It's. About. Freakin'. Time.

I finally got the email Thursday, after three very long months of driving out to the middle school every afternoon: they have a bus for Ryder.  THEY HAVE A BUS FOR RYDER.

This has been such a journey.

(Before I even begin, let me just say: this is absolutely First World Problems.  I'm probably a Karen for even complaining about this as much as I have.  I have friends who are in the midst of actual problems and I feel like a terrible person for whining about this as much as I have.  So, yeah, I know, I know.  But still!)

BUT STILL.  How in the world do you not hire enough bus drivers for your school district???  And then how in the world does it take you 3 MONTHS to rectify that problem???

The first week and a half, I had to drive Ryder in the morning and pick him up in the afternoon.  Then they found a bus for the morning route, which was really helpful (and made my mornings a whole lot less stressful).  But to be honest, the morning drop off was easier and faster than afternoon pickup.  The school basically opened things up so that you could drop the kids off at any time, so it got rid of the long line of parents waiting, you could just pull up, push your kids out of the car,  and be on your way.  No such luck with the afternoon pickup-- leaving the school means trying to pull out from a T-intersection where you're the only one stopping, and the cars coming at you are going 55 mph on a windy country road.  It's fun!  So if you aren't one of the first parents there, you end up waiting in a huge line of cars for that T-stop for FOREVER.  Given the choice between sitting in a parking lot reading my book or sitting in stop-and-go traffic, I'd choose getting there ridiculously early every single time.  But this meant it took me a full hour to pick up Ryder every day.  This is an hour when I would normally be starting on dinner and folding laundry while Colton & Camille & Bentley tell me about their days.  Instead, I was stuck waiting in a line, no dinner in progress, my kids home without a grown up.  I hated it.  I hate it so much.

The other problem with giving us a morning bus (but no afternoon bus) was that it got everyone's hopes up that we'd get another bus if we just held on for another week or two.  But no, we went all of September, all of October, and most of November before that happened.  It really really sucked.

The whole thing sucked, and I don't use that phrase lightly.

But, starting Monday: no more.  Ryder has a bus.  For both the morning AND the afternoon.  Hallelujah.

My biggest fear now is that a bus driver will quit somewhere and we'll lose it all over again.  And this could happen-- one of the bus drivers at Craig's school just quit yesterday.  And the reason he quit?  Because some mom yelled at him over nothing and he was like, "I don't need to put up with this."  He didn't even give two weeks' notice or anything.  I really think they should put signs around that woman's house letting everyone know why they lost a driver.  What could she possibly have been thinking???

Anyway.  Wish us luck on our end of town.  We have a bus driver for Ryder!