Sunday, March 7, 2010

Visiting the College Kid

My son and his friends might have been actually glad to see me drive up this past weekend. My daughter and I showed up with supplies in hand ... home-baked brownies; milk, bread, cereal and other groceries; a toaster; water and soft drinks; a blender (probably a mistake); coffee and creamer; and most importantly, toilet paper. Just so happened they were out. Probably just happened that morning. Sure of it.

I took him to Walgreen's and then to Best Buy to get him some stuff he needed. I even bought him a CD and took him to lunch.

My reward? During lunch, he told me I could ask him any question I wanted or say anything that was on my mind. This was my chance, he told me.

Now, prior to getting to his house, I had lots of things in my head I wanted to remind him of; I had practiced for days on all the things I wanted to tell him.

1. Get the oil changed in your car.
2. Pay your bills on time.
3. Did you pay your on-campus parking permit yet?
4. How are your grades?
5. Have you looked for a job?
6. When are you coming home?
7. Do you have a girlfriend?
8. Do you think you will live with these roommates through the summer and next year?

And, on and on. Instead, I mumbled something about "How are your classes?" when I got my big chance. So lucky for him, he got a break from his mom during lunch so he could eat in peace. The fact that he actually offered to let me ask questions and talk to him just had me so bumfuzzled for the moment that I couldn't get my thoughts together.

Thankfully, after lunch, I recovered and got a chance to "stress him out" with all of my demands and questions so it worked out OK for me. Maybe not so much for him.

By the way, the answers to the questions above are: OK, OK, Not yet, We'll see, I want to, Don't know, No and Yes.

I will think of some more questions later.