Tank, of course

I was confident that Tank would stay with Conrad’s family Thursday night when we left for spring break a tad early.  I knew they would be sure he got to school the next day for the half day.

To complicate things, Tank needed to coordinate where he would stick his duffel bag for his trip to Florida and how he would get back to school for volleyball practice at 3:30.  At 5:30 he told me that he was going to get picked up by Margo, Neil's sister. He would spend Friday night and all day Saturday at Neil’s house, um, minus Neil.

The good news is that Tank is very good buddies with Neil’s dad. Of course. Neil’s pop is very impressed with my kid’s work ethic.  He likes to point out that his kid doesn’t get off the couch and work (although he does swim a lot). In contrast, Tank works as a caddy and runs his own landscaping business. Neil’s dad owns his own HVAC business, so he likes to talk to Tank one business owner to another.

I don't normally show my kids' faces -
but this had us laughing so hard,
I have to share.  Leave it to Tank.

I hoped all the stars would align and that Tank would end up where he was supposed to be. When I grilled him about where he might keep his big duffel bag during school Friday, if he didn’t end up going back to Conrad’s house, he informed me that he was buddy’s with Stan (the janitor). ‘I know people,’ he shrugged. Of course.

Thursday morning Tank and Mini left the house to catch the bus, because Ed wasn’t driving to school. He was sleeping in and then leaving for the airport for Europe.  

I was bustling about the kitchen and Tank was like, ‘Bye!’

Me, the mother with a million balls in the air, ‘Oh, shit. OK. You got everything?’

I was focused on babysitting and packing and reviewing my list and double checking Ed's passport was in his stack of stuff.

It escaped me momentarily that Tank was walking out the door and needed to be ready to be locked out of our house and prepared to go to Florida at that exact moment - even though he wasn't leaving for Florida with Neil's dad and sis till early Sunday morning.

No re-entry - that was my rule.  Once we left town, I would lock the interior door inside the garage. No parties. No forgotten anything. No nothing. Of course. He insisted he had everything. ‘OK, love you. Have fun!’

Now here we were driving to Florida.  I got a text from a friend who was watching the hockey game back home.  There was Tank and Conrad scoring some air time between the announcers. Was I really worried that this kid would be OK in the Chicago burbs without a home base for a few days?  Only Tank could land at the Blackhawks game and be sure to get on camera. We didn't even know the hockey game was part of his itinerary.

The next day at school several of his teachers informed him that they saw him on TV. His firends took video footage of him hamming it up in front of the camera. He showed it to me on his phone when I got home. He is licking his thumb and pinky and then raking them thru his eyebrows and raising his brows at the camera. Of course.