Stage Mother

Yesterday, the Matron hit some dingie on her dashboard that tracks the miles for just one trip. She set that little gadget on zero at her daughter's school.

She and Scarlett dropped off Merrick at home, grabbed Scarlett's series of snacks and dinners and various necessary materials, and headed to the faaaaaaar western suburbs for Scarlett's training with Famous Actress X, with whom she will do the deaf-blind tango in The Miracle Worker.

During the lesson, the Matron wrote yesterday's blog post in a bar called Bunny's.

Now, the Matron was not quite fully aware that this bar --where she has waited out her daughter before--was a sports bar. So she heads in with her laptop and half an hour to blog, and wonders why in the world that parking lot is jam-pack, full?! On a Monday?

So MANY men. And most of them sporting stomachs capable of sustaining 2 or 3 or occasionally, small villages of belly. This was not a pretty crowd. Now the Matron herself looked quite adorable, in black-leather knee boots, a tight gray short skirt, and t-shirt, with the ever fashionable and bar-trendy laptop at her side.

Why were so many people wearing purple? Funny hats and nordic wigs? What planet has she landed on?

As she elbowed her way to a tiny table and apologized to her waiter (she left a terrific tip for her half hour and diet coke), she slowly realized. . . .Monday night football! The Vikings versus the Green Bay Packers, those two historic rivals.

So yesterday, the Matron blogged at Bunnys, hunched over her laptop, fingers flying furiously in the midst of a loud, happy, halfway drunk (the game hadn't started) football fans. She fit right in.

She really wanted a martini, too. But she didn't.

These are the sacrifices she makes for that child, who then had to be driven --through rush hour traffic on highways 100, 394 and 94 (for the local readers, who can just imagine what the 5:30 departure time meant) to the first Sound of Music rehearsal, conveniently located in Wisconsin!!

Scarlett, who might have to be surgically removed from her iPod, sang inappropriate songs about sex from Rent the whole way, so that hour in the van just spun by her. The streets of Wisconsin were deserted as the Matron imagines all of that state also bellying up to the bar.

While Scarlett got the whole Marta vibe going, the Matron (still in that tight skirt) worked on syllabi and email out in the lobby. Conveniently, there were no chairs. Or wi-fi, so she just did the syllabus shuffle.

The numbers?

Insert your favorite expletive -- Four and a half hours and 79 miles!!!

Welcome to the Matron third full-time job!! She had the drink, later.