Sunday, November 18, 2007

LIMA SHUFFLE

My wife left me and the kids today, walked right out the door, and headed for Lima, Peru.  One might say, “Big Deal.” Except for the fact that George is 4 and Jordan is close to 8 years old, and neither has spent even one single solitary night without Mama in the house and more or less sleeping with them as well, although we do have the fairly melodic version of musical beds at my house, and with me and my snoring I usually wake up alone anyway.  No, that’s not right.  I wake up with a kid, maybe two, in my face telling me to get up immediately and do something with or for them as if I were already derelict in my duties of the day.

I KNOW THEY DON’T SLEEP WITH THEIR MOTHERS IN COLLEGE(do they?)

I knew she would leave me like this someday, but I didn’t think it would be this cold and calculating.  A couple of months ago Ada announced to me she was going to do this trip-to Peru-without-me-and-the-kids thing by showing me her travel itinerary.  It was like seeing the EPT strip turn blue when George made known his intentions to be born a few years back.  

She was going in November alright, and I wouldn’t even get a weekend in edgewise to practice (The complete Mr. Mom) or anything before I faced the EIGHT DAYS when each minute would be D-day, or so the potential loomed in my mind.

PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH

I know that they know they are in actuality ready to sleep without Mom, but will it (or I) come through tonight, that first night?  It will be an easy battle to win me thinks, but the longevity that she will be gone for MANY days in child-years has my attention because at some point that will have theirs.  I must prepare for the moment.  That’s what I always tell my players, too, prepare for the moment that you know will come.  It doesn’t necessarily make all the difference in this case, but it might make some.

FATHER IN THE HOOD

Okay, I am the goal setter.  First goal is NOT to accidentally kill or maim children. Seems simple, obtainable if I pay attention, and not that much of a stretch.   Keeping them alive and otherwise physically healthy quickly becomes JOB 1 for me.  That is my mantra.  It is not my attention to be perfect nor to necessarily invoke change to the ‘pattern’ of chaos that is currently in place. 

I am okay with the fact that my seven year-old being more mature than I am in many ways.  He doesn’t have to want Harvard yet.

CHILDREN WELL-KEPT.

SPANGLISH

There are yellow pieces of legal pad paper taped to the walls at the house here and there.  Written thereon by my wife’s hand are instructions, for example, as to what and how much Jordan is to read every day and things like that.  There are also phone numbers that mostly would get me in touch with people who could help me with my kids but speak little or no English.  So if I call them while I’m all stressed out with the boys, I will just get more stressed out trying to express that fact by speaking broken Spanish because my mind can still only do it one word at a time under pressure even though I should so be totally fluent after 40-something years of almost daily exposure to the language, ever since ‘Daddy’ moved to Santa Fe in 1960 and hired a bunch of Mexican guys to drive his concrete trucks.  If I choked that bad as a coach I would definitely be in the wrong ‘business’.

IN-LAWS AND OUTLAWS

So my wife went back to Peru to see the old gang including her outlaw father. He was a player with the ‘underground’ Illegals (my fantasy, but he did seem to have a new occupation quite often) while he was in L.A. for 20 years, so I can only imagine that he is the King of Lima now that he’s perfectly legal and back home in his country of origin.

After some thought from the eternal skeptic (me) I think she (Ada) actually planned this whole trip simply in order to avoid any possibility of having to spend Thanksgiving with the in-laws (hers, which of course = my relatives).  She could dodge the whole scene with a single bullet and my blessing.

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