On the Road Again

Travelogue something something.

It is 8:11 p.m. and I'm waiting for The Dancer to return home from the studio so that she and I can load up the car and hit the road. Yes, it's another college visit trip. Actually, she's going to be auditioning for the dance program at another large college in Georgia.

But this is a combo trip. I have to attend a strategic planning meeting for work. The resort where the meeting takes place is near where The Dancer must be on Friday so we're making the trip together. I must admit, except for the surly, silent, squinting creature she is in the very early morning, I'm really quite digging spending so much time with The Dancer.

While I'm stifling yawns, pretending to be interested in developing our vision for the future and slipping out of meetings to go check to make sure that the next thing on the agenda is good to go, The Dancer will be hanging out at the resort, soaking up the luxury and giggling to herself about missing some classes. No matter. I'll drag her skinny bottom to the group dinner tonight and parade her before the bosses. We haven't done anything like that since she was about four years old. I hope she doesn't fart in front of my boss like she did back then.

As we prepared for this trip, MathMan and I were going through all sorts of mental gymnastics and scheduling coordination activities. We drew up large matrices on our bedroom wall, instituted Level 5 calendar interfacing and called in a team on consultants to help us figure out how I could be at my meeting, MathMan and the Dancer could be driving to her audition and The Actor and Cupcake could be transported to school all at the same time. Living away from any and all family members is a good thing until both parents have commitments.

To make things more fun, my car was in the shop, The Dancer's is having tire issues on her car and we were going to have to play beat the clock to pick up a rental. Luckily, things came together this afternoon. My car was repaired in time for us to pick it up on our way home from work, MathMan still has his substitute secured and The Dancer was able to get out of two classes and switch work schedules tomorrow.

How can I not be happy when things come together so well?

I'll tell you how. I can look at my car and see that it is covered in inches of filth that I'd been perfectly happy to ignore until I realized I'd be pulling into the driveway of the Ritz-Carlton tonight. I might even run into Board members who would take one look at my dented and filthy car and decide that I just wasn't the kind of staff they need.....

Sadly, when it's 34 degrees in Georgia, the car washes close up like clams. What to do?

Well, I have towels, water, Windex and a warm garage. There's nothing like washing your car with Windex. Please - no lectures on the paint job. I know. If you've ever met my father, you know, I know. I just don't care. The car is "clean." Enough, at least.

So now it's 8:31. The Dancer called to say she's on her way. I have to finish packing and load the car. We have about a three hour drive ahead of us. Maybe I'd better have some coffee......