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| Mother's Day at our house.
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I'll be home all week. THAT, my friends, rarely happens, so I'm pretty stoked. I have several site inspections, but they are all within an hour of my house, except today's, so I'll be home in the evenings. And I'll be home tonight, too, it's just that this site is about a 4 hour drive from me. Better get used to it; if I select them for the study, I'll be making that drive pretty often for the next 2 years.
Had a great time with the family last night. Had Mother's Day dinner with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and my niece. There were so many conversations going at once that it was hard to keep up. But we pretty much laughed the whole time. My niece was explaining how a gift shop in the mall had earrings on sale, buy one pair, get the other half-off, so she picks outta coupla pair and goes to the register. My niece is not an idiot. A bit flighty, but not stupid. The total came out to, like 20 bucks or something, and she only had $9 on her. So, get this, some random man, she said "he was old, like 40 or something" which got her a swift kick under the table from me, but the guy paid for her earrings. And I said, "You took the money?" And she said, "Yeah....he was just being nice." So my sister and I are peppering her with questions and admonitions, my sister chiding, "Haven't I told you your WHOLE life not to take anything from strangers?" and my niece is like, "No, you told me not take candy or get in the car with strangers. You never said anything about earrings." And I'm saying, "How is it that you are almost 16 y/o and you didn't figure out that you didn't have enough money on you for both? It's simple addition." And she says, "I was on my allergy medicine.....sometimes I get confused." My sister is going on about the strange guy who just handed her $20 bucks, and why in the hell she took it, Lauren doesn't see the problem because she gave him her $9, so really, in her book, all was good, my mother had been involved in another conversation with my brother in law about their detective neighbor whose son got busted for having a sawed-off shotgun with a pistol grip and the serial number scratched off the weapon, so she gets confused between the two conversations and wants to know why their thug of a neighbor with the illegal weapon gave my niece $20, that cracks Lauren and me both up, my sister is still pissed, and my brother in law missed the whole thing about the earring ordeal. So, we move on to why Lauren just dumped her latest boyfriend, my sister is STILL going on about the strange guy who she now is referring to as Captain Pervy, my brother in law is just picking it all up, and wants to know why Lauren's ex-boyfriend is being called Captain Pervy, did he try something on her? And BTW, what's wrong with the exboyfriend buying Lauren some earrings? Lauren, God love her, has my temper and my short fuse for frustrations and blurts out: "Okay, so I suck at math, I took money from a stranger, but he didn't have an illegal weapon, he wasn't wearing a clown suit, and he didn't ask me if I wanted to touch him, NO, Anthony didn't try anything on me, but he did on one of my friends, so that's why he's now a big, fat, loser EX-BOYFRIEND, and he never bought me ANYTHING because not only is he a cheater, he's cheap, and if the old guy in Spencer's had tried to kidnap me, I would've punched his nose, poked his eyes, and kicked him in the balls, AND I would've kept the earrings. Now, is everybody on the same page?" Yes, we were, and it was hysterical. I love that kid, I swear I do. She's so much like me, it almost makes me feel badly for her!!! But still, later, I tell her, "Never, ever, ever do that again. Call me; I'll come wherever you are and give you the money. Never do that again, got it?" She is small, she is beautiful and it creeps me out that some older guy gave her money. But she's tough, so I don't doubt that she already had her attack plan down pat. She promised she wouldn't, but asked why it worried everyone so much; she can take care of herself, she says. Yeah, I tell her, I know you can, but there's crazy folk out there, and we would die if something happened to you. She listens to me more than she listens to her mom, and I think that's because we are roughly of the same mentality. But anyway, she says, "Well, it's not like he was that one freak who offered me money if I'd just let him look at my feet." I'm stunned, "When the hell did THAT happen, and did you tell your mom?" "Nope," she says, "it happened a few weeks ago at the mall. I told him to back the hell off or I'd scream bloody murder and that he should really find himself a support group for that whole foot thing." I couldn't help laughing, but it scared me at the same time. I'm sure the look on my face gave my fear away, and she says, "Hey, you taught me what to do......throat, eyes, nose, balls, remember? I'm not gonna wind up on a milk carton, so don't worry. You know I'm just like you; I can take care of myself."
So, I ask her about Anthony; all this happened when I was traveling, so I missed all of it. She says, "No big deal. He's a jerk. And now he's a historical jerk. I don't need that crap from any guy." And I'm thinking, yes, she's sooo like me in many ways, but already so much smarter than me in others. I'm really proud of her; well, other than the whole math thing. And I'm not kidding when I say she's beautiful. She really is, and that's not a biased opinion.
And then, she shocked the shit outta me. She asked me, "Are you still bummed about Scott?" And I tell her, yeah, a little. Gets harder the older you get, I tell her. She says to me, this 15y/o kid, "Nyehh.......he was a snoozer. BORING. You're way too cool for him. Alot of my friends' moms are your age (grrrrrr), and they date alot of loser guys. Mooches, nasty, just gross. I'm really glad you don't do that. I'm glad you cut 'em loose when they turn out to be assholes. I think they just stay with the losers so they won't be alone. It's good that you aren't afraid." It never occurred to me that she was watching me. I'm glad she can't read my thoughts on that subject or she would know that yes, I'm deathly afraid of winding up alone. "Oh," she says, before I leave, "don't tell Mom about the foot guy. She'll never let me outta the house again."
I don't know if I should be having adult conversations with a kid, but she's no ordinary kid. She sees stuff I had no idea she saw, and I feel like I know her pretty well. She amazes me. |
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Posted by BlueMoonInMyEye on 2008-05-12 07:46:42 | Rating: | Views: 98
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Wow one smart cookie there, I think she know that you all love and care for her and if she was in any trouble she would sought help.
You are lucky
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Posted by KP
on 2008-05-12 08:18:15
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Great post Blue, had me reading till the very end... and laughing and smiling - what a great family you have.
Oh and don't worry you'll pull out of your tail spin - when you are good and ready and then you'll go for
"the throat, eyes, nose, balls, remember?"
that's classical - I think I'm gonna teach Miss 8 & Master 5 that manouvre
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Posted by EasyToSay
on 2008-05-12 09:15:02
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Your niece is awesome! So wise beyond her years, just like her aunt. My niece is 12 and I don't even want to think about her with boyfriends yet or walking around malls crowded with pervs with foot fetishes!
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Posted by Meredith
on 2008-05-12 10:16:21
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Your niece is a smart girl. I think it's awesome that she has observed you and you can tell she looks up to you. Your family also sounds great.
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Posted by prelude2it
on 2008-05-12 12:48:21
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Pervs with foot fetishes? What mall is Meredith shopping at? I need to stay the hell out of there.
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Posted by HungryHeart
on 2008-05-13 01:30:45
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I just loved that family conversation! lol! Sounds a lot like mine, everyone talking at once and getting it mostly all wrong! Great post. As for the beautiful niece, keep her close. I'm glad you two are close, she will surely tell you more "stuff" that she'll tell Mom. She sounds like a real spitfire :-)
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Posted by Ellie2008
on 2008-05-13 17:17:20
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