It’s
always a little nerve wracking when your online reality crashes through
the very thin layer of separation between it and the rest of your
life. Of all my reasons not to attend those blogger meet-ups,
chief among them is the deep fear people will catch on to my
fraud. They will meet up with me and say… OMG–what the hell is
she drinking when she writes this stuff. Oh wait… you already
think that–thanks a lot. So, had Pops emailed and wanted to meet
me, just me… I would have found some reason to be "not around" this
weekend. Not because I have anything against Pops–I’ve always
assumed he was a pretty cool guy (and I was right!)–but because I’m
very much a Girly Girl. To the best of my knowledge men who understand
point spreads and politics and philosophy tend to not understand you
when you say, "DID YOU SEE the Wish List Catalog from Anthropologie?
I’d die for that Owl Belt on page 99!" Ok, so I’m a pretty shallow girl at that… It’s all about me.
Except when it’s not.
No,
Pops promised to bring along Mr. Man. In fact, we met at an
Arcade! And I couldn’t resist the urge to let Boy Wonder meet
another of his kind. Every Therapist, Pediatrician, and School
Administrator in our wake has suggested that Boy Wonder would not have
"peers" until Grad School. While I’m willing to concede that his
kind are probably limited editions–it does strike me as a bit
odd that there aren’t more of them floating about. Grad
school? Even at the rate he’s going, he has to wait until his
early 20’s to have a meaningful conversation with someone not
65? S i g h. It’s a hard life, when you’re interesting and
only 8. So with trepidation, we headed to Seaside on Saturday to
see if our hunches were right. (Man, I love alliteration!)
I
can decidedly say, that my child’s kind is spread around the country
roughly one to every 181.35 miles. (Somebody do the math and tell me how many of
these Kids are in the US. It probably isn’t statistically
relevant to count Arkansas.) This is going to make play
dates a little difficult. But I’m also happy to report, that
as unusual as our child is, he is not unique. In addition to being
interesting, Mr. Man is a delightful child, full of humor and good
grace. And I hope his ears have been burning, because Boy Wonder
has been talking non-stop about his new friend. Hopefully, they
will get to see each other again before they meet up at MIT.
And
Pops… well, I told you he was a cool guy. He managed to hide
his amazement when I told him I’d never taken a philosophy class in my
life–and then he hid his disdain when I continued to suggest I didn’t
see the NEED to ever rectify that situation! And then, for a full
three seconds, he bought the idea that IZ and I got married at
12. I’m still snorting over that. It’s true that when Boy
Wonder turned seven I started telling people that I was a teenage
mother–however, we were legal (barely) when we tied the knot. He even
went so far as to put up a great photo on his site that bears a
striking resemblance to Cindy Crawford me.
Besides, how can you not like a guy bearing this gift?
And
me? I resisted the urge to tell him I have a pair of jeans in
exactly the same shade of pink as my new candy dispenser.
