I am just mindlessly blathering away today so go somewhere else if you want actual meaningful content. I whined to the long-suffering, cat-herding person about being in a lull and I am no longer in a lull, oh boy oh boy oh boy, and then dev finally started to get after me and so work is on my mind. And kitchen design. And tomorrow is Kayak Day! Yay! So I am going to whine about something that happened Friday evening that I am not really grumpy about any more. At least not today. I do get intermittently grumpy about this topic.

And no, my dear Porters, it has nothing to do with our loverly evening out on the town. That was fun although my skin and hair started to take on just the slightest tinge of a rather pumpkin-ish color by the time we reached the schoolyard on our walk home. It was what happened on the way *down* to the Center of the Universe aka The Planet Ann Arbor. When I ran into some old friends of mine, fellow grade school (and high school) parents. Beloved friends. I miss them. We worked together on school volunteer stuff a lot. Their house is on my walking route and I can remember one time when: 1) I took off for a walk. 2) She called the house asking for me. 3) Whoever answered the phone told her I was walking. 4) As I approached their street, she was hanging out the door waiting for me. Good times.

So Friday, I ran into these people as I was red-queening downtown to meet the GG/Porters for cocktails/dinner. I couldn’t just ignore their presence. I LIKE them! But man oh man. Planet Ann Arbor parents or what? Blah-de blah-de yada yada. The Kid is doing so wonderfully well. Grad school at blah-de-blah. Wonderful fiancee. They even LIKE her. And her PARENTS are so great blah-de blah-de! This went on for maybe five minutes. Was I antsy? Well, yes. I had been texting the GG my progress downtown every quarter mile (iPhone pedometer app) and I knew he was wondering if a squirrel had attacked me or whatever.

I dunno. This kid is a smart kid but not any smarter than my kids. Anyway, I think most of the kids on the Planet Ann Arbor are above average but, then again, most of the kids on the Planet Ann Arbor are showered with food, clothing, books, technological devices, trips to exotic locations… Helicopter parents? Yes, we have them. I *hope* I wasn’t one of those… But then. There are the other kids. The ones who don’t get breakfast not because they refuse to eat anything but because there isn’t any food in the house and/or no responsible adults are around/awake to help them get food. Etc. Yes, we have those folks here. But that would be a whole ‘nother entry. One I’m not up to tonight.

My children are wonderful. They are intelligent and accomplished and more thoughtful about their rules for living their life than I think I was at that age. But they are also people. They have good and bad days. Triumphs and failures. And so, if they have some kind of triumph, I might mark it but I don’t trumpet it everywhere to anyone who will listen. Because you never know what is around the corner and pride so often comes before a fall. Yes, it does. But then. The folks that I ran into that night were telling me about their kid because they *like* me and trust me enough to tell me about their kid’s current success. And that kid has probably had some bad days too. So… Hmmm….

I have posted this photoooo of my beautiful tow-headed beach urchins before and I’m posting it again because I love it so much. Because it reminds me of when I was a kid hauling logs on the moominbeach with my brother and cousins.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 13th, 2010 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.