James texted me this morning wanting to know the grams of protein in protein powders he had for breakfast. This is very telling of where his thoughts are during finals and AP exams. He is also balancing getting hired for a lifeguard job so we’ve been getting drug and TB tests and fingerprinting and I picked up a lifeguard hat for sun protection and all that jazz.
Grace is also a busy bee in school. She just started her swim unit in PE much to her dismay but she’s a pretty good swimmer so I don’t think it can be as bad as she makes it out to be. She volunteers at an assisted living center on Wednesdays after school playing piano for the elderly people that live there. She is very sweet and gave me lots of head scratches for Mother’s Day. She also wrote out the beginning of a story I had told her. It was so cute and shows what a good little writer she is so I’m going to type what she wrote for me here. Don’t worry, it’s only a page long –haha.
Once there was a boy in a tree. That is a hollow tree. In a forest. While this was a rather ordinary forest with bushes, berries, branches and bears, this boy was not so ordinary. Of course, he didn’t know that. However, a particular wizard did.
The boy was shivering and numbly biting the remains of an apple core. His pack was now empty and so was his hope. It was in this state, wondering if he would die of starvation, hypothermia or a pack of wolves that our wizard comes along.
“Hullo there.” The boy looked up. A man stood in from of him, not minding the rain, with strange attire indeed. He had some sort of walking stick with an acorn looking thing on the top. He had a pointy hat, somehow sticking straight up and a long, flowy, bluish-grey cloak. His beard was nearly apart of the fabric, being the same color and length. For a brief moment, the boy forgot his dark contemplations (as he gaped at the ancient man).
“Good grief child. Quit staring of you’ll never be able to close your mouth again.” The boy camped his mouth shut. “Apologies mister” he said abashed. He had been taught to treat everyone with the upmost respect, especially important people. This man must be very important indeed…
On days that James swims I pick Grace up at what I call “the grassy park”. I realize most parks are grassy, but this particular one is a little jot from the school and has a luscious amount of shade trees that happen to shade parking spots so despite the extra walking, I think it’s a pleasant place to pick her up, much better than the shoe store where I used to pick up Jonathan and James. Anyway, she arrived and told me with some excitement that there’s a boy at school that has also memorized many digits of Pi. Apparently, he asked her how many digits she has memorized and she told him, “about 100” and asked him how many he had memorized. Unfortunately, he replied so softly that she couldn’t hear his response. I was thrilled that there is a kindred soul at the school that also memorizes digits of Pi in his spare time and speaks quietly in public. She explained that she is so very curious to know how many he had memorized and wishes she had heard what he said. I encouraged her to ask him again and may or may not have said his must be a match made in heaven much to her horror. I asked more about the boy but all I could find out is that he wears glasses and is neither White, Indian, Hispanic, Asian or Black. He also wears a Harvard sweatshirt so she assumes he’s particularly smart. She doesn’t think she’ll ever interact with him again so I guess we’ll never really know how many digits of Pi he has memorized. She seems to have no interest in boys in general but we also often pass a boy that rides his bike uphill with a backpack and huge instrument. I’ve told her that’s the type of boy that has stamina and grit and if she ever were to like one, this may be a catch. We agree that e-bikes, scooters and carpools don’t build character like a regular bike, huge instrument, a heavy backpack and a big hill.
Ryan is turning 13 on Sunday. He really wants a phone. All his peers have a phone. I really want him to have a phone. Michael says he's too tech savvy and will find ways to get past his phone restrictions so he can't have one. I guess he's too smart for his own good.
