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. 

paper trail or lost and found

I was doing my taxes (asked for an extension this year) and that led me to search through folders looking for some lost receipts.

There's too much paper in my life.  I want to throw out some of these things.  Then again, when I look at the scraps, I see things that I've forgotten:

I visited my mom from June 15 - 19 2005... I traveled alone.   Ouch. I'm just noticing that I had to be at the airport at 6:00 am and I flew from LaGuardia .  That ticket was cheap ( $258.00)  but it was also the flight that caused H forevermore to reject with a passion ANY travel plans that involve LaGuardia.   Lo siento; it was an accident, I didn't mean to leave from LaGuardia.    (rip - throw out one piece of paper). 

In 2005 I also got a Washington DC hotel on priceline for one weekend in April so that H could take his Board Exams.  Did L and I travel with him?  I'm not sure.  I'll have to look to see if he drove or took the train... if he drove, we went too  (rip).

Then, a few weeks later H traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for work.  I have a "statement" for his extra expenses at the Ritz-Carlton.   $6.00 on the "Honor Bar"... Ha ha.  I bet that was a tiny bag of peanuts from the refrigerator in his room.   It really isn't like H to do that.  I'm not surprised by the $14.00 from "Ocean Café Liquor" because that probably covered one drink at the hotel bar.  (rip).

Oh, look, here are the boarding passes for that trip to Denver in June 2005.  How quaint.  I haven't had an authentic boarding pass in a long time.  (rip ... ooooh real magnetic strips & they don't tear)

What have we here?  A receipt for another trip to Denver in 2004 (2/26 - 3/01).  I traveled alone again and I checked a bag.  Nowadays I wouldn't check the bag for a short trip because I'd be charged. I only paid $236 to United  and that was an easy direct flight compared to the one I would take the next year.   

Oh, this is sad.  In October 2004 we traveled to Tampa Florida for the funeral of H's sister-in-law.   She had a brain tumor and I think she had been sick and slowly getting worse for about 2 years.  H's brother was left with their teenage son.  Her death seemed like the tragedy then, but later we realized that it was just... just a tiny sprout of what would become the real tragedy of our lives. 

See? this is why it's hard to sort through old papers  

Oh, wow.  I just looked at that last paper again and I realized that H traveled alone.  Isn't that sad? When I wrote those paragraphs, I thought I had been with him and, for a second, I even vaguely recalled a photo of that trip.  But, no. 

Somewhere in that folder is the receipt for the next trip we took to Florida.  It was a wedding.  H's brother remarried.  Those are the photos I remembered seeing, and I think that I only connected them with the funeral because they have nothing happy about them except our expressions. 

Sigh. I'm stopping now.  I'm not going to look for any more documents.

scam or virus alert?

So, I got this weird e-mail...

   It has been drawn to our attention that one of your computers is at risk from a virus attack. Please
   remove all your personal data from all of your home computers and mobile devices.
   Also visit this url to rectify security problems
   https://bitly.com/
     -The Gmail Team

And it was "via" my OWN e-mail address.

 

I didn't even open it because I could read the first few words that g-mail shows you before you open it. Instead I had H come upstairs to see this weird message... H decided to alert g-mail that this virus alert (from myself) was spam... Except that he accidentally alerted g-mail that a different message in my in-box was spam.  I could tell that he had done it wrong, but he wouldn't let me sit at my own computer to see.  I was asking him, "Did you check the box by that virus alert?"  And he was saying that he had, but I was pretty sure that he hadn't.     Ha ha - You can just imagine the scene as us old-folks freak out about this new type of scam.

 

Then L comes up the stairs saying, "You got a spam message from yourself??  The only time I've seen that happen is when somebody leaves their e-mail open on sombebody else's computer!" 

 

Ha ha.  I'm not that slow.  I got the joke right away.  Well done...  We went for it - hook, line and sinker.  (Always log out of your e-mail).  But, seriously, L does not know how many times I have resisted the temptation on his e-mail.  Oh, I did once use his facebook to view all of his brother's posts and I left a message which made reference to my "secret identity" which L did not find at all funny.  I had to swear never to do that again.** 

And once I did add a very loving description of myself to a paper that L asked me to proofread for him.  I found it so hilarious that, as usual, I couldn't stop laughing.  It makes it hard to really do any practical jokes. 


** On my honor as a mother, I have always resisted the temptation to peruse L's  facebook when he leaves it open.  The most I have ever done is see the most recent messages (the ones he has left on the screen when he leaves the house with the page still open). 

In which L walks to the doctor's office full speed ahead

So today L had a doctor's appointment to get his HPV vaccine at 10 am.  The doctor's office is only about 10 blocks from our house and when we were ready to leave, I said we were walking. 

L: Why?
M:  Because I need the exercise.   
L:   But I already worked out today!  C'mon!...  I'm tired.  Why do we have to walk.  (keeps insisting)

The above conversation clearly isn't our exact  words;  I'm trying to convey that L is a bit on the confrontational side.  Plus he has some trouble with please and thank you.  This is something I've been trying to explain to L: the "catch more flies with honey" concept.  V is especially sensitive to L's tone and she responds to it with a complete unwillingness to make concessions, and that is not who she usually is...  That's not a complaint about V; in fact I'm grateful to her for keeping me aware.  It's hard to explain how easy it is to just stop noticing the tone except when it goes waaaay overboard, and I'd miss a chance to work on a life-lesson.

Back to today: I refused to drive.  and I told him that I wouldn't change my mind. 
L:   "You're showing me that you'll stick to your guns when faced with a reasonable request."
M:  "I'm showing you that I won't reward rude behavior."

So, L walks out the door full speed ahead calling over his shoulder, "Okay, let's go to the doctor's."
I was out the door 30 seconds later or so, but L was walking fast.  I managed to catch up to him at one stop light but then he pulled ahead again and I was 1/2 a block behind him the whole way.  I was getting that terrible stress-response laughter that I get and trying not to giggle so that I could conserve my oxygen... but, of course, there was something funny about it.

Anyway, in the doctor's office they asked us to stay for 15 minutes after the shot to make sure L wasn't going to have any reaction/dizziness especially since it turned out that he hadn't eaten any breakfast (Oops... maybe I should have driven, I was thinking).  Plus it was hot  hot  hot.  But when we left there, we were fine.  All was forgiven for everyone.  

I made him a lovely breakfast... cheese omelet, sliced potatoes heated in a bit of olive oil with salt and pepper and fresh garlic, whole wheat sour dough bread from the farmer's market, toasted with butter.   When I asked him if the food had been good, he was picking up the last crumbs... and he said, "Okay." 

I will continue to try to get the message to L: trite but true - a little manners go a long way.   He is a good kid but he has been blessed with the adolescent sense of (I'm stopping because it is just too complex to describe here).  You'll have to take my word for it that he can also be a doll.

And I really do need to do more exercise.  puff

WATCH cool movies

I went to a film festival in Brooklyn this weekend and it was really a blast.  Oh, plus it was free.  Very cool.  I took son L and met up with niece JB in the city and then son P met us at Prospect Park where the festival was held. 

Aren't you jealous?  Anyway, you can enjoy some of the fun by going to this link and watching the movies.  The entries for this film festival have to be under 7 minutes long and had to include a bridge... that's the way Tropfest keeps out random  entries: they want movies made for their competition. 

http://tropfest.com/ny/category/films/2013-finalists/

takes you to the FINALISTS (the movies that 20,000 people watched in the park that night). 

My personal favorite is Innocent creep.  Watch it.  I loved most of the rest of the finalists... ( Bridget made me laugh).  I wasn't as impressed with the winning film, Unlikely Maestro.  But I seriously urge you to take a look.

I apologize to JB and L for the lame picnic.  I took hamburgers ... except I forgot the buns, so we had to eat them in lettuce.  I baked delicious oatmeal cookies and I forgot to take those too.  Burp... Ug, I'm so full because I just finished off the oatmeal cookies for breakfast this morning.  I kid you not.  Seriously, though, there weren't too many left... maybe 5... Still, too many is too many and this explains why I'm feeling too foggy to write anymore.  Just watch the movies, kids, and go easy on the cookies.

PS Next year's entries have to include a KISS somewhere or somehow (read what I said above about bridge).  I seriously have an idea... I feel like I could make a movie.  You think?

Couldn't you have waited until 5:55 am?

L woke me up a few minutes after 5in the morning, "Mom, please come down to the kitchen."

Sigh... I am very suspicious.  Right away, I knew he was "sick" and, in my heart of hearts, I thought he was acting.  But I followed him down and discovered the mess. 

He had vomitted everywhere - disgusting, right?  But I am suspicious.  It didn't seem like the same food he'd been eating last night... Still, what was I going to do?  Taste it?  No, I cleaned it up and was kind and loving to L - but not effusive.  I was also disgusted by it.  I showered afterward.  (Even as one has doubts... cleaning up vomit is disgusting even to think about.  I bet reading about it is awful too.)

Anyway, about an hour later:  L is back in bed (zzzz) - and I have just started my work day... Have I mentioned how sleep deprived I've been?

Anyway, I turn on the laptop that L uses to write a few e-mails to students.  I had decided that I'd cancel office hours, so that I could leave later, because L was sick.  On the main screen of google chrome there's a tab that says recently viewed sites (or something to that effect).  I said, "huh..."  I put my cursor on it and among the recently viewed sites were two that had titles like this,  "How to fake sick to stay home from school.  With photos."  

Sigh... sigh sigh sigh.  I do love that kid.

It is tough being a mother.

P.S.  The vomit??  I suspect a can of soup.  And, what also made me a little suspicious is that the "mess" was in the perfect spot - the kitchen floor - no dirty walls, no dirty cabinets,no dirty rugs. 

PPS  Too tired to write about how I dealt with it.  Sigh