Freakin' Basket Case

Erin's definition of "Basket Case":
of or pertaining to one who's stomach is twisted in knots because her son is about to go for his first whole day at Lagoon with a friend.

Yep, that's me. Fits to a "T".

Did I ever tell you about the time my son got lost a Lagoon... on the 4th of July....in Lagoona Beach.....surrounded by water....and hundreds of people....he was 3????

Most terrifying 5 minutes of my ENTIRE life!!!! Luckily a lifeguard found him, walking in the LAZY RIVER! My son was smart enough to remember we had put all our stuff by the volleyball courts and he took him there. I had this overwhelming feeling to run over there by the freak chance he had gone back to our stuff, and there he was with the lifeguard. I am shaking even now as I remember it.

So, when my son's friend asked if he could go to Lagoon with her, (yes, HER... his on-and-off-since-kindergarten girlfriend, mine you!) visions of missing child posters and faces on milk cartons flashed through my mind at high speed. My first reaction was to say "HECK NO!!!!"

However, I was comforted when speaking to her mother that it would just be my son, his friend, her mom, and her grandma. No wild pack of parentless roaming 9 year olds wreaking havoc on poor old ladies at Lagoon, no boy crazy teenage older sibling "supposedly" keeping an eye on two younger, innocent, vulnerable, shivering, homeless... ok, I'm getting a little out of control here.

The point is, I KNOW in my head that he is going to be ok. This friend of his is a good girl, and her mom is a good woman, and her grandma is a classy lady. All very normal, decent, caring people. They aren't going to abandon my child at the first chance they get. Their intent is not to cause me pain and anguish. They only want to give two deserving children a fun time at Lagoon. I get it.

Nevertheless.... he hasn't even left yet and I am a ball of tightly-twisted knots inside! (I was the girl that called home after being at a friend's slumber party for only an hour because I was homesick. She lived a block away from me, and I couldn't make it through one measley night? Pathetic!)

So, I am telling myself I can do this. I CAN make it through the day. I CAN know my son will be well taken care of. I can breathe in and out and in and out....

can't I???