Dress Rehearsal

Boy#4 had one question the night before we left for the South.

"Will we still have the U-Haul when you drop me off?"

Boy the Eldest and I had to laugh. Obviously there are aspects of this move that we take for granted. It didn't occur to us that our youngest thought his new classmates might get their first view of him driving through campus like the Beverly Hillbillies, maybe with me sitting in a rocker strapped to the top of the trailer.

This is the dress rehearsal run for the big show that will begin in three weeks. Four's new university has an orientation camp in mid-summer designed to introduce their new students to each other, and to university traditions, and to the stultifying steam bath that is July in middle Texas.

We're all for multitasking in the QueenBee family, hence the U-Haul backed up to the garage-filled furniture two nights before the trip. Hey! Guess what? Kansas is a July stultifying steam bath, too!

But now we're here, the trailer is unloaded into Boy#2's storage space, and Boy the Eldest is off returning the U-Haul. In an hour or so we'll drop Four off at camp and drive away, but this time he'll be home again in a week.

I don't even know what metaphor to use for a mother's experience of this week. The revving of the engine before the race? The first tap of the hammer before driving the nail? The sample taste of ice cream before the ordering of the cone?

I think I'll go with the ice cream.