Eyewitness News

This business of feeling like you have to faint just because someone else does is getting old.

Poor Carter sees another kid almost faint in Mass this morning, so then he doesn't quite feel right the rest of the day. He sticks it out, though, and even stays after school for a yearbook meeting. Then, when he is in the bathroom changing into basketball clothes (for later), the boy in the stall next to him is puking. Nice.

No surprise my phone rang at work about 30 seconds later. "Mom, I don't feel good."

The plan had been that after his yearbook meeting, he would walk to the library from school, do his homework, then walk half a block to church for confirmation. Dad would pick him up after that and take him to the last part of basketball practice. That is our normal Wednesday routine lately.

Not today. Since we were still at work (an hour away), we had him call up Grandpa Austin and get a ride home. He really was feeling pretty crappy by the time we got home, so we basically let him sleep, then do homework, shower and go back to bed.

I did tell him I'm going to have to take him to the doctor on Friday when he's off from school. Then he started crying. I assured him we didn't think something was wrong. We just want to make sure he doesn't have low blood pressure or anything else that might be making him faint or almost faint -- other than consistently being in the wrong place at the wrong time to eyewitness these other wimps!

So we'll see. I just said he's got a whole lifetime ahead of him and we certainly don't want him worrying he's going to faint when he's playing in band, or in a music competition, or performing acolyte duties in church, or up to bat in baseball! Hey, you never know.

I can't say I ever outgrew it. I just learned to somehow breathe through it and think happy thoughts..... ice cream... cheesecake... warm beaches where the temperature is well above zero!