Cutting Class at 40

A couple nights ago Michelle and I went to Franklin High School for parent’s orientation- preparing us for this fall when our oldest, K, starts high school.

We had planned to make the night fun despite having to endure what we thought would be an hour of people getting on stage in an auditorium and talking at as. 6:30PM to 7:30PM or so, maybe it wraps up 15 minutes earlier, then we head to McCreary’s for a some fish & chips and a pint or two.

Afterwards we needed to get home so I could help L study for her big math test the next day, then I had to head out about 10PM or so to watch the band I manage, the koo, perform an important show at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville.

We were running late getting out the door (my fault THIS time), and so headed off at a higher rate of speed that was prescribed by law. Moments after hitting the main road and cresting the first hill, we came very close to ending the evening right then and there on a rather bad note.

We didn’t just almost hit a deer…we almost hit 8 of them. It’s like they had got an idea from a bunch of ducks about road-crossing safety. A nice sized heard, grouped together in a thick mass right in the middle of the road, lit up brightly from ground up as I slammed on the brakes dipping the car low. As we started to skid and slide a bit, I sensed a small opening in the deerness and nudged the car to the left a bit. Surprisingly we did not make contact. Deer a foot to the left, a foot to the right, and six inches in front, but no deer in our windshield, and more importantly, no antlers through our foreheads. We continued on our way, burning off calories as if we had just done 30 minutes of cardio exercise.

We arrived at the school, took the hand-outs given us by several ROTC officers that looked to be about 10 years old, and sat down. A moment later we looked at the evenings agenda and noticed it was planned through 8PM. No way. Our night was tight, and the schools plan for our time would simply not do. We needed to wrap up around 7:15-7:30 to keep our plan.

The principal explained how things would work- after this introductory session, we break into 3 groups based on last name, and cycle round-robin through 3 more sessions- Registration, Courses, and extra-curricular activities/groups. As the bell rang and we were all dismissed to our first session, Michelle and I resigned ourselves to the schools schedule. We decided a quick burger on the run from McDonalds would have to suffice for dinner. We headed to the library to learn about the courses offered.

When we got there we saw it was more of an on-your-own thing instead of a sit down and be talked at thing. There was a semi-circle of booths set up so each parent could walk a receiving-line of sorts asking questions of teachers, picking up brochures and watching dry PowerPoint presentations projected on the library walls.

Michelle had a brilliant idea- since this seemed a bit like free period, how about we just blow through here, pick up all the handouts, cut-out and go to session 2 in the cafeteria early, then when the next bell rings, hit session 3 as our session 2, and leave early to grab dinner. Brilliant. We did it. As session 3 started and all the other schleps had to go to class, Michelle and I snuck out, fully brochured and informed, and went to dinner. Felt like high school again.






Click here if you would like to subscribe to the DigitalRichDaily
E-mail update. Place 'subscribe' in the subject line.