Snapshots from real life
I complain about work a lot because it used to be the main part of what I did all week, but now I have a Squeeze and his two boys, and I'm realizing more and more that the goofy, little, ordinary, frantic, funny, weird moments are the real ones.
So yesterday I went over for the evening. I brought a pumpkin, which the younger grabbed enthusiastically to start carving. The older went for the pumpkin scones. We merry grownups went for red wine and cooking. So Nigel (14) started carving and chattering merrily, and decided to carve "Merry Christmas" for the irony, while the oldest (17) sat in the middle of the kitchen floor and Facebooked our conversation. The highlight for him was when Nigel messed up "Merry" and I said it looked like "Meth," and we all agreed that a meth pumpkin was the scariest thing we could think of. Max got a ton of "Likes" and comments for that. The pumpkin ended up saying "ME☛◆" or something with a peace symbol on the back.
The we ate pie and watched a dumb movie and talked politics and let Max hand out candy. To most kids, he was adorable and gracious, but to a group of giant kids with no costumes, "You're too old to be trick-or-treating! Fuck off!" SLAM! Candy is for little kids, he said. And he promised to make sure my car didn't get egged. Um, okay. Go for it.
Sometimes they play us songs they really like. The youngest asks me how to spell things and says everything I bake is the best thing ever. The oldest vents to me about girls and brags about tough teenage boy things. When we go to the store or downtown or out for a drive, the want to come along and talk to us, and they only fight a little. Their friends hang out and talk to us.
And, you know, the whole love thing is fabulous too, but this post is about all the trimmings.
So yesterday I went over for the evening. I brought a pumpkin, which the younger grabbed enthusiastically to start carving. The older went for the pumpkin scones. We merry grownups went for red wine and cooking. So Nigel (14) started carving and chattering merrily, and decided to carve "Merry Christmas" for the irony, while the oldest (17) sat in the middle of the kitchen floor and Facebooked our conversation. The highlight for him was when Nigel messed up "Merry" and I said it looked like "Meth," and we all agreed that a meth pumpkin was the scariest thing we could think of. Max got a ton of "Likes" and comments for that. The pumpkin ended up saying "ME☛◆" or something with a peace symbol on the back.
The we ate pie and watched a dumb movie and talked politics and let Max hand out candy. To most kids, he was adorable and gracious, but to a group of giant kids with no costumes, "You're too old to be trick-or-treating! Fuck off!" SLAM! Candy is for little kids, he said. And he promised to make sure my car didn't get egged. Um, okay. Go for it.
Sometimes they play us songs they really like. The youngest asks me how to spell things and says everything I bake is the best thing ever. The oldest vents to me about girls and brags about tough teenage boy things. When we go to the store or downtown or out for a drive, the want to come along and talk to us, and they only fight a little. Their friends hang out and talk to us.
And, you know, the whole love thing is fabulous too, but this post is about all the trimmings.