Spring Break

Now begins Easter Break. Child #1 is away at college, Child #2 is heading to Boston, and Child #3 is thrilled that he will get to be a Lonely Only for the week. We have a smorgasbord of activities planned for him to guarantee a non-lonely, non-boring week.

Rock Star is presently at the airport, sitting at the gate, waiting for his flight. He will be staying with our very cool aunt and uncle who live in Boston. Rock Star has been itching to visit that fair city for a while now, because his favorite band, Dropkick Murphys live there. I don’t know if he has his brain wrapped around the size of Boston, and expects to run into them at a local diner or something. Who knows? But when our uncle offered to host Rock Star for Spring Break, he jumped at the chance.

I am thrilled to be raising a daughter along with sons, and variety is only one of the many reasons. But one way in which they seem to be from vastly different planets is because of how they pack. Butterfly came home for Spring Break with 7 pairs of shoes and enough fashion scarves to make pretty a savannah-full of giraffes. Rock Star, on the other hand, threw two pairs of jeans, a coupla’ t-shirts and his undies into my suitcase. On second thought, he added a cosmetic bag containing his toothbrush and deodorant. And that was that. He’d completed the task in 4 minutes, and there was enough room left in the suitcase to smuggle Little Squirt to Boston, if we were inclined. (We decided no.)

So now as my middle child sits by his lonesome at the airport gate (with his ipod attached to his ear, no doubt), I worry. It’s his first solo trip. Will he indeed hear the boarding announcement, with his ipod attachment? What if he misses his flight? Will he know enough not to accept a ticking package from a random passenger? What if he leaves his carry-on at the gate? Will he then be bored on the plane, and throw pretzels at the flight attendants, thus committing a felony, which will cost us his collge-savings in attorney fees??!

Oh, so many worries!! It’s a shame that I gave up wine for Lent. Now I’ll have to relax tonight with a glass of lemon water.