A new kind of bagel

The other night at the Bees Baseball Game, our two year-old granddaughter suddenly became focused on my girls.

I'll bet you didn't see THAT coming, did you?

Anyway, she started calling them "bagels," which amused us all and (of course) gave a whole new meaning to the word.  And when the evening was over, her mother told her, "Don't worry, Honey.  One day you'll have bagels, too."

What do you think?

So everything I hear and see on the radio/TV is making me cry this morning.  The news that babies are born addicted to painkillers.  That story about the Puerto Rican delegate at the RNC who was interrupted by chanting on the floor.  The realization that MSNBC has become as big a joke as Fox on the news front.  The knowledge that Paul Ryan and I have both Led Zeppelin and AC/DC on our playlists.

What do you think, people?  Time for me to break out the Celexa again?

What I Meant to do Today

1.  Put back together the upstairs guest room after Ken's heroic effort to re-floor (looks awesome!).
2.  Write 1000 words on my novel.
3.  Read THE CITY AND THE CITY.
4.  Write Q. a letter.
5.  E-mail a couple of friends to say I miss them.
6.  Avoid watching the RNC on TV.
7.  Deadhead some roses.
8.  Throw away old melons still hiding in my fridge.
9.  Go to The Body Shop (I think that's what it's called--the one that isn't Bath and Body.  Or Bed, Bath and Beyond.)  ANYWAY.  To buy some coconut body lotion.
10.  It's just really confusing to have so many stores with the words "bath"and also "body" in the name, don't you agree?

This is what I did instead.
1.  Napped.
2.  Ate brownies.
3.  Ate more brownies.

Yes.  It has been an awesome day and I do not say that ironically.

True Love

So Ken had knee surgery last Thursday and dude's on crutches for six weeks.  This, of course, has changed both of our lives.  There's a lot he can do for himself--and he does--but there are some things that are just really complicated, so then I take over.

Which is easier said than done.

This morning, for example, we stopped at Sinclair on his way to work to fill up the car.  I hopped out and went about my business when SUDDENLY he poked his head out the window started telling me how to pump gas.  I just stared at him.  And in my Wordless Stare there were many Wordless Sentences spoken, such as:

"Do you know how long I have been pumping my own gas, Buster?"

"Where are you usually when I pump my own gas?  NOT WITH ME."

"How do you think my car gets filled week after week?  By the gas fairies?"

The Wordless Stare had the effect of making him pull his head back in the car (like a turtle) and keep his mouth shut.  Meanwhile, one more Wordless Sentence went through my head:  "In spite of what just happened here, I love you anyway."

Thanks

. . . for your kind comments the other day.  Putting Q in the MTC was hard.  I appreciated your support.  Meanwhile, lookee here.  This week's column!

Going, going and the long good-bye

So Q. takes off for the MTC tomorrow.

And.

I am so proud of him.  I also think this is a good decision on his part.  But I just have this anxious, heavy, sour cloud hanging over me right now--have had it following me around consistently for the better part of the month, actually.  There's just this ongoing awareness that everything we do is the. last. time. we'll. be. doing. this. for. two. years.

Here's what I know after sending off other boys.  They return.  But they never truly come back home.

I'm so gonna miss that kid.

Moonrise Kingdom

We saw this the other night at the Broadway.  I expected to enjoy it, and I did.  But then of course I would like anything that looks like a Cohen Brothers movie and a Wes Anderson (who, in fact, wrote and directed Moonrise) movie got together and had a baby.  Which is exactly how this movie felt.

What interested me is how much Q. and Geoff liked it.  It is very stylized and more than a little absurdist.  But Geoff summed things up by saying that movie somehow managed to capture how it feels to be a young adolescent male.

Did you see it?  And what did you guys think?