MY CELL PHONE rang at 7:45 a.m. Friday. The caller ID said it was my oldest son, Alex. Immediately my brain processed the possibilities:
He’s quit calling when he arrives at school, so that wasn’t it.
He probably forgot something he needed for that night’s game.
Maybe it was Luke calling. My middle son, who rides to school with his big brother, doesn’t have a cell phone yet.
Enough guesses; I answered the phone.
“Mom,” my oldest said, “I forgot I need hamburger.”
My spirits plummeted because I know what this means — Alex has signed up to take hamburger for that night’s spaghetti supper, but he never told me. He brought home tickets to sell on Wednesday, but never mentioned meat either Wednesday or Thursday — the two nights I was actually home and had time to 10 pounds of meat.
Rather than go ballistic, as I wanted to, I made the situation clear to my son.
“Alex, this is Friday; I can’t just go home and cook 10 pounds of meat and take it to school,” I explained.
My son understands what “This is Friday” means for those of us at The Gazette. Friday is the day we produce two editions of the paper. We’ve been working this way for at least eight years.
Fridays at The Gazette work best when we jump right into Friday’s edition, then follow smoothly into Saturday’s pages. Life is least stressful when there are no surprises thrown into the mix. On Fridays, I don’t plan for lunch or errands — or cooking 10 pounds of hamburger.
I told Alex to find out exactly when the hamburger had to be at school. Then I started thinking of solutions.
My first solution to our little hamburger dilemma would be to call Greg and see whether he could slip home, cook the meat and run it up to Northern Heights. But my husband, who would have gladly done that, climbed aboard a plane Friday morning headed to a conference in Baltimore. No help there.
I did a quick mental check through my list of friends who might be home on Friday and would be willing to do me a huge favor. But all my friends are working moms, so that was out.
Then inspiration struck.
The Gazette keeps an electric roaster in the break room. We use it during the winter for our weekly chili days when one person each week provides chili for all who have signed up to eat. I could slip out, buy 10 pounds of hamburger and cook it at The Gazette. Then I’d just have to find about an hour to run it up to Heights.
About the time I’d organized my plan, Alex texted me: “Have it here by second hour uncooked. Kyle will cook it for me.”
I stuck with my own plan, mainly because a deadline of second hour still didn’t work with the whole Friday-schedule thing. But I did make sure I thanked my son for coming up with a solution.
I decided that my 16-year-old is growing up on me. That’s the spin I’m sticking with.
Comments
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Posted by oh4theluvof (anonymous) on September 29, 2009 at 8:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm a mostly stay at home mom, and I find these types up things still coming up constantly. It is refreshing to hear that others are in the same improvisational boat and surviving. I have a few years before my son throws the high school extras at me, but I know it's coming. Thank you, Gwen, for the smiles, chuckles and fair warnings :-)
Posted by seriouslyfolks (anonymous) on September 29, 2009 at 9:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You know who is great at improv? Seriously R. Folks is great at improv, not the useful kind but the funny kind. Well some people find it useful and some people just spit at their computer screens but hey still am I right?
Anyhoooo, google "left cheek chipmunk buttercup dandelion dandy lion dandy lyin' seriously r. folks funny improv Utoob.pfft" you'll have to watch the Zapruder film and some slides from when my grandpa went to see the worlds largest prairie dog but after all that Seriously R. Folks does some improv and it's pretty good.
R!
Posted by YY4U (anonymous) on September 29, 2009 at 9:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"Fridays at The Gazette work best when we jump right into Friday’s edition, then follow smoothly into Saturday’s pages."
So when we read Saturday's news, it's not really Saturday's News? I'm in shock!....No Fair!.....That's like telling seriously floats don't float or showing the kids that tombstone with a certain jolly guy's name on it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/robert_hoge...
I shouldn't worry though, I 'm sure the Gazette has a Nostradamus type on staff, a crystal ball, or maybe the Oracle of Delphi.
Posted by YY4U (anonymous) on September 29, 2009 at 9:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
But you would think if the Gazette had a fortune tellers on staff, they would have told Gwen that she would need hamburger on Friday. Now I'm confused.
Posted by tbluma (anonymous) on September 29, 2009 at 10:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
yy4u " now I'm confused "
That has to be the most underrated statement you ever made.
I don't think you're confused, I think you're comatose.
You should look at what you print and see if even you could make sense of it.
I think you might be crackinsack with a new name.
Posted by YY4U (anonymous) on September 29, 2009 at 11:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
tbluma, Gwen said they print Saturdays news on Friday. I speculated as to how they know what is going to happen in the future then I wondered why they couldn't predict the need for hamburger in advance. Oh, forget it! Now I'm confused again.
Posted by Observation (anonymous) on October 3, 2009 at 10:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hmmmm!
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