Lost Mom, Please Help

Note: Another archive. Enjoy!

The first day of school is here! While the novelty of school is now old hat to my 2nd grader, my kindergartener is nearly beside himself with anticipation and excitement. Although we put him to bed at 8:30, he was bouncing around until 10pm.

"My brain won't shut off!" was his excuse. "Will my new school have lunch? What about snacks? Will I make lots of friends?" he inquires enthusiastically.

"Yes, yes, and yes, honey," I answer, happy that he is so eager to go.

As we head out the door and begin our walk to school, we join the slew of frantic parents and a sea of little backpacks making their way to the gates of the facility that will be in charge of our precious offspring for the next 6 hours.

"This will be great," I think to myself. I thank my lucky stars that our family will not have to deal with the horrible vehicular traffic each day since we can walk.

We head up to the entrance to find that it is a campus of morning chaos. Kids are everywhere. Parents nervously try to find their child's classroom, and are shaking with fear as they prepare to release their little babies to a stranger and allow their them to be subjected to the influence of not only that stranger, but all these other little brats who have had only God knows what kind of upbringing and who will no doubt be carrying all kinds of germs. The kids could care less. The smell of hand sanitizer causes my eyes to burn.

My husband takes our 2nd grader to this classroom, and I escort our kindergartener to his. Just then, I get a call from another frantic mom who I met the week before. She is panic stricken since she cannot find a place to park. I offer to help her by allowing her to park in my garage just two doors down. I am on my phone for less than 1 minute… that's all., and I turn to find that I have lost my kindergartener!

Now, I am panic stricken. I taste bile in my mouth as my stomach churns. Where did he go???? Beads of sweat begin to form on my brow. I begin to scour the campus, calling his name. Other parents meet me with looks of condemnation and pity. The first day of school and I lose my child! This is not supposed to happen! Not to me!

Silently cursing myself for offering to help a fellow parent, during my search I spot my husband and older son touring the campus. How do I tell them I've lost their son and younger brother? I bite back tears of frustration, as I feel my throat closing. My heart feels like it's about to beat out of my chest.

"I've lost Kannon," I tell them. My husband looks at me quizzically, then realizes I am serious. Being the good natured man that he is, he refrains from giving me an earful and settles on a simple dirty look instead. He then rolls his eyes and begins to help me search.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, we find him playing happily on the kindergarten playground.

"Honey, where have you been???" I ask.

"Here playing, Mom," he answers plainly, yet I do detect a suggested "duh" at the end of his reply.

Did I just miss him in my scour of the playground 10 times over? Had he truly been here the whole time while I was off getting dirty looks for calling his name as I ran around the school yard advertising my bad motherhood? At this point it didn't matter… he was safe and child protective services wasn't called.

Filled with relief at the crisis averted we take our kids to their respective classrooms and say our goodbyes. All is well, and they have made it to school. I see other mothers tearing up as they head back to their cars. My heart skips a beat. I catch my breath and realize my own eyes are wet as well. Maybe it's not just the fumes from the hand sanitizer.

The Longest Summer Ever

Having a family is a wonderful thing. The spouse, the kids, the dog. It's the American dream. This summer my family moved from Burbank to West Los Angeles. While we loved Burbank, my hubby had an hour and 20 minute commute to work in Century City twice a day. Moving was the best solution to retrieving those 20 plus hours he was spending on the road each week.

Burbank schools were dismissed for the summer in May. So, the very next week we moved to our new neighborhood in West LA and were now in LAUSD. We moved into a cozy home only two doors down from the new school our sons would be attending. No sooner had we carried in our last box of belongings when were we greeted with school announcements coming from the loud speaker, and insane parents dropping off and picking up their little bratty bundles of dirt and snot, and the realization that the LAUSD kids were still in session.

What did this mean??? It meant that since our old district had released the kids in May, and this new school wasn't due to release til a month later, that I was in for the longest summer of my life!!! Of course, I thought to myself, being the super mom that I am, this will be no problem. This will be a summer full of play dates, day camps and swimming lessons. We'll meet new people, and the kids will meet new friends and it will be a great summer. Fast forward 15 weeks....SIGH, yeah right. What's that saying? "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions". Well, that's exactly where I ended up. Unpacking, painting, traveling to visit family, our dog thinking it could fly and jumping from the roof (I'll elaborate on that later in a later blog-she was completely fine), and simply trying to get our barrings in our new surroundings confiscated our entire summer and we had not one play date, not one swimming lesson, and only one week of soccer camp that I forced my kids to attend in 100 plus degree weather despite their protests. Well, maybe not exactly Hell, but you get the idea.

During all this, mind you, I still had my auditions to do at my agency. Some of them I was expected to do from home, yet with two noisy boys, that was mostly impossible. On some days I arrived at my auditions with the boys in tow because I had no one to watch them, no day camps to send them to, no play dates to pawn them off on. Once or twice my wonderful husband would watch them at his office for an hour or so, but already feeling like the worst mother in the world, I didn't want to feel like an awful wife too and ask for more. So, there the boys (who are 5 and 7) would sit with me in the lobby of my agent's office, sometimes for 2 hours or more as I waited my turn to read a few lines of script with the hopes of being chosen among hundreds of other voices and make a few bucks.

"Can we go home now???" "When is this gonna be over???" "Is it your turn yet, Mom???"

Torture. Yes, you could call it torture...for all three of us.

"Maybe tomorrow I'll record from home", I think to myself.

"CRASH". "BANG".

Squeals of laughter and screaming rip me from my revere. I duck my head out of my vocal booth and yell, "Keep it down you guys! Mommy is trying to record"! More laughter.

We are now a mere 5 days away from the first day of school and I stand in my vocal
booth trying to do an audition without noise from my boys. Realizing it's hopeless, I turn off my microphone and decide that my sons have won this battle. As I listen to their feckless laughter and clanging around, I smile. I look around, taking in our new home. We're still not done unpacking by the way. The boys bound down the stairs and greet me with hugs and guilty smiles. I can't help but be grateful. I am truly living the American dream.

A Personal Note From G.K. Bowes

Here we are! Officially launched. When first approached to write a
blog for this fabulous foundation, I immediately thought, "Who
wouldn't love a blog about being a busy wife, mom, and voice over
actress? Oh, wait...That would be just about...everybody"! Then
after some encouragement from the wonderful CEO Jennifer Davis and my
loving husband, I thought, "What the heck?".

So, I started writing. And, as the fates would have it, I enjoyed it
immensely. My fingers were possessed with a new found love for my
keyboard as I tapped out my thoughts and experiences. I began this
blog back in September, although P.I.N.K. wasn't officially launched
until Monday. However, I wanted to get a head start on capturing the
spirit of "The Voices In My Head", and I figure the best place to
start is at the beginning. Consider these first few blogs "archives",
if you will. You'll get to know me, I'll get to know you, and we'll
go from there. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading them as much as I
enjoy writing them. It is an honor to be here and to share with you.

So, without further ado, here is the first installment of "The Voices
In My Head".

'VOICES IN MY HEAD'

G.K. Bowes is a wife, mother and voice over actress. She began her career as a microbiologist and molecular geneticist. After earning her degree in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics fro ULA, where she was also a Track and Cross Country athlete, G.K. spent a year doing research for the Food and Drug Administration. Deciding to leave the microscopes and DNA gel electrophoresis behind, G.K. was then inspired to follow her heart and pursue her passion for voice acting.

Since making that decision, G.K. has hit the ground running, booking voice over roles for animated shows, movies, and video games. She is the voice of Barbie for Mattel, as well as several voices for the new Play House Disney show, "Special Agent Oso". G.K. has also done voice over ads for commercials such as Wal-Mart, Sprint, McDonalds, Old Navy, Skechers and many more.

As a busy wife, mom of two young boys, and working actress G.K. will be blogging about balancing family, marriage, work and more with the power of persistence and staying positive while pursuing your dreams.

Mrs. G.K. Bowes

for ?'s and advice

askmrsg.k.bowes@thepinkfoundation.org