I apologize Mom!

The Wiesbaden post reminded me of an apology I owe to Mom and Dad. One of many, I'm sure. As a parent I now have a different perspective of what it means to prepare a child for their first day of school. However, as noted, I was at times somewhat stubborn and independent. At the time I thought it was the logical thing to do. In hindsight, I must have let Mom down. Not once but twice.

The first time in Wiesbaden. As shown in the map of the neighborhood, my Kindergarten classroom was about 500 feet down the street. I recall Mom lovingly and excitedly helping her third child get ready for his first day of school. When the time came, and all was ready, Mom said "shall I walk you to school?" And I said "No! I can walk there by myself!" She said "are you sure?" I responded "yes, I am sure!" (Awwww)

The second time was about four months later, as I recall. Again we were getting ready for my first day of Kindergarten in a new house, riding a bus, to a new school, in a new city, on another continent. This time Mom offered to drive me to school. Again I said "No! I can take the bus!" So I crossed the street and waited by myself, and took the bus. (Awww)

Sorry Mom for raining on your proud day. I suppose you made it up when you sent me off to San Diego, though Andrea helped me from Santa Barbara by driving me down.

Everything I owned fit in the back seat, trunk, and bike on the bumper rack, of Andrea's Ford Pinto. I was not, even then, very good at planning ahead. When I am not interested in the details, I tend to procrastinate. I managed to get the address of the apartment I was to share with Wendell, Dan, and Glen. I was pretty sure. But no-one what there. They had not arrived yet. I was not sure when they were to arrive. We had to look up the property management company. Somewhere in El Cajon. I recall they were not open. That was a strange message. "Hi, I may be a tenant, I think this is the address, no-one is home, I don't have a key..."

Andrea and I, based on our experience with Steve and Gena on the two week back-pack trip, thought we would find a local campground. Looking at the map, we thought that Mission Bay looked good. Yea, if you have a reservation and $100! So we had dinner and saw a movie at the Ken in Kensignton. We knew we would find something, and had our camping skills to fall back on.

Good thing.

At that time Lake Murry was closed to decontaminate the water from a spill or something. Again, looking at map we thought we would give it a try. It was just enough. The lake and park were closed and fenced off. So at dusk we squeezed over the fence, and quietly laid out our sleeping bags and slept under the stars, among the Condos around the 400acre or so park. With ants crawling. Only a few people walked by. We bothered nobody and nobody bothered us. The next morning we got up and broke camp. After breakfast we eventually found my room-mates at the apartment.

So I started out an independent Kindergartener, and ended up a homeless College student, for one night.

Sorry Mom. Thanks Andrea.