What’s unacceptable is saying someone rocks. What is this, 1999?
10:48 A.M.
TY
Might be, I don’t get out of the hospital much.
10:48 A.M.
JOSIE
Speaking of getting out much, I need to get my day started. Seems there must be a life that needs saving, too. Don’t lose a patient on account of my witty banter. Have a good weekend.
10:49 A.M.
Ty
You, too.
10:50 A.M.
I brush my teeth and wash my face to dislodge the mascara crumbles, but I decide to forgo the shower at this particular moment. I’m a bit too consumed with worrying whether I overstepped my professional boundaries by sharing that the director of admissions of the school where the good doctor wants to send his kid is a hot mess with a hangover. I gotta start rereading my texts before I hit send. Damn trigger finger.
Though not a requirement for acceptance, I shoot myself an e-mail from my phone to remind myself to write “smart” and “funny” in the Golden file so “hot dad” is not the leading pro for the Golden family. I assume Gracie goes by Golden. I’d rather be obviously related to hot dad than frumpy dude if I were Gracie. Not that Gracie, at four and a half, even knows one of her dads is hot. Yuck, hope not. I need to pull my head out of the gutter; maybe I do need a full shower to wash away the sins of the mind and of my evening.
Tonight, Fairchild is having a reception for families of graduating seniors. The evening’s entertainment is the college counselors reviewing the college application process. This is not my idea of a fun-filled Saturday night, spending it back at work with parents who havebeen in and out of each other’s intimate business for the past thirteen years. An administrative decision was made to move the event to a Saturday night after parents complained of out-of-town work commitments during the week and that the least Fairchild could do after a decade plus of tuition is combine a parent cocktail hour with college information night. Steep college costs on top of the nearly-broke-me bills from the past thirteen years of education is enough to make any teetotaling parent drink.
When my breakfast burrito fails to soak up last night’s liquor and my headache kicks in, I decide to quit drinking. Or at least I’ll quit until tonight, when I’m forced to accept the truth of college tuition and the competing data on whether the outcomes are even worth the price tag. I’ll save the option to drink if I need it. I have to see where the night takes me.
After the subpar college conversation at dinner a few days back, I decided I needed to come to the higher-learning discussion 2.0 with Etta a bit more prepared. Some preparation will also help me get the most out of Fairchild’s college night. Krista and Sam in college counseling spend their days transitioning the oldest Fairchild students out of the school. I spend my workdays doing the complete opposite, counseling Fairchild’s youngest potential students into the school. Though Krista and Sam are friends of mine, it’s a rare day that our two departments cross paths, thus we are fairly clueless about the details of one another’s jobs.
I open my laptop at the kitchen table to finish off the college Excel spreadsheet I barely started last Sunday night. Mustering my cunning mama smarts yesterday, I suggested to Etta that we go to dinner together before the college night. This will be when I present my succinct spreadsheet that will foretell her future.
Aunt Viv is in the living room consumed with the second season ofQueen Sugar, a show that strikes a little too close to the train wreck that was her childhood in New Orleans. The characters in theshow even share our last name, so I suppose Aunt Viv feels like they’re kin. Either way, with Aunt Viv sucked into the Deep South drama, I know I have some time when she won’t be prying into what I’m doing or why I look like ten miles of bad road at 11:35 in the morning.
COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY
EARLY ACTION DUE DATE
EARLY DECISION DUE DATE
