My Goodness

I had actually though that last week was supposed to be ho hum, mundane, kinda boring but what do I know. It was crazy per usual lately but it is over. Alana had fun at her girls club camp and doing her play -- she was an indian in Peter Pan.

Tomorrow I put my 13 year old son on a plane to go to London. Am I nuts? For 15 days he will be in London then Edinburgh -- and his parents will be 6000 miles away in CA. I'm a little nervous. I know he will be fine and other than right when he gets there and is very tired, I don't expect he will have any amount of homesickness. I'm also fine that he will be well looked after -- liability insurance at the high school he is doing this with says that he has to be watched constantly and the director has a bunch of cool things up his sleeve to entertain him with. I'm just a bit nervous about the flight. I'm not really scared of flying but I HATE HATE HATE my kids flying without me because I figure if somehting happens, I want to go with them. He did his first solo flight last summer to Harmony College in St. Joseph, MO and that entailed 3 take offs and 3 landings each way and he was fine. He went to SoCal last fall to go to Catalina Island and he was fine. My neighbor just was in Germany and made both trips and was fine. He will be fine. And I will be tracking the flight until it lands. I'll be the most fine when he is in Edinburgh but really, just let the plane get there and I won't say another word.

So, get this (and how lucky is this little 13 year old --- we all can say EXTREMELY LUCKY!), he gets to London Tuesday a.m. and they do a bus tour the rest of the day. Then they have two days of unscheduled time where the director will take him too all the cool stuff in London. They get to see two shows as a group -- We Will Rock You and Mary Poppins. Then the director scored tickes to Billy Elliott The Musical which will be very cool for him. Then they get on a train (and Kings Cross Station -- I need to remind him to find Platform 9 3/4 for me!!!) to go to Edinburgh where their days will be packed with sightseeing along with the 4 performances the group does at the Fringe. Oh, and if you happen to be in Edinburgh, please go see him. And let me know how he is because I won't get to see him until he is back on the 15th.

Anyway, I think he gets how lucky he is. At least a little bit. He's been saying a lot of thank yous today as I get him ready to go. I'm a little teary though. He is my baby. No matter how much he has grown, no matter how much he tells me he is a man now (yeah right) and no matter that he can be away from me for 15 days and totally cool with that. I wouldn't have it any other way but I'm entitled to a bit of boo hoo time. I'll try not to cry when the bus to the airport pulls away tomorrow afternoon -- but no guarantees.