525,600 Minutes

How is it that when it feels like just last month I took Aaron to his middle school orientation, that today begins their summer vacation?  Where on earth do the days go?  Seems that the older I get, the less I measure the years by January 1.  Now, I measure them in school years (where did it go?) and birthdays (Didn't I just have one?) and Vacation Bible School (didn't we just do this?).  It's amazing where time goes and sadly we don't realize just how fast it goes by until we are like thirty.

I remember being a kid and "Wishing my life away" as my mother used to say.  I wish I was sixteen so I can drive.  I wish I was eighteen so I could be legal.  I wish I was twenty-one so I could buy beer.  Then suddenly we are thirty and from there it all becomes a blur.  Now I have role reversal with my kids wishing their lives away and of course, when I tell them not to do that, because they are only kids for a short time and adults for the rest of the time, they just don't get it, but then again, I suppose they can't.

I still get amazed when thinking about times in high school and how things seem like they happened only yesterday.  Like the time our pseudo-drama instructor (the real one gave it up for a year) took four of us students to Georgetown to see "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".  We had a great time but as it turns out, pseudo-drama instructor had an alcohol problem and apparently while we were in the theater, someone slipped something into her drink.  For those of you who don't know, Rocky Horror is a bit of a wild show where some fanatics will dress as their favorite character and mine the part along side the screen. Different props and responses are also a norm.  It is also not unlikely that people will have alcohol and drugs there, though me, being an innocent sophomore, I had no idea.  I was there for the movie and to throw toast through the air.  Three of us were sophomores and the other student with us was a senior...who we found out that night also had a drinking problem.  As it turned out, by the time the movie was over, the senior was staggering around and the pseudo-drama instructor (known as PDI from now on) could not even walk...and she was not a little woman.

So, the sophomore boy took the senior boy to find the car while myself and the other girl attempted to carry this woman toward the car, all the while she is kicking and biting us to try to get away.  I am thinking my parents way did not read about this when they signed the permission slip.  We finally get her into the car and sophomore boy without a license is driving because, hey, he is sober.  The whole time, PDI is in the back seat screaming, senior boy is asleep and the other girl is trying to keep PDI quiet so sophomore boy can concentrate on license-less driving. 

Suddenly, PDI has had enough and starts reaching up to pull sophomore boy's hair, thus jerking his head back and forcing him to not be able to see where he is driving...on the interstate....near DC.  Of course, he is startled and swerves until we can get PDI's hand off his hair so he can see again (Ah, good times).  The girl is trying to stop it, but she is a little thing and PDI is not, plus she is in a drug induced, belligerent state, so the hair pulling continues.  Finally, sophomore boy pulls the car over onto the shoulder of the road, throws it into park, whirls around and punches PDI in the jaw, thus knocking her out (I'm telling you, this is the absolute truth.  Ya can't make this stuff up).

The rest of the ride is peaceful and by the time we get to our town, PDI is coming around and is much calmer.  We drop her and senior boy off at her house, then sophomore boy takes me home.  After dropping me off (it is now like 1:00 in the morning) he is taking sophomore girl home and is pulled over by a police officer.  Remember the no license thing?  Anyway, because he was pulled over, all our parents had to find out what had happened, my parents went to court on sophomore boy's behalf and under the circumstances, the judge let him off completely, and PDI lost her job as the school librarian/PDI.

Feels like it happened a couple of weeks ago, which is probably a good thing, because this mama isn't gonna be no dummy when it comes to her kids.  Not that my parents were, but they were different times back then and what happened that night was not a normal thing to happen.  Nowadays, I have to wonder if the likelihood of it happening or something similar is now greater.

I'm not sure why I went off on that story, but I've been thinking lately that I do have some stories to tell.  Life is interesting, even if it is short.