Never Thought I'd See the Day...

I never thought I'd have to do this. But Emily is grounded. For the weekend, and I'm extending it into the week as well. No computer unless it is to do school work. No tv. No phone calls from friends. No going anywhere.

It all happened yesterday. It was a statewide inservice day for teachers, so both my husband and I had to work. But the girls had the day off. Emily's girl scout troop had originally planned to have an overnighter in a nearby state park in a couple of yurts, but the weather began to change and be unpredictable, so an alternate activity was planned. They decided to go the a pumpkin patch/corn maze instead.

I had arranged that Emily would ride with another girl who lives in our neighborhood, but at the last minute, she decided not to go. So, even as late as yesterday morning when I left for work, I didn't know for sure that Emily would be going. But I left her $20, my cell phone, and told her to take her key. If she was going, then I would have to run home quick during my lunch break, pick up Stella who wanted to come to my room anyway to see my two leapard geckos, and head back to school. The afternoon was our teacher time anyway, so I wasn't in meetings.

When we finally broke for lunch, I called home. Emily informed me that she was going to the pumpkin patch, so I knew I had to hurry home to get Stella. I rushed home, said goodbye to Emily, and headed back to school.

At about 5 pm that evening, Stella and I left school to head home. After a couple of stops (the store for coffee, and then to the Blend for a smoothie), we got home. Later my husband got home. I hadn't heard anything from Emily, but wasn't concerned as the email about this venture had said they'd be back 8:30ish. I had interpreted the email as saying we should pick up the girls at the house they met at earlier in the day about then. In fact, I had told Emily to call me with the cell phone as they were heading home so I'd have an idea of when to pick her up.

But I didn't hear a thing, and 8:30 came and went. I tried a couple of times to call the cell phone, but there was no answer. I didn't know if she didn't answer because she was in a dead zone, or it was so noisy she couldn't hear, or (what makes me most angry) the phone wasn't even on. But finally about 9:00ish, my husband and I drove over to the house just to see. I couldn't figure out why she didn't call me from the house, if, for instance, the batteries on the phone went dead.

I knocked on the door, and the husband came to answer. The house was very quiet, and he hadn't heard that the girls were coming back to his house to be picked up. I had said that was what I had assumed. He then tried to call his wife on her cell phone-no answer. Then he tried to call his daughter on hers, and a nearby phone rings, indicating that she left her phone home...(So, the lesson is: What good are cell phones anyway?). I left, and we went back home, hoping we'd see them waiting outside our house, or, since Emily had a key with her (at least, she SHOULD have...)she'd be waiting inside (we had left a note).

But no one outside, and no one inside. I began to really worry. It seemed late, and I wasn't even quite sure who she was riding with. And she wasn't answering her cell phone, which bugged me the most.

Finally, just before 10 pm, I hear a car. I go outside and it's a car full of girls. Emily gets out, all happy from a fun, full day. No cares in the world. I thanked the mom for driving the girls. Emily and I walk back to the house.

"Emily, please answer this one thing," I said. "Did you turn on the cell phone?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. Then she paused. "At least I think I did..." As she went to pull the phone out of her pocket, she realizes that she can't check it, beause it isn't even in her pocket. And it is worse than if she forgot to take it with her. It is worse than if she just didn't even turn it on. She has lost my cell phone.

She knows she took it. She knows she had it in the car on the way to the pumpkin patch, or at least that is what she says. She called the house of the mom whose car she rode in, and they checked but no cell phone. They gave her the number of the pumpkin patch, and she will call today.

I'm not holding my breath. And she's grounded.