Nothing Gold

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. -Robert Frost

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Location: Arlington, Virginia, United States

I am a white American middle class suburban housewife trying desperately to tell herself that that is not who she is. One time I was a glowing young ruffian. Oh my God it was a million years ago.

Monday, March 07, 2011

Levi's Big Adventure

Levi takes the bus home from school every day except Wednesday, when he has gymnastics after school. Adah and I meet him at the bus stop and walk him the 2 blocks home. Last Wednesday he forgot to go to gymnastics. He got on the bus instead. When he got off the bus, no one was there to meet him. He decided to walk home alone. It's not far, but he had to cross 2 busy streets. He was very angry with me for forgetting him. (I know this from conversations we've had). When he got home he entered the code in the box to get into our building, rode the elevator up to our floor and our front door was unlocked (thank heavens!). He went in and looked in every room. No one was home. At that point he remembered that he was supposed to be at gymnastics and started crying. He realized I was at school waiting to pick him up. He thought hard about what he ought to do. He decided to look for the neighbor we know and ask her to drive him. He guessed and knocked on the wrong door. No one was home. He went back to our house. He looked around to see if Schuyler or I had left our phones. No luck. He thought about using our land line phone, but he doesn't know our numbers. Finally, he went to the computer. My gmail was open. Levi chatted with Schuyler. This is what they said:

me: :'(
Schuyler: what?
OMG.
I'm freaking out here.
me: that was me levi
Schuyler: Why are you at home?
me: yes
Schuyler: Did you have gymnastics today?
me: yes
Schuyler: Is mom at home?
me: no
Schuyler: WHAT?
me: i took the bus
Schuyler: ok
hold on
mom is coming home
are u okay
?
me: yes
Schuyler: can you answer the regular phone?


Schuyler called me and I rushed home. He called Levi and reassured him. All in all it wasn't a big deal. Levi handled it well. He wants to quit gymnastics though. We've programmed Schuyler's cell number into our land line phone. Levi probably needs to memorize both our numbers. I'm starting to understand why people let their children have cell phones.