Holy cow, school is just about to be over with. I mean, in my mind, it's over. If Nick didn't have to finish his math final tomorrow ... he would have been done on Friday and if Thomas didn't have a Spanish final, well. Anyway. They are done.
It kind of makes my blood run cold when I think too much about the fact that I'm going to have two teenagers to ride herd on for the next 8 weeks fulltime ... not just the time when they aren't in school. Holy smokes. These teenage creatures are slippery, wiley beings. They smile and say the right things and you just hope that what you heard is what they meant ... because sometimes what you see isn't what you get.
I'm learning to smell the little rats -- like, when the kids are all talking a different story that's almost the same and they start doing this who's on first thing and if you aren't too careful you'll miss the magic trick being pulled right in front of your eyes. If it's not simple and dead easy to read the tea leaves it just shouldn't happen. And these are good kids -- fun kids -- smart kids -- bored kids -- exploring kids -- growing-up-way-too-fucking-fast kids.
I'm glad that I'm young enough as a parent to have more than a dim memory of my own teenage years ... and with a brother 8-years my junior, well, I have a chillingly good memory of his teenage years. And if I use either experience as a measuring stick I guess I have most bases covered. But we didn't have cell phones and bank cards and access like these kids do. And I didn't live right next door to NYC where I think my 15-year old plans to spend his summer exploring.
There's a few stories from the year to tell ... there's enough distance between them and now to maybe start the blog of moral teen stories told from real life incidents.
See you in the sweaty, upcoming days. I remember when I was 16 throwing a frisbee around in the 100 degree heat to the point that you couldn't move fast enough to do anything good, bad or indifferent. Maybe I could just pray for paralyzing heat and the extreme need for kids to seek out the air conditioned library.
Good Luck Jenny, sounds like you have your hands full! But just remember your boys are good boys, it could be worse.
Posted by: alan shimel | June 19, 2006 at 03:52 PM