I'm getting nervous

I'm getting nervous because my boy, my only son is going to be 21 years old in 1 short month.... and he's away at school... and his birthday is on St. Patrick's Day. The only thing worse than that would be if he went to school in Boston or if he was going to school at the University of Notre Dame.


He was such a little cutie.. all 9 lbs. 8 oz. of him. When he was born, via C-section (no way in hell was THAT big head coming out my body in the normal fashion!) Hey! I'm not being mean about his big head! When he was born the nurse said, "Wow! Look how big his head is!" It's just the way it was! He was having a bit of a breathing issue, so they wanted to put him in Neo-natal ICU. So there he was, my Timothy Gabriel, all 9 lbs. 8 oz. of him, beside the 3 lb premies. The kid looked like a moose next to those teeny babies! He was the talk of the nursery! (Wow! I wonder what's wrong with THAT baby! He's HUGE!)

Five years later, he went to Kindergarten. Tim has always been a bit of a dreamer. He was the kid looking longingly out the window on a nice day and totally missing what the teacher was asking him to do. sigh. Mrs. Dudek thought he wasn't ready for first grade and wanted me to keep him back in Kindergarten... BECAUSE HE COULDN'T SKIP! Um... Sue? I didn't teach him how to skip... he's a boy. I didn't think it was a requirement to continue his education.

So Tim continued on to grade school at the Catholic school in our town (the Kindergarten was also in the Catholic school). He did OK, sometimes getting honors, sometimes not. I told the teachers, don't put him near the window or you'll lose him. Don't let him sit near Max or Andrew, they're his buddies.
Then came the summer of 7th grade. I'm at work at the restaurant that my then-husband and I owned (the hubby had gotten a job to pay the bills at home because owning a restaurant is oh-so-not profitable). My older daughter called..... Tim got arrested with 2 of his buddies, Max and Joe. I freaked out.... Greg thought it was hysterical. The boys had gone to Kmart and bought sling shots and paint balls and were shooting paint balls at cars. Personally I think the idiot at Kmart who sold 13 year old boys paint balls and sling shots should have gotten his ass arrested.

They all had to go to "Teen Court", where you have teen attorneys, a teen jury and a real district justice. Now Joe and Max are big boys. And Tim was a little shrimp of a kid. The 3 boys all had to testify, as well as the parents. Max treated it like a big joke, Joe answered in mono-syllabic answers. Neither one made a very good impression. Tim got up and the entire court went AW!! And I just knew they were thinking "poor little kid, getting dragged into this mess with these 2 big bad boys." No one knew that Tim was the oldest and no one asked the right question... whose idea was this to buy sling shots and paint balls. (It was Tim's!!! but no one asked!) He was just too cute to be the ring leader! So the boys had to do some community service, which meant they had to serve on the teen jury for a couple of months (they met once a week) and write letters of apology to the lady who's car they hit. (the paint was water-based and washed right off).

So Tim graduated from 8th grade, all 4 ft. 11 inches of him. He started high school at a whopping 5'2". He did OK, not great... sometimes getting honors, sometimes not. He joined stage crew at the high school and built sets and worked the lights. He started his junior year at 6'2" tall and maybe 140 lbs.!! He went from being the shortest kid in class to one of the tallest and certainly one of the skinniest! He got his Dad's genes for sure! At 16 he got a job with me at Fridays (I told him while we're at work, I'm not your Mom. If you screw up, you're on your own) I didn't want any special favors for him. He stayed almost 2 years and got a job elsewhere where he could make more money.

In August of 2006, he went away to college, 90 minutes from home. Now when we took my daughter to college in 2002, it took 2 cars, 2 trips to get all her shit in her dorm (she was only 40 minutes from home). When Tim left for school, we got everything in my Pontiac vibe plus Danielle was able to go along for the ride! It took us 20 minutes to get everything into his dorm. LOL We got him settled, bought his books, settled his tuition bill. I asked him if he wanted to get something to eat. He said, "No Mom. I think you should go now. I want to make some new friends." So with a hug and wave, he was off, starting his college career with no looking back!

So now he's in his 3rd year of college, pulling a 3.85 GPA (he had a 4.0 his sophomore year!), in a Fraternity, working as a waiter, partying his ass off and being very independent! And he's picking up another major for next year! So the only hurdle now is having him turn 21 and not end up in jail or the hospital. OH! We have a rule now, since the paint ball incident. If he ever gets in trouble, he is to call his father to bail his sorry ass out of jail. His Dad will find the humor in it. I will just freak out.