SLIDER

Singing on the Toilet

So before work today, I was in my own little world - feeling all peppy and energetic because I ate a healthy breakfast and had two big 'ole cups of iced coffee and the sun was shining.  Good day.  So I head into the ladies' employee bathroom and I'm singing/humming to myself  "dun-dun-dun......dun-dun-dun-dun-DUN-DUN..."
Better known as THIS theme:



Of course, I'm finishing up and thinking This is going to be a great day! and doing my big humming finish:



And this is the moment I hear a toilet flush in the other stall and realize that someone has been in there the entire time.  Yup.  Bet you wish you were as cool as me.  

Movies From Back in the Day: The Wacky Adventure Edition

There are a number of movies that could technically fit into this category, but these are three of the choice-iest.




(Not actually the official or original trailer. I found it here.)

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

If You Were Here....

If You Were Here....



If you were here, you'd hear the constant hum of the washer and dryer as I'm pretty much perpetually doing laundry, and moreover, today is "wash the bedding" day.

You'd no doubt hear some poppy rockin' music like OkGo, The Bend Sinister, the Dandy Warhols, and The Fratellis, since that's what I'm in the mood for.

You'd have your choice of hot or iced coffee with or without "fudge brownie" creamer or skim milk. We could also walk to the nearby Books-A-Million and enjoy the offerings of their coffee shop.

The cats - Isabelle and Hope - may just drive you insane from their bursting into and out of paper grocery bags and hopping in and out of one (four! - crazy!) boxes on our living room floor put there expressly for their entertainment.  (In our defense, 2 of those are shoe boxes from my birthday and the only reason they stay is because Hope likes to use them for scratching pads.)

If you were here, I'd have put on actual clothes in honor of having a guest, instead of still being in my tank top and pajama bottoms.

We'd sit on the couch and chat while the light breeze hits us from the open balcony doors of our apartment and Shawn would sit at the table playing his baseball board game and occasionally contributing to the conversation.

You would see a collision of action figures and interests displayed on our shelves: Batman and Baseball (especially Tigers), Star Wars, Harry Potter and of course - lots of books.  We'd have lots to talk about and if you didn't want to talk, we could just sit and play some video games or watch a movie.  We're easy.

My Little Prince Becomes a Man

 age 9 months
Tomorrow, this little guy turns 18 years old.  I was 15 when my sister had him.  He has been one of the brightest lights in my life and watching him grow from the most adorable, sweetest baby ever to a surprisingly articulate toddler to a gifted and strangely compassionate little boy to a rather awesome young man has been one of the truest joys I've known.

Here are just a handful of highlights.
First words: "Bottle-Bottle-Bottle." (Said exactly correctly.  Bah-tuhl, repeated 3 times.)

Age: Just turned 5:
Me, holding a group of plastic dinosaurs: "You want to play Peter Pan?"
Him, giving me a condescending "duh" look: "No, I left that all behind with my youth."

Age: About 6:
The night before Christmas Eve, he and my sister are staying at my mom's with us.  Because of limited space, my sister is sleeping on the couch and *Jonah sleeps next to me in my queen bed.  I'm singing silent night to help ease him to sleep.  He presses his hands to my cheeks and says: "Aunt Becky, it's time to go to sleep now, okay?"

Age: 9:
I'm hanging out with his mom at her place, he has just walked in, getting home from his first day of school:
Me: Hey, how was school? 
Him: Fine, except a sixth grader called me stupid and pushed me down at recess.
Me: (Feeling furious, like I want to find that little 6th grader and push HIM down and teach him what stupid is, but you know, I can't do that, because I'm an adult....) "Oh man, that sucks.  Are any of your friends in your class?"
Him: (Genuinely confused.) "They're all my friends, Aunt Becky.  Even the ones who don't know it."

Age 15:
I've bumped into him at Target; he is telling me the story of how his grandma has no sense of boundaries and just no shame and no respect for his space.  The tone of him expressing this is grave, disgusted, and outraged.  
Him: "...She just....went ahead and didn't bother asking me before doing it and I can't believe it - like - what was she even thinking?" 
At this point, I can't help but think his grandmother has done something truly awful, like she walked into his bedroom without knocking and he was changing clothes or something.  I'm getting truly concerned. 
Me: "Well, what did she do?"
Him: "She came up to me and put her arm around me (demonstrates a half-hug) like this."
Me: .........
Him: In public!!!

Ah yes.  And over the years I watched him go from the boy who dressed up as Darkwing Duck (a show we both enjoyed) or Frankenstein on Halloween to the young man having pizza delivery and horror-movie marathons to being the guy who recommends the newest in horror comedy, the one person who enjoys zombie flicks as much as I do.
He's gone from being the baby whose first question was "What's this?" while pointing at anything and everything and listening intently while I read my high school text books to him while I babysat...to now he is the one teaching me computer tricks and recommending good books to read.

He's only my nephew, but in so many ways, he's been a ray of sunshine and I'm so proud watching him become a man....but a small part of me still sees him as that little guy covered in chocolate and dirt who tells me not to worry about the (ridiculously huge) spider on the picnic bench because it's okay, "I flattened him with my hand."






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