for two hours!

after school today, grace asked to have some friends over before the basketball game.  i said yes....they could bake some cupcakes.  it was becoming code for facebook.  they would come at five o'clock.  then i would take them to the game.  at the time, i considered going with the family, knowing they would each go off with their friends. that idea changed when the phone rang.

t.j. was off to a friend's house.  i stopped in to talk to max's mom.  she was happy to have t.j. for dinner...she was having her book club in for dinner, they had been reading a book about india........her husband was bringing take-out ordred from and indian restaurant!  t.j. smiled and enthusiastically told max's mom that he liked indian food.

wow! i thought...what a good kid.  just last week, i had been to an indian restaurant for a friends birthday....it was the birthday girl's choice.  i told the kids about the menu.  they both feigned a near death experience.  frustrated by their antics, i left the room, ready for more living life in the pasta aisle.

not to rain on my own parade....i'dlike to get back to that moment.....that joyful moment.....when i looked at the cute boy of mine....13 1/2 ......maybe taller than me....still sweet and loving....except for when he can't stand me or may vocabulary.

he loves me or should i say he tolerates me as a teen.  or maybe, because he tolerates me one smidge more than his sister, i take that as effusive show of loving.  i'll take any morsel that they toss me at this moment in time.  t.j. just does not...DOES NOT...like my vocabulary.....i say things like:
i have to write my blog.
hot dog is a hot diggety dog.
sneakers are sneaks.
computer thingy.
woolly wool for his hair when it's not buzzed.
surfer dude hair, when it's summer  blonde and curly.
so much more!  i can't think of them...i'll have to pop them in as they pop into my day.  belive me, i could fill a page.  oh, and don't even think of me singing.....or telling them when a song was really big in my life.  when i go back in time....telling him a story from college or my 20s, he just goes all dazed and bleary eyed....he humors me for a moment....but truly, just a moment.
he also has been the one to tell me that i don't dicipline the dogs properly.  he also says that i'm not assertive enough with the dogs.

just last week, i was painting the vanity that i had mosaic-ed....a great project.....i had on shorts...it's january, i know.....but, since i'm running low on clothes to drip paint on, i thought it was rather clever of me to wear shorts.....i mean, the paint would come off my legs.....eventually....after 20 or thirty showers.  no, really.  it was water based. i was o.k. he walked in the door from school, and before his backpack hit the floor, he said,"ya wanna put some clothes on mom?"....go figure.  you'd think he'd be used to me after 13 1/2 years.

so there was my boy, polite as ever....i know he has been taught...it's just such a treat to see him perform in front of others, because i am not always graced with such politeness used so willingly!  there was my boy smiling about indian food.  there was my boy, with another mother, just so happy to hear someone think of the dinner....food of any kind....in advance.  no wonder why his face lit up!

on my way home, i drove through our little village and realized both kids would be out.  our kids are moving into a new teen life...how nice for them.....how nice to be that age....isn't life good.

as i sat at a red light, in front of our little movie theatre, i thought,"hey! how nice for us....how nice to be this age.....isn't life good.............................biff and i can have a date!"

i love a date. any date....a booksore date....a beach date...a walk with the dogs date.....a starbucks date.....a bike riding date...... a dinner date......goodness, a deli date.......a movie date.......

"that's it!  we'll go to a movie"  let me call biff.  yup!  he was happy to go to a movie....me too.  life is good.

picked up pony tailed teens.....lots of laughter, whispers, singing, tory telling and giggling......we dropped them off and watched them all run, pony tails swinging, into the sports building.
bye bye!

and we're off! weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  we're off!  imagine...they are teens...they can't wait to have a little independence.  they can't wait to be out of earshot of us.....they can't wait to be free!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  we were free...for 2 hours!