Where is her Life Anthem?

Really, the Matron believes there should be an Anthem for her life. Okay, at least a sound track! Something spiffy, dramatic, sympathetic, inspiring, uplifting, moving, odd, spooky and enduring! Surely there is a sweeping song out there just for her?

More specifically, this thought of Anthem occurred to her this morning as 158 children jailed in four coach buses, windows steaming in the Minnesota freeze, watched the Matron (she of fashionable boot and all things decorous in weather where practicality rules) RUN a city block AT FULL SPEED through six inches of snow in order to retrieve videos for the bus ride before the idling buses could take off.

Remember that Chariots of Fire song?

Yes, the Matron and her husband saw off the Hysteric today. Scarlett left for four days at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, carting more paraphernalia than Paris Hilton on a six week publicity tour. Anticipated air temperature in Finland Minnesota tonight? Fifteen degrees below zero.

If you own stock in SmartWool sock, thank the Matron for that bump up in your retirement fund.

Thanks to the H1N1 party, all of the children headed north were also required to A) take their temperatures at home and B) retake their temperatures in the gym before loading the bus just in case things changed since the home deal.

What song to accompany 158 fourth through sixth grades in four weaving lines waiting to get their temperature taken?

"Did you pass?"

"I'm 97.9, how about you?"

There was honest to God TENSION for those waiting in line as nobody (except Scarlett and a couple of visibly terrified fourth graders) wanted to be sent home because of fever! And although Scarlett did her best to work up a sweat, she passed with flying colors, shoved her supplies for a small Malaysian village under the bus and hopped on in!

With her two best friends. She'll be fine.

Meanwhile, Good Volunteers John and the Matron hauled the 1400 snack servings they had purchased (oranges, apples, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, pretzels and goldfish for those interested in the menu) under the bus.

Just when everything looked good to go - -mind you, these packing and temperature-taking processes consumed about an hour and all outdoor activity is happening at 10 degrees with falling snow -- the teachers panicked!!

Four plus hours on the bus without a movie! No Screen! Everyone had forgotten movies for the loooooooooonnnnnngggggg ride up.

Why is it in these emergencies with 15 capable adults milling about that everyone look at the Matron?

"What do we do?"

She knew! She knew!

Quick as a flash she had the husband phone a parent who lived just one snowy block away. This was another mama with a child on the bus, a woman fast on her feet and well, a woman. This woman knew just what to do and what time frame to do it in: now. Without questions.

If it was a man: "Uh, what kind of movie? Has everyone seen Harry Potter or should I put that in too? Remind me, what exactly is going on that you need the movies for?"

So while the mama assembled movies in a flash the Matron ran to retrieve them, with the buses idling and everyone waiting waiting waiting for the movies so the wheels could roll. She wondered what her daughter thinks of her sometimes, especially in moments when you are running in high heeled pretty boots in six inches of snow and ten degrees, wearing a faux fur coat and a decorative hat, waving a bag of movies like a baton.

Definitely Gonna Fly Now.