Punksin Saves the Day

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Thank God for my kids, is all I can say.  Sometimes they give you grief – and sometimes they take the grief away.

Yesterday was a wonderful example of the latter.  We were in the car, all 3 of us, and we were late – surprise surprise – to gymnastics class.  Punksin was yammering on and on about something, and I don’t really remember what it was because I was in my own little world of grief again.  I’d had another moment of wanting to talk about something, to consult on a matter, only to realize that my “counselor” was gone.  This had happened earlier in the day, and the grief was so fresh and so strong that I wanted to hear his voice one more time.  So I called his cellphone.

And his message was gone.  My last link, my last chance to hear his voice, gone.

As I rushed out of here to grab Punksin from school and deposit her in gymnastics, I felt lost.  I went blindly and automatically through all the motions, all the hellos and how-are-yous to other moms, the exchanged kisses with Punksin when she saw me (always a delight), and then we got in the car.

I don’t know about you, but for me, there’s something about getting behind the wheel that is very conducive to thinking.  Sometimes that is good.

Sometimes it is not so good.

I peeled away from the school, with 5 minutes to get her to a class that was, actually, only 5 minutes away, but that’s without traffic.  And now here we were stuck at a light, with a little more time than I really needed to start thinking about Emmanuel again.  And then I hear a voice like a little bell:

“Mommy, are we late?”

“Well, a little bit,” I answered absentmindedly.

“Well why are we sitting here?”

“Because there’s a red light, sweetie.”  And then, “Now we have to wait for these people to cross the street before I can turn.  But I’m going to try my best to drive fast and get you there soon, okay?”

“Okay.”

pause

“Does that mean you’re going to drive like an idiot?”

I love her.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Visiting A Foreign Land

Monday, April 28th, 2008

Today, I did something I swore I would never do.

I took Punksin – and Pudding – to a Chuck E. Cheese.

I have always had extreme disdain for this place.  Mind you, I’d never set foot in one, in this particular case going directly against my advice to Punksin about food: you have to try it to know if you’ll like it.  I was determined that that would not happen here.

But, today it did.  I caved.

Yes, the cheese factor speaks about more than just Chuck.

But it wasn’t so bad.

She had a blast – quelle surprise – and I actually had a good time too – it took my mind off of other things for a time and I really got into not just being with her physically but being with her in the moment, which was good for me and, I think, good for us and our relationship.  There were enough games that a grownup could enjoy – kind of like an arcade – and we were there for about three and a half hours.  (Scary, that part…)

Pudding sort of hung around and checked out the sights.  He was mostly in between the stroller and my hip, but he did manage a “ride” on some mild contraption that also took pictures, so we have proof of my fall from grace, with each kid getting two shots of them in a moving car with the Chuckster.

Speaking of which -  the games and stuff, okay.  The scary larger-than-life mannequins  of Chuck and his friends, moving to a soundtrack of them singing weird 80s’s songs, was a tad nightmarish.  (The songs weren’t weird, by the way, I love 80s music – but seeing Chuck E.  Cheese, a rabbit? mouse? named Helen, a purple gorilla, and assorted other friends singing them was a little too Stephen King. I don’t think Janet Jackson’s When I Think Of You will ever sound the same to me again…)

Anyhow, yes, I brought my nose out of the clouds long enough to do Chuck E. Cheese.  And yes, I would go back – if for nothing more than to finish using what seems to be about 9000 gold game tokens that we still have left.  This was a time when I would have been glad if the games took like 4 or 5 tokens each, but noooo, it’s All Games Are 1 Token!

Isn’t that special.  And of course I didn’t know this before I bought them or perhaps I wouldn’t have gone for the buy 60-tokens-get-4000-free special.  Even at Punksin’s frenetic pace, do you know how long it takes to go through that many tokens?

For-EV-er.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Name Change

Monday, April 28th, 2008

As you know, the spousal unit is obsessed with the iTouch.  (If you don’t know, read this for some insight.)

He loves this thing so much that finding new things to do with it, and new things to put on it,  has become his newest – and apparently most enjoyable – hobby.

Tonight it became stunningly clear that Tech Guru – which never exactly flowed off the tongue anyhow – was not really quite nailing it.

He is, from now on, Hacker – a tribute to all the time he spends on his little toy.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »