The weekend before she graduated from college, the Daughter came home. It happened to be Mother’s Day. Since it was Tulip Festival weekend, with its requisite traffic jam, my wife and I took the bus to church. Afterward, my daughter drove my wife’s car a couple of blocks away from church, across from the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library.
We went out to a nice place for pizza and other Italian dishes, leaving plenty of leftovers. My wife and daughter visited my MIL, while I talked to my sisters on ZOOM. As it turned out, my MIL was sleeping most of the time during that visit, and my daughter nodded off as well.
It got to be after 9 pm, with my daughter finishing a binge of the ABC procedural High Potential. I knew what my wife was thinking, so I said it out loud. “Do you want to sleep over tonight and go back in the morning?” And she did have to return by Monday morning because one of her tasks at one of the other Five Colleges was to put in three hours of cleaning the art rooms for three hours.
Wisdom
The Daughter said what I knew to be true. Her driving at 9:30 pm was her prime time. Her mother and I were projecting OUR sleep patterns. Moreover, if she had driven back early in the morning, the sunrise would be in her eyes much of the way. I realized, yet again, she’s not us. And she has generally made good decisions in these situations.
My wife asked her to text ME when the Daughter arrived, knowing full well that my wife would be asleep by the time the return trip was completed. And two hours later, I get the minimalist “HERE.” I gave a thumbs up.
Next time: the graduation from Hampshire College.