The wait list

Eloise has officially been "wait listed." And the poor little girl doesn't even know it.  Preschool has proven to be more difficult to get into than college. Ahhhhh, the beginnings of Eloise having to really work hard and prove herself in this world.

Ok, preschool update for everyone - I got there today at 8:20am. I was even earlier than the advised 8:30am arrival time. When I got there, there were already 2 other families in line. And come to find out they got there at 7:30am and 7:45am respectively. Can you already see and feel the insanity of preschool registration unfolding here or what?  So I nestle myself right into my spot, coffee in hand and the 2nd chapter of "Water for Elephants" ready to go.  One good bit of news about all of this is the maintenance man was there and he let us into the side vestibule where we waited with some heat.

Eventually our line was led past the vesibule and into the preschool area where we continued to wait patiently.  I believe by now it was maybe 9am. The executive director came out and annouced to all of us, "The 2 year old classroom is already full. If any of you are waiting to register for the 2 year olds room, I can add you to the wait list but for now, I can't take your registration fee."  She walked around to each of us and jotted our names down and preference of days of the week. I literally put Eloise down as "first available." Now it feels like she's waiting for a table at a restaurant and doesn't mind if she gets stuck inside or outside, with the smokers or non-smokers. Terrible, I know.

So we're wait listed. Everyone keeps asking me where we are on the list. I have to say, I'm not sure. The executive director coming out and announcing that the "2 year old class was already full" happened rather quickly. I was reading and didn't catch exactly what she said at first so I didn't know if she said "full, except one spot" because one family in front of us stayed in line and didn't get on the wait list and the other family got out of line and did put their name on the list. Agh! It all happened so quickly! It's a blur!  Ok, just kidding. But sadly though, I didn't hear if it was already full before our line congregated or after. So basically what I'm getting at is I don't know if we're number 2 on that list or further down. I tried to look (envision peeking over the podium at a hostesses list) and from what I could tell, we were maybe 4th but again, I don't know if other ages were full and on this list also or what. Ok, basically I know nothing. And it was all happening in pretty short order so I didn't think it was appropriate for me to ask. I've got Sue on the case (Cam's mom) to see if she can find out when she picks him up from school today. 

Plan B?? I don't have one but I'll tell you, mothers in line were already on top that. They were all discussing what preschool they were heading to next. Apparently St. Martin's preschool registration opens to the public this Thurs. But I'm not going. I wanted to see if Eloise could get into this one school and give myself the opportunity to go through this process one time. I'm not going to hurry up and literally be wait listed again.  And word on the street (Ok, this is all coming from Sue:) is that a second 2 year old classroom may be opened for the fall and if that's the case, obviously Eloise would get in.  I'm in a "let's just wait and see" mode. Thankfully I don't have to stress about getting her into school so therefore I won't. The real stress will come when she needs to get into kindergarten, which in Charlotte is truly a racket. This preschool thing is just a good warm up for me.