A Comedy of Errors that Wasn't Very Funny

Deanna got out of school early on Friday and I was napping and forgot about her.  In my own defense, I've been battling bronchitis for 2 weeks and am exhausted - - can't sleep at night for all the coughing, so I laid down for a little nap.  I never expected to conk out and sleep for several hours.  Don was home from work.  He finally went to pick her up, but she had already caught a ride home with the LAST person still there.  She was devastated that we had forgotten her.  To make matters worse, she had called the house and no one answered the phone.

I had similar experiences in my childhood that I vividly remember and still hurt about.  I was determined not to make excuses or slough off forgetting to pick her up.  She had an out-of-town basketball game scheduled for Saturday morning, so I decided I'd drive the 3 hours to Atlanta, watch her game, then bring her home afterwards so she didn't have to sit in the stands for 3 more hours watching the other teams play and waste her whole Saturday.  They had to leave on the bus at 7 a.m. and were not expected home until 8 p.m.

So, I took Dane.  We left at 8 a.m., figuring that would get us there a few minutes before the start of Deanna's game at 11:00.  I Googled the school and got MapQuest directions, which were WRONG!!!  But we also had the address, so we found the school with only a couple detours from wrong directions.  The school was on I-85 south of Atlanta in Fairburn.

We made amazingly good time.  Traffic was very reasonable, and I set the cruise control and zoomed.  When we finally arrived, a few minutes after 11:00 because of the bad directions, the game hadn't started.  They told us they didn't have an 11:00 game, that the game didn't start until noon.  I walked into the gym, looked at the boys warming up, and knew something was wrong.  Turns out, we were at the wrong school.  The Creekside High School WE wanted was off of I-75 in McDonough, GA.  A teacher at the wrong school printed out directions from her laptop for us to the correct school but, by the time we arrived, 45 minutes later, the game was over and Deanna was sitting in the stands, not knowing where we were or what had happened to us.

One of those situations where you can't seem to do anything right.  She was very upset.  So was I.  But, as a mother, you have to hold your own frustration in check so as to console your child.  After all, we had driven a total of almost 4 hours, still had a 3-hr. drive home, and all for a game that we totally missed.  AND, I was still sick and fighting to stay awake.  Not exactly how I wanted to spend a Saturday.

We went to Red Lobster and had lunch and Deanna's spirits finally lifted.  The drive home was pleasant and I'm very glad we went, even with all the slip-ups.  She still arrived home hours before her teammates, which was the goal in the first place.

In light of Friday and Saturday, I have decided to attend Deanna's basketball game outside of Atlanta this afternoon.  I'm taking Daelyn out of school early (since he missed the game Saturday because he needed to work on his car for the Scout Pinewood Derby), picking up another mom, and heading to another game.  I'm determined to get this right.

At least I've been to this school before.  So has the other mother.  And we ought to be able to get accurate directions, since the ones I used when going to this school last time got me there.

I keep hoping for redemption . . .