Alexandra's Great News!

Another long day of programming and such. I was nervous and anxious most of the afternoon which actually helped me with a boost of energy to finish another release on my database project.

Today was the day of the results. At 17:00 the admissions results for the Lycée Collège International Honoré de Balzac were to be posted in front of the school. We were obviously eagerly awaiting these results to see if Alexandra was admitted.

Jessica finished school at 17:00 and she hung around the front of the school in the rain, along with a large group of prospective parents and other siblings, waiting for the results to be posted. Poor Jessica was bombarded with phone calls, mostly from me, to find out what the results were. At 17:30 when the results still were not posted I called the school's international office. They weren't answering the phone. I therefore got a bit sneaky and (ab)used the headmistress' number, which I have as a parents' association President, to find out what was going on. Her secretary informed me that the international secretary, Mme Poitevineau, was still working on finalising the results and she would post them outside as soon as possible but she did not know when. As Jessica was part of an organisational chain I called her back and told her to come home.

In the mean time Alexandra had come home, at about 16:45, and was also desperately awaiting the results. Jessica left the school at about 17:45. She headed home where she was to go next door to baby sit. She is babysitting for Maija who is the secretary of our parents' association as we have our monthly meeting tonight. I was giving Maija a ride to the meeting so I had to wait until Jessica got to Maija's place and Maija got to our place before being able to leave.

At 18:35 Maija arrived at our place completely, and blissfully, ignorant of what was going on as regards the results notification. We jumped in the car and headed for the school. Although we were going to be late for our own meeting I had to stop by the school beforehand.Prioritiesies. I would have loved to have sped through the streets and have arrived in 10 minutes. But it was rush hour and we had to sit through traffic. When we got to the school I looked through to the front entrance and saw a few parents in front of the outside bulletin board. I assumed the results were posted and there was no way I was going to cruise around looking for parking. I did a U-turn in the middle of the boulevard, ran over the bus lane barrier, and pulled up in front of the school thereby blocking the bus lane. I ran out of the car to the board to see the list. I quickly scanned down the list of surnames for 6ème and there she was: Alexandra is admitted!!! I jumped up and shouted "Yessssss!" and looked back at the car. The bus wasn't approaching and I didn't seem to be blocking anyone. I therefore went back to the list to see if some of the others who took the exam the same time as Alexandra were admitted. Just about all of the kids we sat with at the café were admitted which was very good news for everyone involved.

Maija and I jumped back in to the car ready to go to the meeting. Unfortunately while we were looking at the results a police car had pulled in front of my car and was waiting for me. They had only just arrived so I was hoping I would be able to pull out before they got out of their car. My timing was off by just a few seconds. After a long and guilt-ridden discussion with the police officer who explained how my blocking the bus lane could mean blocking 50 people sitting in a bus and who were trying to get home. He explained that the normal fine was 90 euros and that I should think of others next time. I drove away feeling as though I had just cheated fate. I felt I deserved to cheat fate every now and then as I certainly feel that fate has cheated me more than once lately.

What the officer couldn't know was that all I wanted to do was to get the hell out of there and call home, and everyone else, to tell them the good news. We drove away and I called home. Of course now was the time that the damn cable phone decided to act up and not receive any calls. Maija was kind enough to call Jessica at her house. I spoke to Jess and gave her the news. She was obviously overjoyed and she called home, using the old phone number, to tell Desney. I kept trying to get Desney, of course, and eventually got through to her. Alexandra was in the shower but truly "chuffed".

We then headed off to our meeting. It was so unfortunate that I couldn't be home celebrating with my family this momentous occasion. Although we have always felt Alexandra would get in there has always remained that ominous doubt. We also truly had no other option planned. There is another international school we would have probably sent her to which would have cost us a fortune, which we don't have, but we didn't really think about it too much. All we knew was there was no way she was going to the local school. I would have loved to have been home to open the Champagne and share the moment with the rest of the family. Desney had gotten snails and a chocolate éclair for Alex, her favourites, to at least start the celebration.

We got to the meeting late as our detour meant that we didn't even leave the school area until about 18:55 and then we had to find parking. We arrived at the meeting at about 19:35 which was supposed to start at 19:00. I was wondering if everyone had left as they couldn't really start without the chairman and the secretary. They were all there sitting on the sofas and cosy chairs around the table eating and drinking and partly ignorant of our absence. I so prefer meetings in France than the stuffy pompous meetings I participate in elsewhere.

The meeting went reasonably well and my voice held out. There were only a few moments when I could feel myself raising my voice and my voice not following me. There are many times when I feel I sound like a teenager who's voice is changing. However in reality, as my mother likes to repeat often, my voice changed sometime while I was still in diapers (nappies). The meeting was actually quite heated and vociferous and the discussions sometimes became argumentative. I was amazed at how much I had underestimated the impact of certain subjects which I thought were "no-brainers" and not even worth discussing. However we got through the agenda by 22:20 and I still had a voice. I had my trusty bottles of water under my feet throughout and pushed myself often to drink in between phrases. I have enough trouble trying to stop talking in order to eat. Trying to stop in order to drink seems to be just about as difficult. I forget my "situation" often and don't realise until it's too late and my mouth is as dry as cotton and my throat is starting to hurt. Luckily a bit of water solves the problem immediately. We got out of there late and got home late. I dropped Maija off at her place and picked up Jessica and took her home. Jess was obviously ecstatic that Alex had got in to the school and that the two of them would be in the same school. I hadn't expected that positive a reaction. It was quite heartwarming. I got home to find Desney in bed waiting and was able to quickly share in the wondrous moment of pride and pleasure that both of our girls had gotten in to the international school and would be getting the education we had dreamed of for them. But then to sleep... aye perchance to dream.