A Little Melodrama the Day Before the First Day of School

WHEN does school start? Tomorrow.

WHEN did we go shopping for some back-to-school clothes? Today.

We (and by "we" I mean Timothy) put this off until the last possible moment, but this morning I insisted we go to the mall for some clothes because last year (the Pandemic school year) we did not bother, and so it's been two years and it's Timothy's senior year and by golly he needs a little wardrobe update.

What is it about boys? In high school I would have been OVER THE MOON if my mom had taken me to the mall and said, "Go for it. Pick out some outfits. Whatever you want."

But with Timothy, his eyes just glaze over. 

Torture with a capital "T". 

I finally gave him an ultimatum: he had ten minutes to find five things to try on. 

Sometimes our little darlings just need a little push shove to get going because once he started to try on clothes he suddenly developed an OPINION, which basically meant he liked what he liked and didn't like whatever I showed him. 

Whatever. 

He also became very focused. A yellow long sleeve t-shirt on a mannequin caught his eye, and since it was the ONLY one left the associate disassembled the mannequin (i.e. removed its arms) in order to remove the shirt.

An hour later we left the mall with a shopping bag of new clothes and lunch from the Food Court. Things were looking up: he liked his new clothes and he received an email with the number of his personal parking space in the senior lot at school. 

After dinner, though, reality came crashing down. Timothy packed his school backpack while Joe, who is off tomorrow, packed his golf bag.

"This is the last night before I descend into Hell," said Timothy despondently.

He's very melodramatic, is our Timothy.

And just to go back in time, here was Timothy on his first day of first grade. Some things never change. Whether a first grader or high school senior, the first day of school is always a thing of DOOM, but by day two things aren't so bad.