Dawn Is Me

(Three months smoke free! Yay, me!)

So, I was thinking about Ricky recently and I was thinking that I should get a tee shirt made for him with that famous and appropriate quotation from Linus van Pelt:

So far, he does not appear to have been seriously traumatized, no matter what they do to him.

I’m reminded of a recent incident when Ricky was coming into the house only to be intercepted by Kimmie and Gina.

Kimmie eyed him closely. “You’re taller,” she said severely.

Gina: “He is?”

Kimmie: “Here, see, look.” [turns him to face her and plants his face between her boobs] “See, he’s getting too tall to lift and separate.”

Gina: “Let me see.” [turns him to face her and plants his face between her boobs] “Oh, hey, you’re right.”

Parenthetically, it has always been interesting to me how siblings have such a freewheeling tactile intimacy; they can touch each other in ways that nobody else on the planet can.

That said, if the boy doesn’t grow up to be a serial killer, it won’t be his sisters that society has to thank for it.

Occasionally, though, they decide to be nice to him.

Last weekend, Ricky had a baseball game. It was a good game for him; he actually hit the ball. In fact, he batted in two runs with that hit and, by the time he got home, he was beside himself with pride in his accomplishment.

Kimmie told me a couple of days later that she had been tempted to take the wind out of his sails with a vengeance. “I was gonna say something like, ‘yeah, enjoy it, you’ll never be able to do it again’ but I decided I didn’t feel like ruining his life that day,” is what she told me.

So she’s … what … saving ruining his life for some other time when she’s more in the mood for it?

Poor Ricky.

He may yet have a future as a serial killer ahead of him …

I have recently learned something new about myself.

I learn that I am “mellow.” In fact, according to Joe Who Lives Across The Street, I am the most mellow person that he, at least, has ever met.

You might think I’m weird but I was actually shocked by that statement.

Mellow? Moi?

So, I decided to ask my daughters about it. They agreed that I am amazingly laid back and, further, that this quality makes me a top Cool Mom and makes both Gina and Kimmie the envy of their peeps.

I am, according to Gina’s friends, “mad chill.”

Except that I’m not.

I earn these accolades because, I am told, I don’t get bent out of shape about little things. And I guess that’s true, I don’t. I have long since decided that there are enough BIG things to get bent out of shape about to make getting bent about little things something of a waste of time.

This way, when I get bent, I can get really bent.

The thing is that life is full of little things for me to not care about. Thus, I appear to be laid back and mellow.

Now the main reason why all this is sort of shocking to me is that it is completely foreign to my own experience of living inside my own skin. If you had asked me to describe myself and/or my personality, I sincerely doubt that ‘mellow’ (or any synonym thereof) would have been one of the words I’d have used.

It’s easy to forget that the difference between the way you see or experience yourself and the way other people do can sometimes be as wide as the Gobi Desert.

Which is why it is good to be reminded sometimes. Because this is the very sort of thing that creates misunderstandings and miscommunications and all sorts of ‘mis-’ words like that.

That way, all those misses can become still more little stuff to not get bent about.

Life is too short.

Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.

This is my kitchen wall.

Somehow, it fits my household, and my family, perfectly.

Who says innovation is the sole province of white-coated dudes in labs that work for universities and cutting-edge businesses?

Innovation can happen in the kitchen with the help of hair appliances, gloves and cardboard.