To the school!

This morning, I woke up on Jessica's couch. I had intended on falling asleep in "my" bed in the bedroom, but I'm still very much on Calfornia time, and wasn't much awake when I passed out on the couch while working last night, trying not to wake Jessica and Gabby.

The house had a warm hustle and bustle that happens on school mornings, where the kid wants to sleep as long as possible, the school bus comes at 8, and the weather outside is cold.

Jessica had a conference call very soon after Gab was to leave for school. I asked if I could drive Gab to school, then head over to the closest Starbucks, Jess could me up with me over there. I've been reading Scalzi's Old Man's War, which Mike dumped on my 12' stack of unread books, at the top no less, and I have to say that I'm glad there are at least three of these books. I very much enjoy his writing style.

Now, I'm not quite sure how it happened, whether the begging and pleading to let me drive Gab to school (that would have been me) or Gab's "accidently" missing the bus (that would have been Gab), but Jessica relented, and the two of us jumped for joy, then bundled outside with the dog close on our heals.

We made it to the car before I realized just how much ice was on the car. Uh... yeah, now I'm glad the car rental agency thought to include the ice screaper in the rental.

Yeah.

I scrapped for a while, with the car running (haven't left the car running and hopped out of a car in a LONG time), while Gab made faces at me from inside the car. She hopped into the back seat of the car, not quite being tall enough for the front seat. I'm looking forward to when she can be in the front seat, that's for sure. It's strange to have a conversation with someone in the backseat, when you're in the front.

Eventually we were off, and the drive went quickly. There was, indeed, ice on the road. I'd like to add that I pretty much found every piece of it, too, with the car, on the way from the house to the school.

I know that dropping kids off at school is a chore for their parents. I also think that many parents are FAR too protective of their kids, especially the ones who drive two blocks to wait 15 minutes in their SUVs to drop their kid off at the school front door, never quite realizing the amount of pollutants they're pumping into their kids' lungs with their morning ritual. I walked to school starting in kindergarden, and the distance was farther than the two blocks people drive in Sunnyvale. Sometimes I really wish those parents would be hit with a clue stick.

I'd also like to that, if you don't have to drop kids off at school every day, the times you do get to drop them off are pretty darn special.