Family Matters, Week of 1-21-07

Every week I write about my family. Welcome to it.

Annie (4yr Old Rocket Scientist)

Ericka approached her with caution. She had the animal in her arms.

"Annie?" she said. Annabelle's eyes grew wide. She had seen the orange fur!

"Is that Tu-Tu?"

"Yes," Ericka lied. And Annie cheered. "But he was hurt from falling out of the car, so he's bandaged."

The entire cat was wrapped in guaze, head to toe. It looked like a passing resemblance to the cat Annie knew, loved, and grew up with. But...you know...not really.

Annie began to take the bandages off.

"Honey, you'll want to leave those on for awhile. He needs to get better."

Later that night she finally pulled them off.

"This isn't Tu-Tu!"

"I told you he would look different after his surgery." Surgery now being one of those mythical, undefined things to a child, something that apparently modifies every facet of an object.

"Oh," Annie said.

"Do you still love Tu-Tu?" Ericka asked. There was more riding on that question than mere childhood endearment: Had Ericka pulled it off?

"Yes," Annie said. Me and Ericka shared a mental high five.

Seriously, you don't know how she squalled for that thing.

Abby (2yr Old CDRom)

Abigail, on the other hand, had a very bad week. It began with a mistake.

A note to all young parents: Don't let your even younger friends watch your children. Remember when you slowly realized the sometimes earth-crushing weight of responsibility that children bring along?

Yeah, well, people 18-20 years old don't really get that. Unless they have kids themselves. This one, of course, did not.

So off me and Ericka go to see Pan's Labyrinth (which was frickin amazing) and leave the kids with said buddy of mine. He's 19.

I come home and the children are in the living room. The living room is a mess, but that's to be expected.

I see a wide-eyed and somewhat scared child sitting at the kitchen table. In front of my laptop.

Then I see it. The horror. The horror!

My 17" Macbook Laptop? The keyboard was destroyed. Half of the keys were popped off, and many of the plastic pieces of their plastic assembly were strewn across the carpet.

I put my head in my hands. I tried to quell my anger.

"Evan," he began.

"Just," I said, "just leave. Get out of my house." And he did. I haven't seen him since. I'm not sure I really want to see him.

Again, these aren't just my mistakes, and Abby shouldn't have been messing with the laptop. Nor should said friend have left them alone to go outside and smoke ("We cried," Annie told me) nor spent 95% of his time (while not smoking) in my room playing video games.

The whole reason the laptop was there in the first place was so he wouldn't have to be in another room should he need to use a computer.

It was...frustrating. The laptop was fixed after hours of meticulous repair from myself. After struggling for what felt like forever getting the spacebar in and failing miserably, I made an appointment at the Apple store and the girl at the Genius Bar fixed it in about 3 seconds. Now that's what I call service!

Abby, of course, got the brunt of my anger. I tried to be as calm about it as possible, but I was upset and I was yelling and all Abby could do was say "I so sowwie daddy, I so sowwie."

After I calmed down hugs and kisses were distributed. But the shame at losing my temper and the anger at my friend remain. Bah.

Ericka (her myspace)

Ericka went to see Pan's Labyrinth with me! Yay!

Oh, wait, this isn't the big news. The news is her birthday is on Sunday! She'll be 27 years old and therefore an Old Lady (I'm a spunky 26, thank you very much).

For her birthday she got an awesome Lotus tattoo (no, not the Black Lotus my fellow Magic geeks) which actually covered up an existing tattoo on her lower back. I'll be sure to post a picture as soon as I get one. (This post has no pictures, for example, because I'd rather just post it and not worry about the Multimedia Aspect of the post.)

So she'll be having her party tomorrow and good times will be had by all. Rah-rah.

Oh, yeah, Pan's Labyrinth. Fantastic movie. You'll only find it at your local art house because it has...

...wait for it...

...subtitles. That's right, it's 100% in Spanish, set in 1940's era Spain. It's a fairy tale in the truest sense: Fun, frightening, and enlightening. I loved it! While I admit my expectations were through the roof due to the unstoppable love this film has been getting, I didn't think Ericka would really dig it. But yes, my baby has taste and this is one fine flick.

The special effects alone are worth the admission. But here's the typical southern reaction to this movie:

"I gotta read that damned thing? Piss on that, let's go see Night At The Museum."

And then they would never know what a great movie they just missed out on so they could see the Drab Movie With Obvious Jokes For The Masses. Pity.

Until next week...

Suddenly I see
Why the hell it means so much to me