Gettin' Ready

Tonight we have a parent meeting for the 'rents of incoming 6th graders. As usual, I am a couple of years behind the emotional curveball. When the boy headed off to kindergarten it was no big deal. This probably reflected his going off on the little yellow bus to preschool for children with disabilities since he was three--- it wasn't really all that new to wave bye-bye by the time he was five. Not so with Katie then or now. The boy has fully two years of middle school behind him, and yet the idea that Katie will enter the not-so-funhouse of adolescence otherwise known as middle school seems somehow strange and wrong. How can my precious, little girlchild be old enough for middle school?! I cannot quite explain why I have a visceral response that wrings out my emotions to Middle Child's climbing the educational ladder while Eldest and The Baby seem to be doing exactly what I would expect them to be doing even as they progress at the very same rate. Odd.
Our middle school made a blooper with schedules which were supposed to be ready for pick-up last week so we have to make a second trip tonight to receive 6th grade schedules, and still another tomorrow night for 7th and 8th grade schedule pick-up. *Groan* While there seems to be a fundamental lack of excitement regarding the hour-long parent meeting (on both nights!)and the following tour of the facilities (that always makes me think of the loo...), Katie is entirely interested in hauling her supplies up to school for placement in her locker before the first day. She also wants to cruise the halls to find the best possible route from one class to another and determine whether or not she will have time to visit her locker between classes. (That's my girl. How can I be critical of someone wired just like her Mama?!) While entirely approving the level of detail the kid puts into her planning, I do not necessarily want to be along for the ride.
Maybe I'll take the camera. Sometimes something ordinary, or even unpleasant, can turn out to provide remarkable photo fodder. I may just do the same with tomorrow's 8th grade visit and Thursday's 2nd grade "Meet the Teacher" and "Supply Night". My favorite subjects are after all these three remarkable people who will be going out into the wider (and hopefully well-supervised) world without me five days a week in a very short seven days. I greet "Back to School" with both a dread of long days without them and joy at the idea of respite from long days with them.