Lundi 16 août 2010

Wrin¬kle in Time

It doesn't take much longer for me to realize that my bachelor-fa¬ther lifestyle probably isn't great for Nic, and so I take a break from dating. Determined to stop repeating the embarrassing and enor¬mously painful mistakes New Orlean Saints jerseys that led to my divorce and odier failed rela¬tionships, I enter a period of singlehood, self-reflection, and therapy.
Our lives are quieter.
On weekends, we take walks around the Embarcadero and up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower; ride the cable car to Chinatown for dim sum and firecrackers; with our neighbors, Nic's unofficial godfathers, go to movies at the Castro Theatre, where an organist plays "Whisde While You Work" and "San Francisco" on a gilded Wurlitzer before the shows. We ride BART to Berkeley and walk down Telegraph Avenue, watching out for such regulars as the woman with Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys dozens of slices of toast pinned onto her clothing and Minnesota Vikings jerseys the Sensitive Naked Man who nonchalandy strolls by.
On weekday evenings, after Nic does his homework, we play games. We often cook together. And read. Nic loves books: A Wrin¬kle in Time, Roald Dahl, The Outsiders, The Hobbit. One night, on the occasion of one of Nic's many unbirthday parties — dicse San Diego Chargers Jerseys are popular football jerseys after we read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Look- ing Glass — we set the table formally, placing stuffed animals at each setting. Wc dine with the stuffed animals, sitting like sultans on pillows.
One summer evening in 1989,1 am at a friend's dinner party, New York Giants Jerseys seated opposite a woman from Manhattan who is visiting her parents in Marin County. Karen, with dark brown hair and wearing a plain black dress, is a painter. She also writes and illustrates children's books. Karen says she is flying back to New York tomorrow, and I mention that I am going there next week to conduct an interview. There is New England Patriots Jerseys awkward silence. My friend sitting near me hands me a slip of paper and a pen, whispering in my ear, "Get her phone number."
I do.
The next day I call her at her parents' house. I hear her tell her mother to say that she isn't home, but her mother ignores her, handing over die telephone.
Yes, she says, she will meet Cleveland Browns Jerseys me when I come to New York.
Our first cautious date is at a friend's party on throwback jerseys the Upper East Side. The Fine Young Cannibals play NFL jerseys on the music system, waiters circulate with trays of Champagne and canapes, and then, though it is a sweltering night, I walk her the length of Manhattan to her downtown loft. It takes a couple hours, during which time we do not stop talking. Whenever we come upon an all-night grocer)', we get Popsicles. It's dawn when we say good night at her front door.
Par greenflying - 3 commentaire(s)le 16 août 2010

Star Trek movies

"So I won't have to read the subtitles in Star Trek movies."
When I park in front of the school, there are still a few minutes to go before the cowbell will be rung. My greatest accomplishment of any day is getting him to school on rime, but today something is wrong. Where are the other cars, the busy crowd of arriving children and the teacher who greets them? It dawns on me. It is Saturday.
I do not subscribe to the concept football jerseys of karma, but I have come to be¬lieve in instant karma, as it was defined by John Lennon in his song of that name. It means, in essence, that we reap what we sow in this lifetime — and explains my comeuppance when my girlfriend does to me what I did to my wife. (It actually isn't quite as reprehensible; when she runs off to South America, it is with a relative stranger.) Of course I am distraught, and Nic has to contend with not only my despair, but, upon my recover)' after many pathetic months, my subsequent girlfriends, gifted at some things but not substitute motherhood. It is like The Courtship of Eddie's Father, but Eddie never went in for breakfast to encounter a lady in a kimono eating his Lucky Charms.
"Who are you?" Nic asks. He shambles into the kitchen, a jar¬ringly lit room with a black-and-white-checked linoleum floor. He's Minnesota Vikings jerseys wearing his New Orlean Saints jerseys pajamas and Oscar the Grouch slippers. The object of the question is a woman with a volcano of drcadlocked hair. An art¬ist, her recent exhibition included hand-tinted photocopies of inti¬mate parts of her body.
The woman New England Patriots Jerseys introduces herself and says, "I know who you are. You're Nic. I've heard a lot NFL jerseys about you."
UI haven't heard about you," Nic responds.
One evening, Nic and I have dinner at a Chestnut Street Italian restaurant with anodier throwback jerseys woman, this one with San Diego Chargers Jerseys blond curls and bot- dc-grccn eyes. Our dates so far have included Frisbee with Nic on the Marina green and, one Sunday, a San Francisco Giants game, where Nic snagged a foul ball. Back at the flat after dinner, the three of Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys us watch The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. She flips dirough maga¬zines in the living room while I read Cleveland Browns Jerseys to Nic in his bedroom until he falls asleep.
Usually, I am careful to lock die door to my bedroom, but this time I forget. In the morning, Nic crawls into my bed. When New York Giants Jerseys he no¬tices the woman, who awakens, meeting his eyes, he asks, "What are you doing here?"
Par greenflying - 0 commentaire(s)le 16 août 2010

Eensy Wcensy Spider

" Back home, Nic helps make pancake batter. He does every¬thing throwback jerseys but crack the eggs New England Patriots Jerseys — he doesn't want to get "gunky" stuff 011 his hands. He says that the pancakes should be Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys Uncle Buck-sized. In the movie of the same name, they are so large that Uncle Buck uses a snow shovel in Minnesota Vikings jerseys place of a spatula.
Our apartment is a child's domain, 110 matter how much I try to isolate Nic's influence to his room. The place may have New Orlean Saints jerseys been cleaned the day before, but kid-sized clothes are scattered every¬where. There arc board games (he trounced me last night in Strat- ego) and video games (we are on die penultimate level of the Legend of Zelda) and a multicolored sea of Lego in the center of the liv¬ing room. In fact, Legos are everywhere—in the silverware drawer, under couch cushions, hidden among the roots of potted plants. Once, when my printer didn't work, a serviceman determined that the problem was a Lego cog jammed behind the daisy wheel.
Awaiting the pancakes under a gallery of his paintings taped to the walls, Nic sits at the breakfast table, where he San Diego Chargers Jerseys writes on lined paper with a fat red pencil. "We got to make our own pizza at school yesterday," he says. "We could choose cheddar cheese or modern jack. Hey, do you know how to spell the ooo word? They said that Jake kissed Elena and all die kids said, 'Oooooo.' Did you know football jerseys that owls can turn their heads all New York Giants Jerseys the way around?"
I place a pancake, disappointingly average-sized, in front of him. He pours on maple syrup, making sound effects —"eeeyaaa! hot lava!"—as I NFL jerseys fix him a bag lunch of a peanut butter and jelly sand¬wich, carrot sticks, an apple, a cookie, and a juice box.
He dresses for school. While tying his shoes, he hums "Eensy Wcensy Spider." We're running late, so I hurry him along, and he's soon in the backseat of the car, spitting on his Papa Bear doll.
"What are you doing?"
"He's in the slime pit. Would you tickle my knee?"
I reach back and dig my fingers into the sides of his knee, which causes hysterics.
"OK, OK, stop. I just wanted to remember what it feels like when you're tickled."
Changing the subject, Nic asks Cleveland Browns Jerseys if he can take Klingon instead of Spanish in school.
"Why Klingon?"
Par greenflying - 0 commentaire(s)le 16 août 2010

Child Protective Services.

Another assignment that goes into the box is a persuasive letter he New York Giants Jerseys writes to me when the students are asked to argue for or against whatever they choose. The note ends, "So in conclusion, I think I should be allowed to eat more snacks."
Occasionally Nic has nightmares. In one, he arrives at school and he and his classmates have to submit to vampire checks. They are similar to the lice checks they have during an infestation. For lice checks, Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys teachers, dieir hands protected in surgical gloves, move their fingers through each student's hair like a mother monkey, inspecting each follicle. With the discovery of a single nit, die in¬fected child is sent home for delousing Minnesota Vikings jerseys with Kwell and a meticu¬lous raking with a fine-toothed comb. It hurts, bringing on the type of screams that can cause well-meaning neighbors to call Child Protective Services.
In Nic's dream, he and his friends line New Orlean Saints jerseys up for the morning vam¬pire check. Gloved teachers lift the sides of their lips to see if fangs have replaced their cyctceth. The children who arc vampires are instandy San Diego Chargers Jerseys struck dead with a stake through the heart. Nic, recount¬ing die dream in the car one morning, says it is unfair to the vam¬pires, because they can't help themselves.
I don't know if it is our constant watchfulness, the faces of miss¬ing children football jerseys on milk cartons, or terrifying stories they overhear, but Nic and his friends seem unduly afraid. There is a small yard behind throwback jerseys our New England Patriots Jerseys apartment, but they won't play outside unless I come along. I hear other parents fret that their children are scared of die dark, cry at night, will not sleep alone, or fear sleeping over at friends' houses. After a story, before Nic goes to sleep, he asks me to check on him ever)' fifteen minutes.
I sing to him.
Close your eyes
Have NFL jerseys no fears
'The monster's gone
He's on the run and your daddy's her

Waaaake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Up ya wake! Up ya wake! Up ya wake! This is Mister Serlor Love Daddy. Your voiee of choice. Cleveland Browns Jerseys Thewortdys only twelve-hour strongman, here on WE LOVE radio, 108 FM. The last on your dial, but the first in ya hearts. And that's the truth, Ruth.
THE CRISP FALL MORNING begins with Nic's recitation of the opening soliloquy from Do the Right Thing, one of his favorite movies. We dress and go for a walk in Golden Gate Park. "Look at those orangies," Nic says as we walk by the conservatory of flowers. "And, oh, the greenies and reddies and goldies! It's like last night the world was finger-painted by gi¬ants.'
Par greenflying - 3 commentaire(s)le 16 août 2010

Little Mermaid

One afternoon, Nic announces that he wants to make a dona¬tion to San Diego Chargers Jerseys the school's Toys for Tots Christmas program, and so he goes through his bedroom, weeding out most of his stuffed an¬imals, games like Candyland and Chutes and Ladders, his trolls, and over-the-hill action figures. The bookshelves arc stripped of many of the picture books to make way for the Narnia and Red- wall series and E. B. White. Nic is trying hard to grow up, although selectively. He keeps the pandas and Sebastian, the stuffed Little Mermaid Cleveland Browns Jerseys crab.
Nic has antennae that detect, before most kids, upcoming waves of popular culture, ranging from My Litdc Pony to Masters of the Universe. Disney—101 Dalmatians and Mary Poppins— makes way for Star Wars. New York Giants Jerseys Nic and his friends discover Nintendo and be¬gin speaking its impenetrable (for NFL jerseys adults) language about mini- bosses, warp zones, secret levels, and pumpkins that give one-ups. One Halloween Nic is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turde (Michelan¬gelo to his friend's Donatello). Another time he is Indiana Jones.
Nic gets in mild trouble on occasion. When he spends the night at a friend's house, the two are caught making prank calls they learned about while watching The Simpsons. They New England Patriots Jerseys call bars listed in the yellow pages.
"Hello, may I please speak to Mr. Kaholic, first name Al?"
"Sure, kid." To die crowd: "Is there an Al Kaholic here?"
They break up laughing and slam down the phone.
Next they dial random numbers from the telephone book.
"Is there a John there?"
After a beat: "No? Then where do you go to the bathroom?"
Mosdy, though, Nic is well behaved. One time in the comments section of his report card, a teacher writes that Nic sometimes seems a little depressed, which I share with his new therapist, with whom he football jerseys meets one afternoon each week. "But," she Minnesota Vikings jerseys continues, "he pulls New Orlean Saints jerseys himself out of it and is energetic, involved, fun —a leader in class." Other comments from his teachers are effusive praise of his creativity, sense of humor, compassion, participation, and stel¬lar work.
I keep a box in which I throwback jerseys store his Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys artwork and writings, like his response to an assignment in which he has been asked if you should always try your best. "I don't think you should always try your best all the time," he writes, "because, let's say a drug atick asks you for drugs you should not try your best to find him some drugs."
Par greenflying - 3 commentaire(s)le 16 août 2010
Vendredi 30 juillet 2010

A part of war and peace

The vicomte wished to begin his NFL jerseysstory and gave a subtle smile.

"Come over here, I lelene, dear," said Anna Pavlovna to the beautiful young princess who was sitting some way off, the center of another group.

TheFootball jerseys princess smiled. She rose with the samethrowback jerseys unchanging smile with which she had first entered the room—the smile of a perfectly beautiful woman. W ith a slight rustleNew Orlean Saints jerseys of her white dress trimmed with moss and ivy, with a gleam of white shoulders, glossy hair, and sparkling diamonds, she passed between the men who made way for her, not looking at any of Minnesota Vikings jerseysthem but smiling on all, as if graciously allowing each the privilege of admiring her beautiful figureIndianapolis Colts Jerseys and shapely shoulders, Chicago Bears Jerseysback, and bosom—which in the fashion of those days were very much exposed—and she seemed to bring the glamour of a ballroom with her as she moved toward Anna Pavlovna. New York Giants JerseysI lelene was so lovely that Denver Broncos Jerseysnot only did she not show any trace of coquetry, but on the contrary she even appeared shy of her unquestionableCleveland Browns Jerseys and all too victorious beauty. She seemed to wish, but to be unable, to diminish its effect.

"New England Patriots JerseysHow lovely!" said everyone who saw her; and the vicomte lifted his shoulders and dropped his eyes as if startled by something extraordinary when she took her seat opposite and beamed upon him also with her unchanging smilePhiladelphia Eagles Jerseys.
Par greenflying - 2 commentaire(s)le 30 juillet 2010
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