THE QUEST BEGINS...

The time has finally arrived - it's official - I am old. My son has worked all summer long with one main goal---buying a car for himself. I told him I would match whatever he could make and that it should amount to enough for a decent starter car. Little did I realize he grossed a little over $2,000.00 this summer. DANG, I think I need to go to work at McDonald's. They pay pretty well.

Brice has had his permit since he was fifteen-and-a-half. He turned 16 this past June 20th and has been chomping at the bit ever since. I remember that feeling of desperately wanting to drive by myself and have my own transportation, which in my mind, equaled freedom. Woo hoo!!! Wow, where has the time gone?

When I was young I used to laugh at people who said things like, "Life is short...", or "It'll pass you by before you know it..." I thought, wow 80 or 90 years of life seems like a long time to live and would take a long time to reach. Even though I am now just 47 (and feel 85), I look at where my son is in life and think, he's going to leave me in just two short years. Before I had him, I could never imagine my life with a child in it, and now, I have a hard time imagining it without him constantly there, in my house, in my every day life. This "empty nest" syndrome, as it is called, is sneaking up on me quickly. I think I need a battle plan for when he leaves, although I can immediately think of so many things I want to do right off the bat. Hmmm, I may actually like this situation...and then he could still visit...LOL. But, as usual, I digressed, again.

There is a young man where I work at UHaul who is a master mechanic at the ripe old age of 21. He is really great at it. He constantly buys and sells vehicles and lately has been trying to come up with a vehicle for my son. Bless his heart, I think it is a mechanic thing, but the cars he is coming up with have killer engines, but no back seat and/or ripped up interior. I'm like, dude, we need a whole car - tee hee.

Hopefully by September I will have the money we need to finance a SMALL, 4-cylinder vehicle for him, and many bottles of Valium for me. We are about to embark on a whole new era for us both. He now gets to take off and go out there and do his thing. I now get to come home and worry about where he is and if he's safe and when he's coming back. I'm sure this worry on my part will subside eventually, but for now, it is strong and anticipatory. My friend, Annie's son, Ryan, has been driving for over a year now and he recently soloed a trip that was about three hours from where they live. She said she called him like every half hour asking things like, "Are you okay? Have you stopped and gassed up? Has anyone been bothering you? Are you there yet? How much longer do you have to get there?" Yup, that's gonna be me. Poor Brice. LOL!!!!!