Wearing shorts we spent three hours at the mall searching for, he left dark and early. (Poor kid is in a carpool with two girls who like to get to school reeeeaaaly early.) After school, he texted me to say he had a good day, but, "Did you know shorts aren't part of the dress code?"
Right. I like a good prank like anyone else, but sending my baby to his first day of high school in something NOT dress code appropriate is not something I would do. I'm going to assume he has gotten my sarcastic gene, which I can be proud of, and wasn't really asking that question.
Guess I'll be heading out to not find pants that fit him. Did you know there aren't many stores which sell size 28x33? Especially when you limit them to the color khaki.
Anyway, I am a little more nervous than other moms might be about my boy heading to high school. It was during my freshman year that I met COW. The thoughts of him meeting his future wife already...I just can't go there.
But I have been doing some reminiscing. Perfect timing for me to try a new blog hop. COW and I love music (though neither of us can play an instrument or sing on key. COW can barely keep a beat, and his dancing is atrocious), and it has been a big part of our life together.
Ms. Jen Kehl has a Tuesday Mix-Tape hop each week, and the theme this week is "Duets". While COW and I have been known to belt out the tunes in perfect disharmony, we've never been recorded. I won't be able to share with you our tear-inducing duets. I will, though, be able to tell you the story of our life through the music of respected duets. And for a couple of these, I'm using the word "respected" a bit loosely.
1. When COW and I first began dating, I thought he was rich. He didn't waste his time recording songs off the radio. No, sir, if he liked a song, he went out and bought the tape. (I later found out he wasn't rich at all, seeing as he still used a hand-me-down 8-track, too.) The first one we ever listened to was DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. No joke. We loved them, and sang every word to those songs. I can still sing them without missing a beat. Our favorite:
2. Over our high school years, we went to LOTS of dances. Besides the usual homecomings and proms, we had Turnabout ,(the one where the girl asks the boy.) and sock hops after every single football game. We spent many, many nights getting sweaty dancing to that fantastic 80s music. One song which got the place rocking every single time was "Walk this Way", sung by Run-DMC and Aerosmith.
Enjoy.
3. OK, this one is going to leave you scratching your head. I said I was using the word "respected" very loosely. COW and I both performed in the variety shows our school put on each spring, although never the same one. The year I participated, we did a theme song bit, and I was cast as Laverne, from "Laverne and Shirley". From then on, whenever I felt the need to embarrass COW in public, I would go into my Laverne high knee/low snap moves. Worked every time.
4. And then we graduated. Being that we were mature before our time, we decided to attend different universities. I didn't even apply to the school which he attended. We had been together for more than two years by then, and came to the conclusion we didn't want to stay together out of habit. We tested our relationship by throwing ourselves into the pit of bad behavior and temptation individually, hoping for the best. We managed to stay together, missing each other terribly and talking on the phone every night. During my freshman year, he made a tape for me (Yup, a song from a mix-tape in a mix-tape post. Beat that!) full of songs which made him think of me. (Such a romantic, no?) Of course, when you think of romance, don't you immediately think of Sonny and Cher? I do. Ever since that tape came in the mail.
5. Time went on. We got hitched. We took lots of road trips. We were pros at traveling with little to no money. Our favorite vacations were ones in which we would get in the car and simply drive a certain direction. We took only back roads, stopped whenever we felt like it, and discovered all sorts of fun places. Since radio reception was spotty out there in the middle of nowhere, we listened to lots of CDs. One of our favorites was Kenny Rogers. And the song we really sang with gusto, alternating our parts like pros, was the song he did with Kim Carnes. As the song went on, the gusto got bigger and bigger. We were made to sing that song.
And then we had kids and our music turned more towards Raffi-type songs. Since COW gets to ride in a car all alone a lot more often than I do, his radio channels are set to more modern, adult stations. (Really, I have no idea who he is anymore. Seems he's in a mid-life crisis. One day, he found himself driving downtown with the windows open, rapping some inappropriate Eminem song. It finally did dawn on him that a client may happen to see him and rolled the windows back up.) I am still in the Land of Make-Believe, listening to Kid's Place Live all day.
It's OK. Our day will come. Someday. When the house is empty, (you know, when we're 70) you may see us out on the road, proclaiming our undying love for each other at the top of our voices.
Phoenix is in high school. He very well may meet his future wife any day now.
You know he's going to let us choose the music for the wedding.
Thanks, Jen, for giving me the motivation to put this together. I had a lot of fun doing it!
Have a lovely day!
