Sugar and Spice, Meet Snakes, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Over the last few days, I've been reading a couple of books, Why Gender Matters by Dr. Leonard Sax and How Do You Tuck in a Superhero by Rachel Balducci. Both have got me thinking about boys and girls and the changes that having a little boy will bring into my life. I have only one sister and so living with a little boy is still something of a mystery. Today I had an experience at the park that may be a glimpse of our future.

Monica is just learning to go up and down stairs without scooting on her bum so we were practicing this on a flight of stairs on the play structure. As Monica gingerly went down the stairs, a four year old boy went streaking passed. He stopped at the top and looked at her, fascinated. (keep in mind that I've never met or seen this boy in my life.)

Little Boy: I didn't know she could walk!

Me: Yup. She can walk. Sometimes she even runs.

LB: Wow. Run?

Me: Yes. Sometimes she goes so fast I have to run after her!

LB (totally intrigued): Run after her right now!

Me (Looking at Monica standing stark still at the bottom of the stairs): I don't think she wants to run right now. So, I don't have the chase her.

LB (considering this thoughtfully): She could race.

Me: I don't think she knows how to race. Maybe she'll run a race when she gets older.

LB: I bet I could win.

Me: I bet you could too. You can definitely run faster than her.

LB: I could win a race!

Me: You could race around the playground right now to see how fast you are.

LB: Yeah! (scurrying down the stairs) I'm missile fast!

Boy takes off and careens around the playground, Family Circus style. Returns to the stairs, breathless.

Me: Wow! That was missile fast.

LB: Oh yeah!
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Boydom, here we come.

Quote of the Day

While nursing a sinus infection some weeks ago, I started to re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Perhaps I needed some fantasy to entertain me in the lonely, quiet hours, but it has turned out to be rather fun even after recovery. I love these books because they are full of genius storytelling, the tension between good and evil, and quotable gems of truth from Tolkien, as iterated by his characters.

Here's my latest favorite. It speaks of true freedom.

"One who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters."
-Aragorn, The Two Towers

Ugh!

Today is just one of "those" days.

Phone Frenzy: I'm on one phone line reviewing printing order details with Printer Guy. My colleague is on another line placing a supply order for said printing order with Supply Guy. Printer Guy tells me I can get supplies cheaper through them. I put Printer Guy on hold and book it over to Colleague. She puts Supply Guy on hold, and I tell her to cancel the supply order. She picks up a line and attempts to cancel the order. I run back over to my phone and pick up the other line, which is actually Supply Guy. So Colleague thinks she's talking to Supply Guy but she actually just told Printer Guy to cancel the 38,000 envelope printing order. I then put Supply Guy back on hold, tell Colleague what happened and call Printer Guy back to say the order is back on and we'll get the supplies from them.

Parking: I work downtown and parking is a beast. I call myself a Parking Shark, as I spend part of each morning stalking around town for the prey: a perfect parking space less than a mile from my office door. Today, I did not feel like "sharking" right away, so I parked at a meter that I need to start feeding in an hour. Above Printer/Supply situation comes up and I lose any recollection of meter-parked car. I walk out of the building to go to noon mass and what do I see but my little Civ sitting right in front of my building with a $40 ticket blowing in the breeze under the windshield wiper. I was so flustered I skipped mass and moved my car to a non-meter spot right away.

As much as I want to do this, I know there is hope. As Anne Shirley said,

Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it.