Criminal Record

As Andrew is preparing to leave for Germany, I periodically ask him questions.  Only periodically.  After all, he is 21, and surely he knows all the questions to be asking right? Right.  Everything seemed to be in order and he was just waiting on an email with his travel plans in it.  So Saturday I asked if he had heard anything from Germany.

"Yeah, I got an email with my travel itinerary in it.  Then I got another email saying something had showed up on my criminal record that they were going to have to 'look into'."

"Really?" I asked being careful not to ask too many questions.  I did raise my eyebrow though, and probably my voice intonation, as well.  I'm sure he knew I had a barrage of questions just waiting to fly off the tip of my tongue. 

"Destruction of village property," he said.

"OH, you're kidding!  That's on your criminal record?!"

(Insert here the condensed version of the story of a 17-year-old that got cut off in traffic, and swerved onto the sidewalk, toppling a concrete planter.  Again, toppling is the key word here.  There is no room in this account for the word "destruction".)

So for three days we have waited to hear whether Andrew will get to go to Germany.  Never mind that he has lost his roommate, his apartment, his job, and his cat.  Ok, never mind the never minding of those things.  That's a pretty big dealio.

Today while I was at work, I got a text from Andrew.

"i am going to germany. whew. i can breathe again".

I'm pretty sure I would have overused exclamation points in that short text.  But exclamation points or not, we are all excited for Andrew.  He leaves Sunday.  This Sunday.  For thirteen months.  Thir. Teen. Months.

My reply text?

"Oh! I am so happy for you. and a little sad for me.  But mostly happy for you!" 

That put it perfectly.  Happy for him.  A little sad for me.  Mostly happy for him.