Thursday, December 17, 2009

Son, She's Here to Tell you About your Father - the Real One

Merrick, your mama knows you love the big guys, the big guns, the big trucks! Why right across the street lives a man you adore!

Not only is he a professional golfer (retired from the PGA, even!), he drives a GIGANTIC truck! Yes, yes, your Mama knows: that truck is the coolest thing in the world.

In fact, Daddy should get one.

Every time we drive past one of these

you announce that this is just the kind of truck that Daddy should like.

Two houses down holds another wonder: Chip! Not only is this neighbor six feet tall and a couple of inches, he drives: a train!

Nobody is cooler than Chip. His garage? Chalk full of power tools.


And wood, screws, nails, big metal items with blades and all kinds of tough guy treasures. You are of the firm believe that your father should have a garage just like Chip's!

And maybe drive a train!

Merrick, how can she say this delicately? You were born with one hand scratching your balls and the other hand holding a sledge hammer. If Tough Guy or He Man was a job description, this would be your vocation. Shoot Bambi? Your mother once put that to Stryker.

"Stryker, would you like to go deer hunting with Uncle Steve?"

Stryker: "You mean sit freezing in the woods until a living breathing creature gets close to you so that you can kill it and steal its life away and then slice its guts out while maybe its relatives watch nearby?"

Matron: "Sure, that about sums it up."

Stryker: "No thank you."

Merrick: "Can I go instead?"

Merrick, your mother apologies for the karmic cough that landed you in a family of intellects and artists. She promises you there is room in the hall closet for your hockey stick, base ball bat and wide array of weaponry.

But she cannot transform your father into the Hunk-o-Man he is not.

Merrick, your father will not be driving a truck. His vehicle visions steer more toward the BMW or Volvo he cannot afford or maybe the lesser Honda Pilot. That's as close to a truck as this man will ever get.

Your father isn't the kind of guy who will build a house with his bare hands. He is the kind of guy who will decorate the house somebody else built. While sipping an espresso.


Merrick, your father isn't going to be driving a train or becoming a professional athlete. He will know, however, the exact right shade for the second floor hallway and which lighting fixture looks best by the fireplace.


There's the hard truth, little one. Your Daddy rocks on many levels! He's the one who puts you to bed and monitors your homework, the man strong enough to swing you over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes and carry you upstairs.

But he's never going to drive a monster truck. It's time to lay those cards on the table, tea leaves for future therapy.

Your Daddy is not a He Man or Tough Guy. If you haven't noticed, your father spends more time on his hair than your mother does. He looks at his behind in the mirror and says: "do these pants make me look fat?" He enjoys creating an artful autumn bouquet.

Your Daddy is a Metrosexual.

Do you hear that? The sound of some future therapist's bank account, already lighting up.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

How She Looks Without Make-Up

video

Thanks Kathryn for posting this gem on facebook! Yes, the Matron ADORES facebook. Regular readers can find her there. Her last name is Petrie. Go ahead and say hi.

She just thought this little commercial was so dang funny she might move to London! The wit of those Brits! Enjoy!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Where is her Life Anthem?

Really, the Matron believes there should be an Anthem for her life. Okay, at least a sound track! Something spiffy, dramatic, sympathetic, inspiring, uplifting, moving, odd, spooky and enduring! Surely there is a sweeping song out there just for her?

More specifically, this thought of Anthem occurred to her this morning as 158 children jailed in four coach buses, windows steaming in the Minnesota freeze, watched the Matron (she of fashionable boot and all things decorous in weather where practicality rules) RUN a city block AT FULL SPEED through six inches of snow in order to retrieve videos for the bus ride before the idling buses could take off.

Remember that Chariots of Fire song?

Yes, the Matron and her husband saw off the Hysteric today. Scarlett left for four days at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, carting more paraphernalia than Paris Hilton on a six week publicity tour. Anticipated air temperature in Finland Minnesota tonight? Fifteen degrees below zero.

If you own stock in SmartWool sock, thank the Matron for that bump up in your retirement fund.

Thanks to the H1N1 party, all of the children headed north were also required to A) take their temperatures at home and B) retake their temperatures in the gym before loading the bus just in case things changed since the home deal.

What song to accompany 158 fourth through sixth grades in four weaving lines waiting to get their temperature taken?

"Did you pass?"

"I'm 97.9, how about you?"

There was honest to God TENSION for those waiting in line as nobody (except Scarlett and a couple of visibly terrified fourth graders) wanted to be sent home because of fever! And although Scarlett did her best to work up a sweat, she passed with flying colors, shoved her supplies for a small Malaysian village under the bus and hopped on in!

With her two best friends. She'll be fine.

Meanwhile, Good Volunteers John and the Matron hauled the 1400 snack servings they had purchased (oranges, apples, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, pretzels and goldfish for those interested in the menu) under the bus.

Just when everything looked good to go - -mind you, these packing and temperature-taking processes consumed about an hour and all outdoor activity is happening at 10 degrees with falling snow -- the teachers panicked!!

Four plus hours on the bus without a movie! No Screen! Everyone had forgotten movies for the loooooooooonnnnnngggggg ride up.

Why is it in these emergencies with 15 capable adults milling about that everyone look at the Matron?

"What do we do?"

She knew! She knew!

Quick as a flash she had the husband phone a parent who lived just one snowy block away. This was another mama with a child on the bus, a woman fast on her feet and well, a woman. This woman knew just what to do and what time frame to do it in: now. Without questions.

If it was a man: "Uh, what kind of movie? Has everyone seen Harry Potter or should I put that in too? Remind me, what exactly is going on that you need the movies for?"

So while the mama assembled movies in a flash the Matron ran to retrieve them, with the buses idling and everyone waiting waiting waiting for the movies so the wheels could roll. She wondered what her daughter thinks of her sometimes, especially in moments when you are running in high heeled pretty boots in six inches of snow and ten degrees, wearing a faux fur coat and a decorative hat, waving a bag of movies like a baton.

Definitely Gonna Fly Now.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Thank The Internet

Indeed, the Matron extends a heartfelt (real!) thanks to all of her wonderful readers for the collective Good Will and Good Wishes!

Drum roll . . . . .

Yesterday's tenure review could NOT have gone better! She swears, she felt all that love bubbling up from behind her computer screen and carrying her throughout a day so busy that Grandma was enlisted to shuttle Scarlett.

Not only did the Matron spend the day sweating her employment (she's just nervous that way and has one more probationary year to go so don't stop believin'), she also toured two schools in anticipation of launching two children into two more schools next year. Junior and Senior High! Never mind Merrick, at his rate he'll be fifteen in first grade.

Two school tours, one performance review, one afternoon matinee for Scarlett, one late afternoon photo shoot across town, one evening performance and Parent Night at the elementary school! And the damn foster dog is PEEING IN THE HOUSE. He came from Tennessee and this week's zero degree temps with six inches of snow has peeled off that dog's mask and shown her Snappy's real stripes: he is a winter wuss!

Today? A small bobbing beacon of quiet and calm. The Matron was home, all alone! With broom and vacuum! She knows that others would be reading but she of Incurable Clutter Brain Suck was in desperate need of a fix and fix she did get. This house is gleaming. Her brain? Back on.

This weekend holds bright narrative promise! Picture the Matron and her husband at Cosco. No, they are not holiday browsing or gasping for joy over the price of bananas. In another attempt to prove her complete mental instability to her spouse, the Matron volunteered to purchase, pack and deliver 700 nutritious snacks for the upper division of Scarlett and Merrick's school to take with them on a five day camping trip at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center.

!! Bad idea !!

Knee-deep in protein bar and graham cracker, the Matron must also prepare Scarlett for five days of camping: WINTER CAMPING. In Minnesota. Where it is not even zero degrees. Where there is six feet of snow threatening to kill you.

Anybody remember how well the little prisoner of war reacted to summer camp?

Let's just say things are very exciting around here. She doesn't know about your house, but this one includes fainting spells, dry heaves, stomach aches, aversion to food, red eyes, hair that won't dry completely even though it APPEARS DRY TO YOU MAMA, four loose teeth, a dry tongue, insomnia and a newly developed fear of sleep-walking that can only be soothed by staying awake all night, a convenient twist to the already existing insomnia.

The bus leaves Monday morning at 9 am. God help us, everyone.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

48 Hour Marathon

Excuse the Matron.

She is in the midst of a 48 hour Life Marathon so intense that she was required to enlist not one, but two other adults to help tend to her children tomorrow.

Scarlett is now officially in the hands of a full time driver.

Back on Friday.

Oh -- send Employment Vibes. She has a tenure review tomorrow, part of tonight's complete panic.

Truly. Send love on what we call Thursday. Tun in for the full report later.




Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Neighbor, she has his Permission to Blog about this

Matron: "Stryker? Did you have a nice time at the family potluck on Saturday?"

Stryker: "You mean your friend Cecelia's birthday party? The one you forced us all to go to? That potluck that mostly featured fake food like sushi.? The incredibly boring party where all the women were in the kitchen and the men were by the beer in the family room while the little kids trashed the basement?"

Matron (SO knowing when to pick her battles): "Yes, that one. Did you have a good time?'

Stryker: "Did you see me in the kitchen?"

Matron: "No? You were?"

Stryker: "All those moms! Nobody noticed me!! Every other kid was like, six, trashing the basement, and I was sitting in the kitchen with my iPod, with all the women. By the back hallway!!!!! GOD. Didn't you even notice me?"

Matron: "Uh, why no. You were in the kitchen hallway most of the night?"

Stryker: "MOM. I heard one million birth stories. All those moms in the kitchen for HOURS. (high voices) I was in labor 36 hours! My water broke in K-Mart! The doctor had to stick her hand into the birth canal and PULL. I wanted to f$%^^ kill my husband; sex is not that much fun. -- Can we just sum up the evening as the 13 year old boy hears 14 birth stories and really wishes he had not that much SPECIFIC information about female PROCESSES?

Matron: "Oh no. SO sorry. Wanna hear about how my water broke 40 hours before you were born?"

He didn't.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Actual Student Day

Today, the Matron endured the rare treat: eight hours of reading student portfolios for developmental writing courses.

Don't even ask how she's doing because she can't type back an answer. One hand is holding the warm wash cloth to her forehead and the other is clutching the wine glass.

Let her simply ride off into the dusk and let the travails of the day evaporate behind her, sweet nothings. She will just leave you with a few of the day's favorites.

The specific audience for this paper is specifically everyone.

Please do not be offended by the color red any more.

The sun will come out tomorrow, so you just have to hang on until tomorrow come what may (really).

This paper will be a wild journey like you have not journeyed before, to the ends of the earth with travels of pain and heartbreak, including the joyfulness of the ending.

Men have masculine gender roles because they are male and women have feminine gender roles because they are female.

Sigh. . . .