Years ago, before I was gainfully employed at a full-time job, I used to spend every Thursday with my friend Sarah and her twin toddlers. It started with a “Hey, you want to come to the Farmer’s Market with me?” and became an every Thursday occurrence, keeping up even after I was working full-time. Sarah would just meet me for lunch either at my place of employment, if it was cool, or we’d meet somewhere around it. The kids loved coming to my work, because Genworth and Circuit City had some pretty decent cafeterias. Circuit City was much better, because it was that much bigger.
Well, last week I decided to ask Sarah if Rebecca might want to see Beauty & the Beast with me, since I love musicals, and Ashman and Menken put out several great musicals for Disney (not to mention the off-Broadway smash, Little Shop of Horrors) until Ashman succumbed to AIDS a decade ago. Rebecca was just fine with hanging out with Aunt Meryl. She played with her DSI while I got a haircut, then we saw the movie and had dinner together, then home she went. And then I realized, hey, I’ve had alone time with big brother Jake, and alone time with second-oldest boy Nate, and now with Rebecca–but I couldn’t recall just having some Max and me time.
So today, we went to Laser Quest, where Aunt Meryl and her trusty flanker, Max, kicked butt. We played air hockey (he won). And then we went home and rented Cowboys and Aliens and had some dinner. So now all four have had some Aunt Meryl alone time, and Aunt Meryl got to see two movies she wanted to see, as well as play some laser tag. I love laser tag. It was called Photon in the 80s when I first started playing it, and I liked it so much I was on a team, and we flew to Dallas to learn from the people who invented it. I’d go back on a team in a heartbeat if they had them around here.
All this, and I went to services this morning, too. A good day. A very good day.