MILE.STONE
Have you ever had one of those moments where you realize, "OH. MY. GOD. WHAT IS THAT? RIGHT THERE? THAT I'M PASSING? IS THAT...IS THAT??? IS THAT A MILESTONE???"
I wasn't feeling well all day yesterday - nasty weather here and stubborn sinus headache. I'd skipped lunch and just wanted to eat a good dinner and go to bed early. We decided to head up the highway here to an Italian restaurant and Big Daddy said, "Good, then we can go by the mall. Kid wants me to take him to Brooks Brothers."
Well, I thought that was odd, given that we'd just gone clothes shopping for The Kid last weekend (different mall) and couldn't get him to buy anything but hooded sweatshirts and a Billabong t-shirt. I thought maybe he'd gone online and found some dress clothes he liked at Brooks Brothers.
In the car, I said, "What are we getting at the mall?"
And, from the back seat, The Kid says, "Shirttiepants."
Like maybe if he runsitalltogehterrealquick I won't notice what he's said exactly.
But it was obvious we were shopping for something specific, so that blew my online shopping theory out of the water.
"Oh," I say. "For what?"
"A dance," he says nonchalantly.
Ahh, it's coming back to me now. Last year they'd sent home a sheet about a winter dance for 7th & 8th graders. I'd asked him if he was going to go and he'd answered with a curt, "No." I asked if any of his friends were going and got that same "No." so I dropped the subject.
So I start to get a little excited inside because My Boy! He's going to A DANCE!
"Are you going with someone?" I ask.
"Yeah," he says.
"Bailey?" I ask (this year's girlfriend, although he told me that they broke up, but they still talk on the phone/IM everyday).
"Yeah."
Oh my god. He's going to A DANCE. WITH A GIRL.
(This is the point that I maybe started to hear the angels humming just a little bit.)
"Did you ask her, or did ya'll just talk about it and decide to go?"
"I asked her."
AAAAAHHHHHH (that's the angels breaking into their glorious chorus.)
My Kid is going ON A DATE to a DANCE with a GIRL.
(A girl, BTW, who is very cute and had a second boy ask her to the dance after My Kid asked her, so must be at least a little bit popular, too.)
And I had this overwhelming - like take your breath away, make your heart skip a beat, feel a little lightheaded - sense of being right in the middle of something big. Something huge. And being there, in the moment, present for it. Sober, aware, witnessing, part of. So I said the most helpful, Mom-thing I could think of:
"We'll need to buy her a corsage."
