This weekend was Homecoming weekend at Walled Lake Northern High School.  My son Michael and 40 or so of his closest friends began the evening with dinner and photos before heading to the dance. Getting pictures of that many kids means you have that many moms elbowing each other like paparazzi at the Oscars.  We are not snapping pictures to get the money shot we are shooting for memories and we are vicious.

By the time pictures were over I was ready for bed. ( As a middle aged woman I don’t measure time in the normal way I measure it by how long I have had my bra on.) It was 6:00 pm and I was twelve hours in my underwear with no end in sight.

I had in one of my many “isn’t Michael such a cute boy” moments agreed to the Homecoming after party.  At the thirteen hours in an under wire mark I still had a batch of snicker doodles, a batch of chocolate chip cookies and two pans of brownies to make. All the laundry baskets full of laundry that Michael hadn’t taken down the stairs needed to be hidden.  The bathroom that is normally occupied by Michael and all his friends needed to be made habitable by girls.

After all the baking was complete and the pans washed I had just enough time to download the pictures to Facebook before the post dance activities began.

At the sixteen hours in an under wire mark came the house exploded with teens that quickly went from formal to sweats and the party was underway.  There was the usual loud bangs to be heard from the basement that cause me to check and make sure my homeowners policy was up to date, there was the girl drama of one girl leaving and six others following to make sure she was o.k. and the parent phone calls to make sure there was actually a parent crazy enough to be there supervising all the chaos.

Eighteen hours in a under wire came and went and I sent the text stating what may seem obvious but isn’t to anyone under 18. ” Please have everyone be like Elvis and exit the building by 1 a.m.”  From the upstairs I monitored the entry way until there were no strange shoes left and at the nineteen hour mark I unsnapped the bra signaling the official end of Homecoming 2012.