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August 2, 2005
AoaA, day 2 ...
Yeah, I thought I would get an annoying little acronym going there. I'll stop soon, I promise. Or not.
Long day today. Jazz went over a friend's house which left me alone for
most of the day. A L O N E. That never happens. What I want to know is
... when T is in town, why won't the kids ever leave me A L O N E?!?!
But that's a different story for a different day.
I splurged on a large Cafe Americano from Mountain Mudd. Let me just extoll the joy that is Mountain Mudd coffee. For $3, I get a humongous cup of pure calorie-free caffeine (large coffee with 2 double shots of espresso) and, if I'm feeling festive, I'll have them add some sugar-free gourmet syrups. Yesterday it was Pink Chocolate, a combination of Raspberry and White Chocolate that, Oh. My. God. turned my coffee pink. Hey, it's healthier than going to a drive-thru, though it does get me pretty wired.
The rest of the night kind of passed in a blur. I watched the clock, waiting for 9, hoping I would get a phone call from my son (who I think has forgotten me) or my mom (who should have plenty to complain about by now). T was out playing darts and Jazz had called to tell me she wanted to sleep over her friend's house so I was really alone. Naturally, I did what every single mom who never has any time to herself does when she suddenly finds herself with an overabundance of time does. I played on the new GameCube.
Don't laugh.
9 pm came and went and I waited and waited and I held off for as long as I could. At 9:04 until I called them.
I was leaving a message when Joseph picked up the phone. He sounded so far away, so grown. He gave me a recap of what's been happening: they had an extra hour layover in NYC and they got no sleep on the train at all. His cousin Chris picked them up at the station and took them to Nahant to wait for my sister, who was supposed to meet them at the station. He's been swimming and hiding from his cousin PJ (who is a couple of years younger and wants to play ALL the time) and entertaining himself. Pretty much what he does here, without the swimming and the cousin thing.
He didn't sound worse for the wear, though he did have a few grumbles about how his grandmother is treating him. His last words to me were that he knows Nonnie will complain about how he's been behaving but that I shouldn't believe her. I asked him to put her on the phone and prepared myself for the worst.
"I'm sure he's been telling you how horrible I am, how I'm driving him crazy, but he's driving ME crazy ... " and on and on and on and on ... and I realized just then that, although she's over 70, she sounded like she was about 7. I let her rant for a bit, reminded her that he hasn't ever had to pick up wet bathing suits before because he hasn't been swimming much at all, and when she ran out of things to complain about, I asked to talk to my sister.
"He's fine, you know Ma. I'm taking care of him and standing up for him." and in that moment I knew that he would be fine. I forget sometimes that my sister shares something with me. She shares a history of being brought up by our neurotic, self-absorbed mother AND she recognizes that she is getting worse, not better.
I want to explore this dynamic a bit more, the mother/daughter thing and the sister/sister thing but, for tonight, I'm A L O N E and Spyro is calling. Escapism at its best.
He's there and safe and maybe I can sleep tonight.
