For the most part I am open and honest with my kids. I am a lousy liar and I figure if I try to pull a fast one, or two, on them they will sniff me out and I will lose what little bit of credibility I have with them. This means that although I strive to tell the truth to them, I am not above with holding a bit of pertinent information if it suits me. For the last week I have been doing just this with Loren. During soccer season he was able to avoid religious education but now that his JV season is over he must return to the classroom one night per week to study for his Confirmation. I knew it started tonight but I opted to not inform him of this news lest I have to deal with the sudden presence of an overly bitchy teenage girl in my home. This morning when I told him tonight he would be sitting around a table discussing the big JC and his cronies I thought Loren might have a full on fit right there over his Cheerios.
“No way. I won’t go,” he calmly said after swallowing a bit of fury.
“Hmmm, yes well. Too bad on that front. You and I made a deal two years ago that you would finish out your Confirmation classes and just deal with it.”
“I changed my mind. I won’t go.”
“Ah, yes. You see it just doesn’t work that way. A deal is a deal.”
“I’ll run away then.”
Here I had to stop from laughing. I know teen runaways are a huge issue, but my teen likes his creature comforts that are provided by his mommy: warm, clean laundry, meals, rides, food, money. I replied, “Oh, right. Did you still want a ride to school then? Or are you taking off straight from the house?” He then rolled his eyes, grabbed his lunch and stalked out to the car for school.
______________________________________________________________
After dropping all the kids and the carpool kids off at their various schools I headed to my lawyer’s office to take care of some super icky paperwork I have been putting off since January. I would have continued to do so had Lawyer B not called me a couple of days ago and said, “Uh, Heather, you know that paperwork we started 9 months ago? we really should get on with that if you want to get is all taken care of by the end of the year.” This sort of caught me off guard seeing as how most lawyers I know are not really go-getters, usually letting you come to them. They have enough crap to do without adding more to the pile. But this is stuff I have to do so I went in and saw him. The office where Lawyer B works is in the building my father owned during his private practice. As I sat there signing my name over and over and over again I could hear the creaks of the old floor boards, the same ones I heard as I sat in the waiting room for my father when I was 8, 12, 15, 18, 20. The walls were the same, the library, all of it. I hung out with Lawyer B for about three hours before we were finally done for the day. When he tried to return my paperwork I told him to keep it, I have to return next week to see Lawyer C. Ugh.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate all the help these guys are giving me. I do. They are helping in ways I can’t even begin to appreciate right now. and they are doing it for the family discount of pretty much free. But it is so hard to walk into my dad’s building. Although he hadn’t practiced there for the last 17 years, it is where I grew up. I worked there on the weekends painting and filing. During one of my college summers I toiled there for three months in order to earn enough money for a car. Knowing my dad will never again walk out and ask me to lunch is just too much. So much so that I have been hiding my head from legalities for months just to avoid it. But today I faced it: the floor creaks, the familiar paintings, the back office that was once my father’s. And when I was done I walked out to my car and wept for a very long time.
_______________________________________________________________
This is from Cassidy’s soccer game over the weekend. Devon is rarely interested in watching the older kids play ball. Given the rarity of his older brother’s presence and the abundance of leaves and little soccer watching was accomplished.
Old Stuff
Blogroll