Last night I went to daughter high school parent-teacher conferences.
If you live here in NYC, and you have children, you may have some experience with the stampeding insanity that high school parent-teacher conferences can be.
It is not pretty.
It is 4:45 and I am just about done teaching after school. I text daughter: Have you left the house? You have to meet me here. Leave now.
Daughter is supposed to meet me here at school so we can team it for PT conferences. We will leave straight away to get on the R train to the Q train to turn back around and go to Avenue M. Because that is how you have to do it. There is not one train that goes from where we are to where we need to be. One has to back track.
I hate back tracking.
However a car service is $14. So we plan on the back track.
4:50 and daughter arrives. We walk to the R train. Daughter does this ride every weekday. Daughter says, “We should go to DeKalb and transfer.”
I say, “But that is one stop past Atlantic and we can transfer at Atlantic.”
“Yeah, but at Atlantic we have to walk through the whole terminal.” she says.
I look at her. I say, “I don’t know if I agree with this idea. I mean, seems like a time waster.”
“Mom.” she says. “I do it everyday.
I go with it.
When we get past Atlantic the train starts to crawl. I think: I KNEW this was a bad idea. We could be walking over to the Q right now but instead we are sitting in this stupid tunnel. AND I bet the Q is passing us by right this very minute on the way to the Atlantic Avenue stop.
I turn to daughter. I say, “I KNEW this was a bad idea. We could be walking over to the Q right now but instead we are sitting in this stupid tunnel.”
She gives me the daughter-look-of-death face.
I shut up.
Finally we get to DeKalb. Ok, I cannot help myself. I tell her, “Atlantic Avenue is a hub. Trains crawl in and out of there. This is a time waster. You should not do it this way. You are wasting time.”
Whatevs. We get on the train. Newkirk, Avenue H, Avenue J, Avenue M. Daughter is making fun of the new trains with the little automatic pleasant voice. So different than the old crunchy garbled–never-to-be-understood NYC Subway Person announcements.
“Avenue M” the voice says. And we get off the train.
2 blocks over and we are at daughter high school. We are a half and hour early but still there are about 30 people clumped together by the school doors freezing their behinds off. 2 security guards stand securing the doors lest we try to charge in early.
“God!” I say. “I don’t know how I did this alone all these years when you were both in the NYC public school system at the same time.”
And in that moment I have a little chink–in-the-amour moment of gratitude: I DON’T have 2 kids in this system anymore. One is in college. There are no PT conferences in college!
WOO!
Daughter and I get a room listing for all of her teachers. We plan our route: 1st Global on the 3rd floor, then Science also on the 3rd floor, then ELA, then up to 4 for Spanish and down to 1 for Piano.
Thank GOD daughter is here. I would NEVER find my way around this institution of 4000 students without her.
It is 1 minute till door opening and the crowd has grown considerably. People are beginning to take their perch, readying for the stage crush stampede that will happen when security opens the door.
The door opens. The human sea of pushing begins with a bang as we are shoved through the narrow door opening and catapulted into the lobby. I feel like a fish that someone just dumped out of a bag into a fish tank.
I find daughter. “Let’s go!” I say. And we scramble past a few meandering parents, up the stairs, around the corner and right to Global.
“WOO!” I say.
It is 6pm. We are the first ones there.
We meet with Global Teacher. I get all the information I need and we take off down the hall for science. We get there and we are SECOND!
“I can’t believe it!” I say.
I take a moment to say thank you for this good fortune.
3 minutes and we are done with science. Did I mention all you get is 3 minutes?
Yeah.
Out the door and down to ELA. And yes! We are SECOND again!
“We are rocking this!” I say.
She smiles.
We see the rest of the teachers AND the guidance counselor and are out of there by 7:03pm.
Can you believe it?
We eject and hold outside the building just for a moment. I look over at daughter, standing there, all high school accomplished.
I give her a little high five.
And I think: That daughter. I sure am glad she is on my team.
Yeah.
Summerhead 