Today, two weeks later than we had planned, our daughter went to school for the first time.  We have finished our two weeks of quarantine for having made the Labor Day trip to Rhode Island and Massachusetts.   She is officially cleared to go to class.  

Except for one thing:  her last name starts with a T.  Only A-K last names of freshmen and sophomores attend on Mondays.  She must wait until Tuesday.  Tuesday is when L-Z freshmen and sophomores go into the building.  The same thing happens on Thursday and Friday, only for the juniors and seniors.

No one is in the building on Wednesday—except the janitorial staff, who are there doing their deep cleaning.   

Except for one more thing:  her first class is early childhood education.  This is taught in the career center—which technically is not part of the high school.  They expect their students to be in class “at least” two days a week, preferably four. 

We thought that she could ride into school with a friend who works at the schools.  Our daughter has done this for the last three years.  Except for another new rule: staff arrives at 8 AM.  Students can’t enter the building until 8:30 AM. 

We think it is important for her to have as much time in actual classes as she can, so I am onto chauffer duty.  For today, I’ve adjusted my schedule so that the dogs and I stay in town.   We go into my husband’s business, and I work there for about an hour. 

Then we are home until 4:15, when I need to drive her back into town for soccer practice.  Usually, students just stay after school.

And then at 6:15, I’ll return to town for a 6:30 PM pickup.

I am hard pressed to find a silver lining out of all of this; it’s one day in and I’m already gritting my teeth at the “wasted time”. 

But my daughter has found the silver lining for her.  She’s 15, and we all know what that means in America:  she has a driver’s permit.  Any chance to get behind the wheel is a great excuse for her!