Up Popped A Fox

Their backpacks are packed and sitting by the door. One is filled with colored pencils, a sketch book, a composition book, a toy for the class cockatiel and a flash drive. The other has nothing more than a pair of slippers and a change of clothes. Both have lunch boxes, each packed last night with the help of its owner. The kids are still tucked in bed as the rain falls and the wind blows and I sit here on the couch with a cup of coffee, waiting. In a way, we are all waiting, waiting to see what the year will hold. As parents, we expect challenges but hope for triumphs. The kids hope they can do what is expected of them but, more than anything, they hope for friends in their classrooms and people to play with at recess. We all wait to see what will happen.

As a kid, I always loved the first day of school. I would sit and stare at my school supplies - the clean pages of the notebooks, the unsharpened pencils, the markers/crayons/colored pencils fresh and full of color – and see the potential. I would sit and ponder the words that I might write, the art I might create and I could barely contain my excitement. Last night, as I helped Miguel pack his backpack, I shared this memory with him and added without thinking, “…but I was nerdy that way”. He said, “What’s nerdy about that?”

And now…it’s time to wake them and begin…

Someday, if you endure enough sassiness and disrespect, whining and complaining, insults and outrage, then you might be rewarded with a conversation like this one:

Me: Zeca, head upstairs and start getting ready for bed.

Zeca(near tears): But MOM! You promised me that I could clean the toilets! 

Me: You’re right, honey. I did. Okay, I will let you clean the toilets before bed.

Zeca: Yay! You’re the best mom ever!

That’s right, Zeca loves to clean toilets and I am happy to let her.

Sorry for the short post but we spent the day at the Minnesota State Fair. It was cold and very windy. It was also crowded and there were anti-Obama t-shirts and pro-Emmer buttons and a pervasive smell of animal urine. So, we are happy to be home. I think I’ll go bleach my nostrils and take a nap.

Have a great weekend!

Last night, I had a dream that Luisa and I went home with Sara Ramirez. I’m not actually sure how this came to pass but we picked her up from the airport and we all went back to her apartment. This was obviously our first time there because we (and by “we”, I mean “I”) started snooping around as soon as Sara went to her bedroom to unpack a few things. Her apartment was very neat and beautifully furnished and she had an entire bookcase filled with skulls. Because I don’t want you to think Dream Sara was tacky or weird, let me assure you that the skulls were quite classy. Many of them were crystal and some of them were filled with mysteriously squishy things that were clearly symbolic of brains but seemed more like balloons of various colors filled with gel. I know how they felt because I poked every single faux brain. Luisa did not touch, of course, and asked me not to touch either. But, what would you do if you encountered a case full of beautiful skulls in Sara Ramirez’s apartment? I went through the shelves one by one and eventually came to two skulls that were real skulls and then I didn’t really want to touch anymore. Dream Sara then came out of her bedroom and saw us pondering her collection and said, “Most of those were gifts” and then shrugged. She was quite beautiful when she shrugged and her hair was wet and shiny and she was wearing a hot cami and I’m sure she was wearing pants but I can’t say for sure because I was absolutely mesmerized by her face and general hotness and then, she said, “You guys, I think I just found a nit on my pillow.” I was like, “Are you sure?” Dream Sara was pretty sure and then showed Luisa what she had found and Luisa said nothing but went into the laundry room and started stuffing clothes into trash bags. Dream Sara was pretty freaked out and wanted to know how she could have possibly gotten lice and I told her all the ways that it can happen. Then, I knew that I was going to spend the evening nit-combing Dream Sara’s hair.

That is most certainly not how that dream was supposed to end. I woke up deeply disappointed – fucking lice ruined my three-way with Dream Sara Ramirez.

As I pulled a t-shirt out of the dresser recently, I realized that my summer wardrobe is largely determined by the fact that my girlfriend is an epidemiologist. She gets a lot of t-shirts from events related to her work, so, I am a walking billboard for health issues. My chest screams “NO MAS!” and my back gives links to sites about HIV and STD’s. Sometimes, my chest whispers “AIDS Walk” and my back simply advertises for various sponsors. One of my favorite and most comfortable shirts says, “World Refugee Day” on the front. There are some I won’t wear though. One says, “STOP DROP AND ROLL” and has a big picture of a condom on it. I’m not a prude - I object to the shirt because 1) it’s ugly and 2) I think “STOP DROP AND ROLL” is a stupid slogan. Luisa wears that shirt all the time, however – despite my pleas. There is another shirt that simply has a picture of a giant condom as a parachute. I don’t even remember what it says but the condom is a heinous salmon color and the whole things is just ridiculous and unappealing. I appreciate a free shirt now and then so it’s all good. Poor Luisa gets no social work t-shirts. The only one I could think to make anyway would say, “Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite”.