tight in the shoulders.

“Does this look okay?”

“You look great…just don’t button your coat and you’ll be fine.”

As we pulled out of the driveway, the GPS let me know that we’d arrive with 15 minutes to spare. Perfecto!

Wallace commented on how odd it feels to have me drive him somewhere. He had a little fender bender a few months ago, so he and I have been sharing a car. If he wants another car, he needs to make some arrangements to get one, and so far he has not.

Traffic was light, and the sun was coming up over the marsh as I crossed the bridge onto the mainland. School begins bright and early this Monday morning. The last first day of school for me as a parent. Ever.

Apparently, I must think I have this first day of school thing down, because I have done absolutely zero prep. Wallace has uniforms. He has a backpack. We have ample school supplies. We’re ready.

He’s ready.

Now we have exactly three days to become morning people. Wish us luck!

I hope you are all having a beautiful week!

When does school start where you live?