My summer job

I think that L got distracted from getting his permit because he realized that he wasn't going to be able to really drive before leaving for college anyway (he wouldn't have had enough practice months under his belt).  Anyway, he didn't jump on it and now it's too late because I made one phone call.

Just kidding, but I did speak with our insurance company yesterday and they told us that it would cost us $1620.00 EXTRA a year (on top of the $1,700 per year we already pay) to insure him to drive the family cars.  That is, we weren't asking about insuring him and his OWN car... which he won't get from us anyway.

We don't have to pay anything if he gets just his permit (when we always have to accompany him in the car).

So, we've decided to let him get a permit as long as he can have it and practice until NEXT summer when he'll get his license and we'll start shelling out the bucks for the privilege of lending him our car.

Seriously though, if it saves us from the boring boring driving and waiting of this summer, we'll do it.

 On the bright side, now I can look at all my driving duty this summer as though it were a paying job.  Procrastination pay!  Ha ha!

Home, James

July 9 - 14,  2014 (wrote this over several days)

Yesterday L said to me, “Do you ever imagine what your life would be like if you didn’t have to take me to rehearsal and wait around all those hours?”  

His point was that he wanted me to take him to a mall in East Brunswick instead.  From that mall he would get a ride to rehearsal from somebody in the show (a girl) and I’d just have to show up at the end of rehearsal to pick him up.

I said, “okay,” but then I remembered Hi- – to whom we give a ride every day.  So, L contacted Hi and he said he would go to the mall too. 

It was getting complicated, but seemed it could work.  Still I could tell that something wasn’t right.  

In the first place L wasn’t 100% sure which mall and we figured it out through process of elimination, but I’m not sure why he couldn’t just touch base with the girl to make sure. 

   L texted the girl  from our car that we were running a little late (in other words, he did have a way to contact her).  

Anyway, we got to the mall and I parked my car in a visible spot and told L and Hi that as long as they saw the car there, I was hanging out in Barnes and Nobel.  I thought I'd just enjoy some time with books and in air conditioning, since it was a hot day.

Five minutes later (I hadn’t even got past the case of cheapo books in the vestibule), L found me and told me he had a problem.  It turned out that they did NOT have a ride to practice.  Instead, apparently all of them would need a ride from the mall to rehearsal....

My options were say no and take L and Hi back home with me or say yes, but extract a concession from L: no internet the next day so that he would move forward with some of his projects. 

 I rushed home to get some things done in what was left of the day.  H didn’t go with me to practice because we didn't know if there would be room in the car - but really I think he was super happy to stay home, partly because the world cup match wasn’t over when I left and partly because that drive to rehearsal (and the wait) is getting old. . ..

The good news is that last week H and I took a walk during rehearsal and we discovered that the public library is just really close to the rehearsals.  I've been waiting in a supermarket that has some tables (and a starbucks) inside, but it's been so freezing and there's no shade outside to wait during the day.  

OK.  

Gotto go pick up L from college orientation (20 miles) and then take him to... rehearsal  which isn't that far at all - about a half hour.  It's just far enough that I say, if I drive there and back and there and back I'm using double the gas and also I've spent two plus hours of my day driving.  

Seriously, the kid has been talking about getting his drivers permit but then doesn't do it. .. 

rrrring rrrring: missed the call but learns the lesson.

So, today L. was reluctantly working on a job application. 

L: “What’s the telephone number of that phone I carry around?”

M: “Where is it?”

L: opening a drawer in the desk, “It’s not here.”

M: “Where is it?”

L: “I have it.” (gesturing vaguely toward his room)

M:  “Let me just call it.  If you are going to use that number in your job applications, let’s make sure that you have it on you and it’s charged.”

phone: rrrring ring ring

L. follows the sound and finds the phone in a bag he had used that was sitting in the basement. He comes upstairs, opens the phone and makes a phone call.

L:  “Hello.  I got a call two days ago, and I’m sorry, my phone was off.” 

He had gotten a call from somebody at a music store in response to an on-line application he had put in.  Because he hadn’t bothered to carry the phone or check it, he didn't know he was missing out on a job that would have been good for him. Sigh…

So, I resisted the urge to rub it in or lecture, except that I said, “Thank you.”  The kid should be grateful; I’m doing everything I can to help him avoid spending the summer working with me.  

Her Hair Movie

H. told me that he had gotten the movie "Hair"  on Netflix, and I was intrigued.  I had never seen it.  It's not the type of movie my husband would ever watch, so I assumed that he got it either because he'd just read some sort of retrospective review or because he thought our son (L.) wanted to see it.

So,  I invited L. to watch "Hair" also.  We had this whole conversation about "Hair," (mainly in Spanish).  So, it's really funny that when H. put the movie on, it was "Her", that new movie about a guy who falls in love with his operating system.  (I had told H. I wanted to watch it).

Ha ha.  I liked "Her"  and L. actually said it was the best romantic comedy he'd seen.  (So, thumbs up from us). 

Since I now had Hair stuck in my head, and taking advantage of how distracted H. has been by the world cup, I snuck "Hair" (1979) onto our netflix queue and, over the past couple of days, I watched it.  H usually controls the queue as though it were a matter of life and death. 

PS  mixed feelings about "Hair": it's over two hours and has way too much unnecessary filler material (random songs).  But... I have to say that I don't regret watching it, even if I did watch part of it on 1.4 speed --I lost patience with it for awhile.