Belated Weekend Update

Friday afternoon, actual email exchange between The Spouse and me-self:

From: Spouse
To: Moi
Subject: Check it Out

From: Moi
To: Spouse
Subject: Re: Check it Out

Did he autograph our cheese?

From: Spouse
To: Moi
Subject: Re: Check it out

No, but he autographed the crab cake cookbook I got you.

From: Moi
To: Spouse
Subject: Re: Check it out

Awwww...you're just the bestest husband ever.

From: Spouse
To: Moi
Subject: Re: Check it out

I actually thought to ask him but what would the point of that have been other then ironic?

From: Moi
To: Spouse
Subject: Re: Check it out

Plus, the whole "never being able to eat the cheese because Tom Douglas signed it" thing.

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So guess what I'm making for dinner tonight?

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Friday evening was, of course, The Golden Dragon Ball. The Neighbor did The Child's hair because I'm totally inept at those sorts of things.

The Child wore the dress her aunt 'n uncle gave her for Christmas and her Grandma Eileen's mink stole. (Shut up...the poor thing has been dead for over 50 years).

This is the only boy she kissed.

I stayed home and ate pizza and watched "Atonement" just like I said I would. Only it wasn't BBQ chicken pizza because I didn't make it to Trader Joe's until Saturday. Still craving that, though.

Saturday

The Child's volleyball team was finally defeated in a game. Rumors are swirling, based on a conversation one of our parents had with their assistant coach, relative to the legitimacy of the other team's strategy. See, half their players didn't show up for the game, which meant they weren't required to sub in. Consequently, their strongest players played the whole time. Hmmmm....

It was a drubbing; the other team is undeniably good-the only other one in the division with an undefeated record. And there's no debate about the fact that our girls have a weak mental game; they start losing and it messes with their heads big time. But still...

In the evening The Spouse and I went downtown for a CD release party for a friend of his. It was pleasant. I didn't know very many people and you know how I am in a crowd of strangers. But I drank a very tasty Cosmo, the music was hot and it was nice to spend time with my husband doing something other than being home. Even though we like being home. We also commented on how cool it was that we could just leave The Child home alone. I reckon that in 14 years we have spent a total of $20 on babysitting. We always had friends or neighbors who watched her for free. And then she was old enough to be alone. Score.

Sunday

Final match of the regular season. Each game was "who needs a cocktail" close but our girls emerged victorious, for a final record of 6-1 on the season. Playoffs are next week. Hopefully some dark horse will eliminate St. Sneakybutt.

Politics and Religion

Hat? Hat? Come back here, honey...I'm not going there. Oh, honestly, where did she go?

Politics

"Mom, today we were talking about elections and stuff. I knew how many years a representative serves before they have another election and how long a senator serves. 6 years, right?"

"Yep. Good for you"

"And then, Mom, Mr. D. wrote '01-20-09' on the board and asked if anyone knew what that meant and I shot my hand up and I was waving it and waving it and Joe was too but Mr. D called on me and I said, 'That's the last day Bush is in office' and you know what happened then, Mom? Everyone started screaming and cheering and it was like Mr. D had just announced that there wasn't going to be anymore homework for the rest of the year".

Those of you counting down the days (440) will no doubt appreciate that little tale but here's what I found significant.

As you know, The Child attends Catholic school. Now, Catholics are as mixed a bag as any other denomination...you've got your no-war-social-justice-care-for-creation-dialoguing Catholics over here and you've got your you-can't-vote-for-a-Democrat-and-be-Catholic-I'm-so-pro-life-that-I-could-kill-you Catholics over here and then, as should be expected, a nice little hodgey-podgey all up in the middle here.

Having said that, in our small school I would wager that easily half of the families hover somewhere in the camp that I don't hover in. Thinking only about The Child's class, I would definitely say that is true. Which is to say that the cheering and stomping over Bush finally leaving the White House was not coming from a gaggle of kids being raised by pot-smoking-hippies or something like that there. And it either suggests that a) even the more conservative families have grown troubled by the direction of this presidency and/or 2) even if the parents still support Bush, their kids don't. And it'll be 5 years before any of them can vote but hey, they are paying attention. I really, really like that.

The Child, all full of poly-sci-ish fervor wanted to accompany me to vote. She asked questions about precincts and polling places and how I was going to vote if I didn't have my registration card and seemed very impressed that I knew they couldn't prohibit me from voting because I didn't have it and actually even more impressed when we walked into the polls and I went straight to my precinct table. ('K, I was too. I can't actually tell you the number off the top of my head but I know it when I see it. A 3 is involved).

She watched me sign for my ballot and go into the booth and then she said, "This is boring," and took her soda out into the hall so she could slurp on it without me shushing her.

Voting was easy. The Spouse and I had discussed everything and he'd marked the voter's pamphlet while he filled out his absentee ballot so I filled out all my little circles in record time.

I have a strategy when it comes to City Council, Port Commission and School Board. It is a very simple system, developed over years of watching Seattle/King County politics: always vote for the challenger. If the day ever comes when there is someone sitting on one of those bodies who ever does anything but natter, I'll support him or her. As that is not the nature of politics in this hippy-dippy consensus decision making, "let's commission a study to review the results of the bi-partisan panel that proposed a survey to see if we should limit our latte consumption" town, it's safe to say that the challengers will always get my vote.

Religion
There was a 30 minute period of bad juju in our house last night. I'm not naming names but 2 people were over the top hysterical and/or passive-aggressively ridiculous while 1 person was trying really hard to get everyone to simmer (and that person did raise his/her voice once but it was only to be heard above the din). It was embarrassingly stoopid. But before the night ended both of the other 2 people came to the 1 person and apologized for the bad behavior and that made the 1 person feel very good about the power of love and the strength of forgiveness. Because if it all doesn't come back to that what the h-e-double hockey sticks are we doing?

See, Hat? That wasn't so bad, was it? Oh. I think she's hiding under the table. I'll just leave this pie here...

Shall We Dance?

Tonight The Child is attending the annual Snow Ball at school. She is very excited because it means she gets to wear the superfantastic dress from Seattle Coffee Girl's wedding. Her shoes and earrings are picked out and she knows how she wants to wear her hair. All I have to do is convince her to scrub all the inkmarks off her arm.

One is escorted to the Snow Ball by a parent, in this case, The Spouse. He has graciously agreed to escort not only his own child but also a classmate, an immigrant from Kenya, who doesn't have a father.

This really isn't The Spouse's sort of thing. I'm quite sure that spending 3 hours at a school dance is absolutely the last thing he wants to do of a Friday evening. Which is not to say that spending time with his child is ananthema to him. It's just that he's more of the adventure movie going/Museum of Flight attending/chess playing/science fair project assisting sort of dad. He likes dancing with her, too. They have a little routine to "Let's Dance" by David Bowie that they've been doing since she could stand. But a school dance, with a lot of standing around watching junior high boys and girls? Not so much.

I am quite sure that The Child has given absolutely no thought to the fact that her father is giving up a Friday evening to attend this function. She's thirteen and she's selfish. But I do know that someday she'll look back and understand how important it was that he took her. And that he attends her volleyball games and takes her to see Spiderman movies.

My dad, Sean Connery, was of another generation. He was the provider and disciplinarian. Dame Judi was the nurturer, the cheer leader. Sean also had careers (high school teacher/coach and then pastor) which necessarily had him more involved in the lives of other people's kids than his own. I don't fault him for his dedication to his students and parishioners. It's just a fact that he wasn't around for us that much. He came to our events when he could and I know he took pride in us, he just wasn't so much for showing it.

I particularly felt it, what with beig the oldest and therefore the "experimental" child. I was 30 before I figured out that he was proud of me. And that probably was a little long to wait. Although at least I figured it out and now he and I talk very comfortably about all manner of things, which is a blessing.

Does that sound like complaining? I don't mean to. I'm thankful I had a dad who loved us and provided for us. He built things for us. He wasn't the world's most patient father but he's mellowed with age. He is kind to our spouses and dotes on his grandkids. Still, I'm thankful that The Child is going to have a different story to tell because her papa is more engaged in her life. She doesn't realize yet what a gift this is, but I do.