on her own

Darren and I had a date last night. We hold season tickets to the Fort Worth Symphony (a birthday gift for Darren last September), and last night was one of our concerts. The program featured four works based on Shakespeare plays: Dvorak's "Othello", Elgar's "Falstaff", Liszt's "Hamlet", and Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet". Cutie-pie conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya (I sorta have a crush) did a beautiful job with the program, and British actor Michael York melded the music and stories together with his flawless, lyrical voice. He read excerpts from each play during breaks in the music, even changing characters within some of the readings. Romeo and Juliet was especially moving, with the music playing softly behind him as he read - nay, ACTED - the words. As he read the part of Juliet, I actually let slip a tear. It was brilliantly and tenderly executed, and such a powerful way to end the program.

Sometime during the Hamlet piece, I got this weird urge to dig my cell phone out of my purse to see if I'd missed any calls while my ringer had been off. I was surprised to see the number '9' all lit up, and even MORE surprised to see that all 9 calls had been from Dani in a span of 12 minutes. She was playing soccer at the time - or should have been - so I couldn't figure out WHAT might be so urgent. Had she been injured? I climbed and staggered past the people on my row (I'm SO not graceful when it comes to stepping over people in a crowded auditorium) and made my way out to the balcony to call her back.

The school they were playing is in a town about 45 minutes from here, and the plan was for one of her teammates to give her a ride home after the bus brought them back to Fort Worth. I felt a little bit guilty for skipping another game, but Dani assured me she was fine with it. Knowing we wouldn't be out of the concert in time to pick her up at school, we'd made arrangements for her ride home. But as it turned out, the friend who was going to give her the ride COULDN'T, because her parents ended up going to the game after all. Without written permission, Dani wasn't allowed to get into the car with them. She HAD to ride the bus back to the school. Her coach couldn't take her home because he required verbal permission from me to do so, and I couldn't be reached. NINE times I couldn't be reached. He wouldn't permit her to ride home with anyone else, either. By the time I called her back, they'd solved the problem. The bus would drop Dani off at home before returning to the school. Ahhhh. Stupid red tape. But at least she got home.

Today, Darren and I went to the "World Famous" First Monday Trade Days, the "biggest flea market in the world" in Canton. The boys were spending the day with Grammy, and Dani was looking forward to a whole day with the house to herself. The one catch to the plan was this: she had guitar lessons at noon, about 1 mile from home. We had it all figured out. Darren and I dropped her guitar off at the music place early this morning, and Dani rode her bike. When she got there, though, she discovered that lessons had been cancelled today because the teacher's grandmother died this morning. So she threw her guitar over her back and pedalled back home. We chatted via cell phone several times during that ordeal, as I'd made her promise to call me when she left home and when she arrived at lessons, and to do the same routine on her way BACK home.

Poor kid. She was on her own this weekend, and was responsible for making her own arrangements, which she DID. And then none of those arrangements worked out the way they were supposed to. I have Mommy guilt, but I know there were valuable lessons learned. And it comforts me to know that she found her own solutions and made them happen, without me to consult or lean on. My girl. She's done grown up!

(And if I may take this moment to brag.... she met with her guidance counselor last week and is ranked 17th out of 704 freshmen. GO DANI!!!)