Decisions, decisions

Jake, my sax playing 13 year old, had an Honors Band concert today. Actually, it was more of a field trip, as it was happening at a Naval Base bear here in the middle of a school day.

What you must understand is that, when you live right outside of Tokyo, you have no guarantees as to how long it is going to take you to drive anywhere. So even though they were going about 30 miles away, best case scenario it'll take them about 2 hours to get there. So when I say middle of the day, I mean the bus was leaving at 6 am. Which meant we had to leave our home at 5:30 am. Which meant I had to get up at 5 am. Joy!

 That wasn't what prompted my title for this post, though. Last minute, the teacher made a desperate plea for chaperones. They needed four and only had two. Taking a weekday off, especially this late in the year, is not an easy decision to make at all. And then there's the whole question of who's going tomwatch Josiah while the only other sitter in the house goes to track practice. And DH has a huge inspection atvwork this week, so he could neither go on the field trip nor help at home.

 After much consultation with my two next door neighbors, whose kids were going on this field trip as well, I made a decision. I would agree to go as a COMPLETE last resort. If they were going to CANCEL the trip, then I would sacrifice my day to go with them. So I dropped off the kids this morning and Mrs. G said the principal had bent the rules and was going to let them go with 2 chaperones and one teacher. So I didn't HAVE to go. Happily, I hopped in my car and started the drive back home.

And then the guilt hit. Would Jake feel lousy about how badly I didn't want to go? Would he have a bad day because he felt cruddy about that? I ALMOST turned back. But then I remembered that part of the reason he's even participating in the middle school band is to give him some time away from momma. We're always at every concert, every event. He was probably glad to have the breathing room, and if he's NOT glad, then he probably needs it. We'll both live.

And as I sit at home, surrounded by piles of summer clothes that I'm finally getting around to pulling out, grading tests, patiently waiting EONS for Abby to answer each history question I ask her, and hearing Josiah and his posse making mud pies in the backyard, I'm thinking I'm insane to not have chosen the bus with 40 middle schoolers. At least I could've been treated to an awesome concert in the process!!!!!