Day Two of Sister Time

Day two of a lazy do nothing day.

Conversation:

An Onlineshoes employee had to be in Ohio at our warehouse for a few days, she said, "All of a sudden I heard all these sirens blaring and blasting -- then -- everybody disappeared."

Jean's conversation with a fellow passenger on her flight to Seattle. "I was in Oklahoma and I was thrilled, I GOT TO GO MOUNTAIN CLIMBING! I've never been mountain climbing before." Cute, huh? Where was she from? Florida. I didn't know Florida was so flat. Learn something new every day.

A Seattle TV weather person was in Oklahoma and was thrilled, I GOT TO GO STORM CHASING! His perfect vacation included Oklahoma tornadoes. Happy man. Now you know there are all kinds of roads to happiness. Jean said there are lots of those ecco-weather-storm-chasing tours around tornado season.

A young guy at work was talking about getting old, he turned all of twenty-five. I said, Hell, I have shoes older than you.

Events:

Ian explained to me what a bad job I did picking out Christian's new house slippers. They were shoes not house slippers. I delivered them to Christian and told him what Ian said, Christian took one look at them and said, those are shoes, but he agreed to try them and see if he would keep them or exchange them for what he actually wanted. I always knew I had questionable taste in shoes.

I was thrilled I got to share a three-son day with Jean. Ian in the morning, Christian at noon, Roger in the evening. A practically perfect day. I am not questionable in my taste in sons.

Surprise:

You've all heard of pay-it-forward? Well get ready for this. Claire and Jean and I were having breakfast at Shari's, just talking and laughing, probably loud like Jean and I are, about moving to Minnesota, bad health, being out of a job, Oklahoma storms, floods, and tornadoes, just having a great time finishing up the dregs of coffee, the smear of jam, and the last bit of toast when the waitress walks up and said a man just paid for your breakfast-es. Jean chokes and asks "All of them?" Yes! All of them, plural! All three.

The man had paid and left without us being able to thank him. Jean asked the waitress if he was a regular? Had he done it before? She said no, she had never seen him before. Jean asked if it happened often, she said one other time and those people were also sitting at the table we were at. That is one lucky table.

It made all of us, even the waitress all teary and goose-bumpy. I'm talking maybe $45.00 worth of breakfast-es. I have to admit it felt really, really, REALLY odd to be walking out without paying. I felt like I was walking out stiffing the restaurant. Ian asked if we bought someone else's, as is the tradition at Starbucks. We said no, we were in such shock we just stumbled out stunned. We didn't even think of it. Somebody will get it today!

None of us had ever, ever had anything like that happen before. Have you?

Jean was sitting facing the gift giver's direction and observant soul that she is had noticed him, because she notices everything. She said it looked like he had only had a cup of coffee. Me? I think he noticed how cute Jean was and Claire and I floated out on her coat-tails. Thank goodness for Jean. Everybody needs a sister Jean.

Christian:

When we did the Ballard drive-by to see Christian. He mentioned he will probably come up Sunday to visit before Jean leaves. Key word here is probably. So a quasi-invitation went out to the rest of the family for an impromptu Sons Dinner. I'll be working but Jean volunteered to man the crock pot and probably make chocolate chip cookies. Jean's probably isn't as slippery as Christian's. Everyone needs a sister Jean.

Connor:

Connor became excited at the chocolate chip cookie talk. Stephanie teased him that they might be spinach cookies.

Connor read the word Dewey as in Dewey Decimal System and asked me what it meant. Explain that to a six year old.

I was able to observe him reading at the dinner table last night. That was a first. It made my heart soar.

Connor was explaining to Jean which Pokemon card was rare and that that was why it was valuable. I said, Connor you are rare so that makes you valuable. He puzzled on that for a moment, so I continued, I said you are the only Connor, there is only one of you. He thought about that for a moment and said no, he knew of other Connor's. I said well you are the only Connor Jensen Carrillo. That he accepted. My rare and valuable Connor.