I was talking to a friend online last night, and she brought up the fact that her son has to take the SAT today.  He's driving her crazy because he is stressed to say the least.  I started to tell her about when my oldest took the test a couple of years ago.....and apparently she thought I was hilarious.   Anyway, I decided to share the saga with you all, so pull up a chair, grab a snack, and get comfy.

It was a dark and stormy night.  Okay, so it wasn’t technically “night”….but it was pretty darn early in the morning and it was a mini-monsoon outside.  More importantly, it was a SATURDAY morning, and the one morning a week that I’m supposed to be able to “sleep in” until 7:00.  So I’m sure you are asking yourself “Self, why in heck was such a vibrantly attractive woman up at 5:30 in the morning on a weekend?” **sidenote: Perhaps you didn’t put it in those EXACT words, but it is MY blog so I get to hear you say whatever I want!**

Back to the story….The reason I was up is because my oldest was slated to take the SAT test, and for some unknown reason she felt compelled for ME to drive her to the testing site across town.  Any other time, she would be hopping into the car of one of her friends and taking off to do whatever the plan of the moment is…but NOT that day.  Suddenly, she had remembered that she had a “mommy” and needed me to hold her hand. What struck me as truly ironic was the fact that this is the same child, who just the week before, informed me that she felt like my life is a waste because I’m just a “wife and mother” when I had the ability to do something “important” in life. **OUCH!!!  Gee, and here I thought all these years that my family was sucking away my energy where important.**

But I digress yet again…which is a surprise to no one I’m sure.  I spend the better part of thirty minutes trying to roust the she-beast out of bed to get ready to go.  I find this to be VERY annoying because she is acting like she is doing me some grand favor to get out of bed for HER test.  Many…many…MANY martyred teenage sighs and grumbles later, she finally decides to get ready, and becomes my sweet baby girl again.  Oh wait, I spoke too soon because she only wanted me to stop to get her an iced latte on the way…I should have suspected something when she started to be loving!

We finally left the house around 6:45 so we have time to stop to get the aforementioned latte (yes, she played me but I’m a sucker when it comes to my kids!), and we began to make our way across town.  THIS WAS THE MOST FRIGHTENING TRIP OF MY LIFE!!!!  Water was standing everywhere from the deluge we were getting from the residual of Tropical Storm Tammy.  It is ironic that the water situation was much worse than the supposed Hurricane Ophelia who came through a few weeks prior.  As I’m trying to peer down the road more than six inches in front of me, I kept hitting these massive puddles of doom that cause water to spray up over the hood of my Jeep.  I am a nervous wreck…and meanwhile the girl is chattering nonstop because she is freaking out about taking the test.  **sidenote again:  She had been having this recurring dream that after taking the SAT she finds out that they had a NEW way to fill in the bubbles and that she didn’t hear the instructions so she fails and can’t get into college.  I have no idea where she gets her sense of the dramatic!?!**

She and I both managed to survive the day though…even with the horrible trip and teenage test anxiety.  Then I just had to live with her until she got her score back at the end of the month.  I think the oddest part of the day though is that I just don’t remember being this stressed over the SAT when I took it (back when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth!!!)  But the best part…I only have to go through this with THREE more kids.

Oh? How'd she do? She got a great score and managed to get enough scholarship money so that her college is practically paid for.  She is a college sophomore now with a double major/double minor....bent on changing the world.