So, here we go. Griping. About my husband, my kids, the weather, Fox News, you name it. Griping. You knew it would come and here it is. It's what comes from spending too much time with my children, I think. Not that I don't LOVE spending time with my children. I do. Sometimes. Like, every now and then when he (for ease of reading, I'll use "he"; doesn't necessarily mean I'm talking about one of my male children) is in a really good mood. Which is, like, once a week.
So, I spent some time yesterday and today with one of my children. (You know the adage: "The more you pay for school, the less they go to school." No school today. An extra long weekend. Yay.) No names. It would totally get him/her, like, totally upset. On our way home from a swim meet -- okay, so that narrows it down to one of 2 children -- which we had to drive an hour to, on a Sunday, at 7:30 a.m., and then sit in 90 degree heat for four hours so he could swim for approximately 6 minutes total (Catch 22; the goal is to spend as little time swimming as possible, and even though it would suit my purpose for him to swim a long time to justify the time spent by me driving and then watching, it is really great for him to swim for only a very short time -- get it?), we struck up a conversation.
So, what do you think of my blog? Actually, now that I am thinking about it I said something like, "You haven't read my blog yet, have you?" A rhetorical question. No answer expected or necessary. Except, he doesn't know this. "No," he answered. "Why not?" I asked (not rhetorically). "Because, you are like sending them to me all the time." "So?" "So? I don't have time to read them." "You don't have ten minutes to read something I've written that I obviously want you to read or I wouldn't have sent it to you?" (Can you tell where this is going????)
I then realize how well he has learned from his father that the best defense is a good offense. Instead of focusing on his inability to find 10 free minutes for My efforts, he says, "Why are you writing a blog anyway? Just so you can write stuff about us and tell everyone what we're doing?" So, as with everything else in life these days, this blog becomes All About Him. In fact, at that point I'm thinking I should have entitled it "All [About] My Children." Then, they definitely would read. (Disclaimer here: I do believe the non-teenagers in the group read the blog rather faithfully; the other teenager reads the posts that have his name in the title, and the ones about puppies.)
You'll have to take my word for it that things progressed rapidly downhill from there. Lots of rhetorical questions and pointed statements. He thinks the blog is stupid, a waste of time, dumb, and, well, that. When I pointed out that he should not judge something he has not even read, and, more importantly that he should have enough respect for me to at least read my emails, he was smart enough to be quiet and not continue to defend/offend.
And, by the way, when asked if he could vote who he'd vote for, he replied quite matter of factly that he'd vote for McCain. Why? Because if Obama were to win, then there would be one party in charge of the Executive AND Legislative branches of governments, thereby compromising the full intent of the Framers of the Constitution to provide for wide-ranging checks and balances throughout our government. Wow. Not bad for someone who thinks it's All About Him. He has no idea that this answer saved him from eternal maternal damnation. It also had the unintended effect of my actually writing the blog All About Him this week. (I'm not worried about revealing our conversation; he never reads this so how will he ever know?!)
So, that's something completely different. Except for this. Tonight we had spaghetti squash for dinner. There was one in the fridge, and Bill put it in the oven with the baked potatoes to cook for dinner. When I ask Bill every now and then if he has read my blog, he answers, "Of course. I don't always read it right away, but eventually." So, tonight, when I looked in the oven at the squash he was cooking, you can imagine my surprise. There it was. Whole. Perfect. Untouched, unhalved, uncut, unseeded. Cooking away. Wow.
So, I spent some time yesterday and today with one of my children. (You know the adage: "The more you pay for school, the less they go to school." No school today. An extra long weekend. Yay.) No names. It would totally get him/her, like, totally upset. On our way home from a swim meet -- okay, so that narrows it down to one of 2 children -- which we had to drive an hour to, on a Sunday, at 7:30 a.m., and then sit in 90 degree heat for four hours so he could swim for approximately 6 minutes total (Catch 22; the goal is to spend as little time swimming as possible, and even though it would suit my purpose for him to swim a long time to justify the time spent by me driving and then watching, it is really great for him to swim for only a very short time -- get it?), we struck up a conversation.
So, what do you think of my blog? Actually, now that I am thinking about it I said something like, "You haven't read my blog yet, have you?" A rhetorical question. No answer expected or necessary. Except, he doesn't know this. "No," he answered. "Why not?" I asked (not rhetorically). "Because, you are like sending them to me all the time." "So?" "So? I don't have time to read them." "You don't have ten minutes to read something I've written that I obviously want you to read or I wouldn't have sent it to you?" (Can you tell where this is going????)
I then realize how well he has learned from his father that the best defense is a good offense. Instead of focusing on his inability to find 10 free minutes for My efforts, he says, "Why are you writing a blog anyway? Just so you can write stuff about us and tell everyone what we're doing?" So, as with everything else in life these days, this blog becomes All About Him. In fact, at that point I'm thinking I should have entitled it "All [About] My Children." Then, they definitely would read. (Disclaimer here: I do believe the non-teenagers in the group read the blog rather faithfully; the other teenager reads the posts that have his name in the title, and the ones about puppies.)
You'll have to take my word for it that things progressed rapidly downhill from there. Lots of rhetorical questions and pointed statements. He thinks the blog is stupid, a waste of time, dumb, and, well, that. When I pointed out that he should not judge something he has not even read, and, more importantly that he should have enough respect for me to at least read my emails, he was smart enough to be quiet and not continue to defend/offend.
And, by the way, when asked if he could vote who he'd vote for, he replied quite matter of factly that he'd vote for McCain. Why? Because if Obama were to win, then there would be one party in charge of the Executive AND Legislative branches of governments, thereby compromising the full intent of the Framers of the Constitution to provide for wide-ranging checks and balances throughout our government. Wow. Not bad for someone who thinks it's All About Him. He has no idea that this answer saved him from eternal maternal damnation. It also had the unintended effect of my actually writing the blog All About Him this week. (I'm not worried about revealing our conversation; he never reads this so how will he ever know?!)
So, that's something completely different. Except for this. Tonight we had spaghetti squash for dinner. There was one in the fridge, and Bill put it in the oven with the baked potatoes to cook for dinner. When I ask Bill every now and then if he has read my blog, he answers, "Of course. I don't always read it right away, but eventually." So, tonight, when I looked in the oven at the squash he was cooking, you can imagine my surprise. There it was. Whole. Perfect. Untouched, unhalved, uncut, unseeded. Cooking away. Wow.
2 comments:
As I recall when I was that age and survivng college, it was all about me. So why should that change?
And thanks for the recipe.
AHV
Ah, someone else has a life similar to mine! Glad you have put me onto your blog, I'll keep checking in for comic relief and baking tips and recipes!
jvs
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