on crazy plans
Remember that time I followed through on something crazy because it seemed like a good idea at the time? YEAH ME TOO. And sometimes it is a good idea and sometimes it isn't, but really, I rarely regret followthrough.
Flipping back through my LJ, I notice that I somehow completely failed to post about this thing that happened to me in May. So I had a bunch of friends converging in San Francisco one weekend; I'd hoped to go, but the Fairies of Extreme Brokeness had been having their wicked way with me and it just didn't come together. Well, that Friday, I was feeling a little peaked, so I stayed home from work. I woke up around noon to a flurry of text messages and IMs exchanged with aroraborealis[1] and redheadedmuse[2], who conspired and took up a collection and played Bad Idea Chicken with me and two hours later I was on a direct flight to California.
It was phenomenal. dilletante's magnificent birthday present to me was being solo dad all weekend so I could cavort in the sunshine.
Mostly it felt like this:
And this:
Aaaand this:
As usual, I took a few cell phone pictures, too: days 1, 2, and 3.
But anyway, this isn't about me. It's not news to anyone that I love ridiculous and improbable ideas and adventures. As usual, it's about my kid.
Last week, we spent an idyllic five days together at my camp (a cabin on a lake) outside Bangor, Maine. We brought redheadedmuse and cazador and their three kids and ate amazing food and picked raspberries and paddled in the canoe and stayed up late watching Dr. Who and playing cards. The whole deal. Natalie ate it up. There was just one major glaring flaw in this plan: Sophia's birthday party fell right smack in the middle of it.
I hemmed and hawed over this for a while; if it were just ME, I would go to Maine, drive down for the party if it was important to me, and then drive back and spend the rest of my time there. But it's a 4+ hour drive even WITHOUT kid pit stops, and how do you explain that to someone who's three years old? But I decided that what we'd do would be to go to Maine, come back for the party, and then I'd give Natalie the option of returning to Maine with me or staying in Boston with dilletante. Because there was NO way she was missing Sophia's birthday. This kid worships birthdays.
I think redheadedmuse was surprised when I was actually packing up to make the drive to Boston, the day of the party, but there I was doing it.
"I can't believe I'm driving nine hours today for a birthday party."
"I can't either, actually."
"You think I'm crazy?"
"I don't think you're crazy. I think you have one kid and you don't get it, yet, but you're not crazy."
No, I'm a little crazy. But I'd explained it to N, the day before, and she indicated that she really understood the plan, she really wanted to drive to the party, and she REALLY wanted to come BACK. All right, kid; you earned a bit of crazy. So we did it. We made the 5-hours-with-traffic drive down there with no trouble. She tried watching a movie on my computer but got bored, so she asked me to open up a text editor so she could type a while. She drew, and we sang songs, and talked about the world, and she was a complete peach the whole trip.[3] We picked up D, attended the party -- which was originally intended to be quite small but one family had cancelled so there was only Sophia and one other kid, age not-yet-2, and so I am SO happy we showed up. After that, we headed home and I took a nap for a bit while N played with her dad, and then we bundled back in the car and had a five-minute meltdown which was alleviated by eating chicken and listening to Paul Simon covers. This was apparently HILARIOUS, and put N right to sleep, where she stayed for the rest of the drive to Maine.
OK, I admit, I'm extremely proud of her for the way she behaved on this trip. I explained that she had to make her own choice and I could describe the options but not make the choice for her, and it was her responsibility to be grown up enough to make that choice well. And for once OMG SHE DID. Not only did she, but she chose the side of wild loving irresponsibility and I could not be happier.
[1,2] Happy birthday! I love you! You are awesome!
[3]I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT EXPECT THAT. Ask me in person some time about our flight to Amsterdam with veek, the obligatory Extremely Difficult Prelude to an intensely awesome trip.
Flipping back through my LJ, I notice that I somehow completely failed to post about this thing that happened to me in May. So I had a bunch of friends converging in San Francisco one weekend; I'd hoped to go, but the Fairies of Extreme Brokeness had been having their wicked way with me and it just didn't come together. Well, that Friday, I was feeling a little peaked, so I stayed home from work. I woke up around noon to a flurry of text messages and IMs exchanged with aroraborealis[1] and redheadedmuse[2], who conspired and took up a collection and played Bad Idea Chicken with me and two hours later I was on a direct flight to California.
It was phenomenal. dilletante's magnificent birthday present to me was being solo dad all weekend so I could cavort in the sunshine.
Mostly it felt like this:
And this:
Aaaand this:
As usual, I took a few cell phone pictures, too: days 1, 2, and 3.
But anyway, this isn't about me. It's not news to anyone that I love ridiculous and improbable ideas and adventures. As usual, it's about my kid.
Last week, we spent an idyllic five days together at my camp (a cabin on a lake) outside Bangor, Maine. We brought redheadedmuse and cazador and their three kids and ate amazing food and picked raspberries and paddled in the canoe and stayed up late watching Dr. Who and playing cards. The whole deal. Natalie ate it up. There was just one major glaring flaw in this plan: Sophia's birthday party fell right smack in the middle of it.
I hemmed and hawed over this for a while; if it were just ME, I would go to Maine, drive down for the party if it was important to me, and then drive back and spend the rest of my time there. But it's a 4+ hour drive even WITHOUT kid pit stops, and how do you explain that to someone who's three years old? But I decided that what we'd do would be to go to Maine, come back for the party, and then I'd give Natalie the option of returning to Maine with me or staying in Boston with dilletante. Because there was NO way she was missing Sophia's birthday. This kid worships birthdays.
I think redheadedmuse was surprised when I was actually packing up to make the drive to Boston, the day of the party, but there I was doing it.
"I can't believe I'm driving nine hours today for a birthday party."
"I can't either, actually."
"You think I'm crazy?"
"I don't think you're crazy. I think you have one kid and you don't get it, yet, but you're not crazy."
No, I'm a little crazy. But I'd explained it to N, the day before, and she indicated that she really understood the plan, she really wanted to drive to the party, and she REALLY wanted to come BACK. All right, kid; you earned a bit of crazy. So we did it. We made the 5-hours-with-traffic drive down there with no trouble. She tried watching a movie on my computer but got bored, so she asked me to open up a text editor so she could type a while. She drew, and we sang songs, and talked about the world, and she was a complete peach the whole trip.[3] We picked up D, attended the party -- which was originally intended to be quite small but one family had cancelled so there was only Sophia and one other kid, age not-yet-2, and so I am SO happy we showed up. After that, we headed home and I took a nap for a bit while N played with her dad, and then we bundled back in the car and had a five-minute meltdown which was alleviated by eating chicken and listening to Paul Simon covers. This was apparently HILARIOUS, and put N right to sleep, where she stayed for the rest of the drive to Maine.
OK, I admit, I'm extremely proud of her for the way she behaved on this trip. I explained that she had to make her own choice and I could describe the options but not make the choice for her, and it was her responsibility to be grown up enough to make that choice well. And for once OMG SHE DID. Not only did she, but she chose the side of wild loving irresponsibility and I could not be happier.
[1,2] Happy birthday! I love you! You are awesome!
[3]I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT EXPECT THAT. Ask me in person some time about our flight to Amsterdam with veek, the obligatory Extremely Difficult Prelude to an intensely awesome trip.