Damn You Auto Correct.

Since the drivers license this new found freedom has been embraced and Alex heads off without my having to run around after her (or get up at the crack of dawn)  part of me loves it.  The other part hates every moment!  I want control!  I accept that I need to  attend Control Freaks Anonymous, but I still want it!!

I have tried to remind (nag) Alex that she needs to tell me she has arrived certain places, especially when she leaves well before dawn to go to rowing.  She, for a variety of reasons- all interesting, some amusing and some even plausible, regularly forgets.

I worry.  Its what Mums do.

In the last two weeks, I have become a txt stalker.  (see how cool I have become saying txt instead of text?? It's a big step for me!!)

Txt 6.39am "are you there yet?"         Better be, should have been there before six
Txt 7.01pm "So you are upside down in a ditch, I take it?"

Reply 8.21am "I am here.  Sorry i was late"

Two days later- txt 6.47am "So, same ditch or different ditch?"
8.50am  Reply "I txt u when I got to school"                - Yeah right!

The next rowing morning-

txt 6.24 am "there yet?
Txt 7.12am "Kooooszio"
Txt 7.21am "What is that?"  Yes, if you have worked out the pattern, txt means I sent it.     I had sent the weird Koooszio and then asked what it meant.  At that hour of the morning I can't blame the drink!

Next day I was prepared, so as she left I txt her
Txt-5.17am "don't forget to text"
Txt 6.25am "Alex???"
Txt 8.20am "Next time you forget, you lose the car of 3 days, this is not good enough alex"

Then!!  only 3 days later!

Txt 6.16 "so how are you getting to rowing for the next 3 days"

I don't think I am unreasonable (although others in my house do!!!) I think I am winning.

This morning, I got a txt that she had arrived, but no goodbye as she left, just gone.

Then a cryptic txt arrives from Alex at 7.53 "I am sadly walking to skewl"

What the...?????  I ring.
"What?  What is wrong??  Why are you sad??  Why are you sadly walking to school?"  a little panic hysteria creeping in.  I can hear it in my own voice.  Something is wrong!

"No Mum, that should say safely- safely walking to school.  You told me to txt,  I'm txting- I just can't win, can I?"
Damn you auto-correct!!

A Bottle Not Found

I had developed a bit of a 'maybe it is, maybe it isn't' sore throat.  I decided to buy a sipper pump bottle so that I could at least sooth it with frequent drinks, without too much hassle.

I put it in our fridge and in the deep, dark recesses of the night decided it would be just the trick to help me out with the mini microwave burn working away in the back of my throat.  I went to the fridge and......NOT THERE.  I put it there, I knew it was there and yet.....??

Alex had rowing in the morning so that evening I asked her about my sipper bottle.

"Do you know where my water bottle is?"  I ask

"Yes, I have it."

"why do you have it?" 

Teenage logic - " I didn't have one!"

" But it was mine"  I reply

"Yes, but I didn't have one"

"I bought it for myself"

"Yes, but I didn't have one"  eyework that suggest mother is a moron!

"Yes, that's fine, but I bought it for myself"

"But I didn't have one, my old one is wrecked, I didn't have a drink bottle"   all this like she is talking to a half wit, almost whispered, moving up really close.

" I didn't have one"  she says (if she squeezes my cheeks, I swear I will punch her)

"BUT! ITS! MINE!"

"Oh Mum!"  (insert rueful chuckle)  " you just have to learn to ssshhhhaaarrreee!"  All said with the conviction of an Amway soaked, evangelist found, backwater hippy on prozac!  "Just share"  she drawls with a whisper (mostly for dramatic effect) and I have to wonder,  am I being had?  By someone much smarter?  Have the aliens invaded my teenager?

Grand Gestures

I guess because Mothers have always been the solvers of all problems- large, small, imaginary....... it is to Mothers that we turn when it all hits the fan.

Last week Alex was involved in a sports tournament.  The night before she was as organised as could possibly ever be imagined, bags packed, lunch made, drink bottle in the fridge- she was good to go in the morning.  And go she did. 

An hour later by urgent text "forgot lunch'

"I'll bring it"

"water 2"

I decided to ring and talk- it's quicker!

Mother "Oh darling, you were so organised, what a shame, blah, blah"

Child  "Yeah, I know"  After ruling out the buy lunch option-

Mother  "I will bring your lunch to you.  Where are you playing?"

Child  " Waitakere Trust Stadium" 

FOR REAL?????  Imagine, if you will, a city, to the furtherest reaches of the south a mother toils at her job.  At the extreme west end of the city a daughter realises she has forgotten lunch.  Imagine the harbour that means the mother has to go to the centre of the city to then go the the western extreme.....! 

Next grand gesture.  Saturday morning, rowing

Text from strange phone number "my keys are in Hamilton'

"What?"

"on trailer to Hamilton"

How?  What?  Why? again, I phone only this time to a strange number.  Alex answers. 
How?
What?
Why?

Apparently it is 'easier' to just throw your keys on the trailer as you come in to the rowing sheds!!!  The trailer left, on its way to Hamilton.

So my Saturday is shot.  I cancel the vet who is doing a home visit for our ancient cat.  I re-organise the day and take the keys.  When I get there, the gate is locked so I have to walk (as if from South to West)  She is out on the water so I leave the keys with a random coach and hope to heck this is sorted as I race off to do all the jobs lined up.

I have concluded that Mothers are the only people you can go to for the grand gesture, they will bring you your lunch, pick you up if you are sick, deliver spare keys, pick up forgotten phones, buy you things that their best judgement says 'NO'.  Mothers- if you have one, look after them!