Spending Time with My Sons

Mark spent three days alone in our country house. He wanted to see how it feels to be without human companionship, someone to make him food and shaping a day how he wanted it. This wasn't the wilderness of course. He had Internet, an X-box and his phone, which had no reception at the house but could get a few bars if you went up the hill. He survived on cereal, Harry Potter and taking walks. He even cooked himself some pasta and made omelets. He does a good job cleaning up, too.

Harry and I arrived Wednesday afternoon. I went into Mom mode, cooking dinner and washing dishes. The boys happily played on the X-box, just like in the old days. I was industrious; they were slugs. Big, hungry slugs. If I asked them to help me do something, they gladly obliged, but that was the extent of their activity. They did go on a run together, more to check their messages than anything else.

While they read and snoozed, I weeded an area of the garden and planted perennials. I re-did the mulch pile which keep getting attacked by animals. Now it's an open pile and seems to be mostly untouched. I guess the critters like their challenges, too. I ran, I went to yoga and I did a fair amount of shopping. I bought a summer outfit for $25 and shoes to match for $45. Embarrassing. I saw a sign for a huge garage sale to benefit the rebuilding of the Briscoe Dam. This place is amazing. I bought a Hudson Bay blanket for $10, a picture frame for $2, a white deck chair for $5, and odds an ends for 25-50 cents. It's going on all summer and gets its donations from estate sales, and folks just wanted to get rid of stuff. I'm going back to look for furniture. I thought about buying a Captain's Table but I thought too long. Someone else bought it while I was looking at a cheese slicer.

We had dinner at a great Thai restaurant, an oddity in a small town like Jeffersonville. A Thai woman does all the cooking and as I've said before, makes the best pad thai I've ever had. Even Mark liked the food, and he was hesitant about going there. As it was Friday night, I had a martini, which I've trained the bartender how to make. This time, it was perfect except warm. She came to the table and asked if it was as I liked it, and I said it was great except it wasn't cold enough could she bring me some ice? Mark and Harry were deeply embarrassed by this, thinking I should've had a warm martini. They will learn that when you get to be my age, anything less than perfect is unacceptable.

We drove back to NYC to celebrate Fathers Day. Mariel is coming and taking Marty to see Wicked. Then we'll all have dinner together. Mark started talking about marriage, how it's really dumb to get divorced because you spend so much money on the wedding and then you spend more on the divorce. Harry suggested it might be better not to marry, especially since it would be impossible to spend all your waking hours with one person. This is where I chimed in and said that couples spend lots of time apart, and can choose to have different friends and pursue different interests, and that this was healthy for most marriages. Then I thanked them for spending time with me because I mainly interact with people my own age, not college students.

We listened to Mark's ipod all the way home.