Time To Fly The Coop.

This week marks the end of my career that has spanned 21 years. Ironically, it probably began with a batch of chocolate chip cookies and ends with another. This career has taken me on many exotic travels and experiences. I can count the San Diego and Santa Ana zoos, traveling rodeos, numerous trips to Disneyland, a water waste recycling plant at the hour of peak morning sewage production,

the Getty Museum, the state capital and the legislature's floor, the banks of the American river panning for gold at the site of California's gold rush,

Sea World, and many high school stadiums within Southern California among my illustrious destinations.

I have baked, cooked, cut, pasted, taped, copied, stapled, filed, stuffed, sewed, washed, rolled, shopped, schlepped, and organized for 10 to over 1,000. I have provided leadership, encouragement, confidence, confidentiality, first-aid, laughter, creativity, charity, compassion, transportation, and of course, money. There must be more labels but more do not seem necessary as I have not even thought to categorize them until this reflection of my forthcoming retirement.

You see, for my two boys, I have been a room mom for their classrooms for 18 of those years and with the high school graduation of my youngest this is coming to an end.

Seven years of being in extreme active duty for the high school's instrumental music program's booster group overlaps in there somewhere. I helped to establish this non-profit organization of parent volunteers from it's inception and served on the executive board for 5 years - VP for 3 and President for 2. I have been the longest serving member on the board and I am proud of my contributions to the program, support of the teachers/directors and most importantly, I know I helped along with dozens of hard working and committed parents to enrich the experiences of hundreds of student musicians as they passed through the music department.

Entertainment Units Senior Class of 2009

I have met the most amazing people through my volunteer experiences. These fellow parents are the most well-intentioned, giving, smart, and organized individuals I should ever be fortunate enough to know and work closely with.

I have also had to work with two of the most delusional, ill-intentioned, mentally imbalanced persons I hope I will ever have to meet but the trade off has been more than fair in the yin and yang of volunteer life. In fact, it has been exceptional.

I have been dreading the end of my tenure as the perennial volunteer mom. This year being my swan song, my imminent status has been met with a natural curiosity - 'What will you do next year?' and sympathy... 'You'll have to come back and visit because we'll miss you.' Both are endearing sentiments from friends who will continue the scholastic volunteer crusade without me as one day, they too, will face the great unknown of the empty nest.


Before committing to embark on my last school related volunteer sojourn as a chaperone with the school's jazz ensemble to the festival in Reno, Nevada this week, I asked my alto sax playing son if he would mind if his dad and I tagged along to help schlep the last of instruments and amps we will probably ever have the pleasure of schlepping. With him being an 18 year-old man-child we had to negotiate. We will not ride the bus but we can attend.


Didn't tell him we had planned to go anyway and had no intention of a 9 hour trip up and back on the bus and preferred the comfort of our own car. From my years of volunteer leadership I have also learned the fine art of empowering others and the sense of confidence and independence they gain from it. Perceived or real, it doesn't seem to matter as the benefits are the same.
I also use it at home when the stakes aren't very high.

I am a very smart mommy - most of the time.

So this trip will mark the end of this desirable and wonderful career as I get ready to stuff 23 goodie bags for the bus ride to Reno with water, Slim Jims, Doublemint gum, brownies, and Chex mix while I will consciously make a space for the last batch of chocolate chip cookies ear marked for the 18 and under crowd.

This is so sad for me.

I get emotional and teary anyway when I begin to feel the school year slipping away into summer. It always signifies an ending for me, another year in the life of my children as children, gone.

Nature ushers in that distinctive 2 1/2 month countdown. It starts with a few days of spring temperatures then the offshore Santa Ana winds catapults it into the 90's escorting familiar pollen from Arizona and Utah and forcing the sudden display of white things - tissues and legs. The doors slamming inside my house as the windows facing north-east are wide open as they are today signals the countdown has begun and although I am one of the fortunate who is not affected by the pollen, given my awaiting retirement and son's graduation, if I am seen with the symptoms of 'red, puffy eyes with nasal congestion or a runny nose', this will be my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

"You Only Get What You Give" - The New Rascals (I apologize for the short and harmless expletive in the lyrics but I still love this song as an accompaniment.)
"My Old School" - Steely Dan