All Over But The Shoutin'...

...I'll guess maybe we'll save that for the next time.

Everyone had a decent 48 hours; I took my free night down to the upper west side and met up with two families from my Mom's list. We all "met" online when we were nursing moms who pumped... most of us were working moms. Our older kids are all about the same age. It's kind of freaky to think we've "known" each other almost 9 years... through the years we keep in touch and try to meet up with each other from time to time. And we all thoroughly enjoy each other's company when we do meet up, though we are all vastly different from all kinds of different backgrounds (though I think I'm maybe one of two "Others" of any sort on the list, which I find interesting).

One of the families I met up with had moved to the Midwest a few years ago, which is pretty funny since they're originally from 'round the way... da Bronx and north. That particular family I'm glad I met once I became a (semi) responsible parent, because they are the type of folk I hung out with back in the day, and those days involved massive quantities of vodka and tequila, with occasional shots of Wild Turkey or Jack. Or Goldschlager and Jagermeister (eeeechs... I shudder at the thought of that stuff, but I did it anyway). *

We met up at Planet Sushi on 78th and Amsterdam. I can't wait to take the Sun there--it was really good. I ate A LOT. We joked that our children love the stuff, and it's expensive-ass stuff to love. We stuck to beer (in their case) and sake and this fantabulous martini-esque drink made from Vodka, Sake, lemon juice and sugar (me--who else? though I only had ONE).

Afterwards, I went up to the Professor's new apartment... the Last-Freshly-Moved-Into-Rent-Controlled-Inhabited-By-A-Black-Person apartment in Harlem (no, I'm not bitter, am I?) to watch the Trinidad fight on Pay-Per-View. Well, he lost. Too bad cuz the other guy was annoying.

The Sun meantime, got to stay in a hotel in the City, went pretty high up in the Empire State Building (he said it was too windy and he didn't want to go up to the 100th floor) at night and went to a Ranger game today. He also ate sushi, and said his dad won't eat sushi... he ate something else. Ha ha! I wonder what TF thinks of his long-hair-wearin', anime-watching, sushi-eating, karate-doing no-leavening-eating-during-passover-in-January kid. He's GOT to think he's cool. Hell, I think he's cool. But I'm biased.

The Sun called me on Saturday to check if he could eat noodles ("do they have leavening, mom?") and said that he had to keep reminding his dah what he could and couldn't eat. Just as an aside, my kid was phenomenal this week. I'm really pretty proud of him to be able to go the whole week by himself (in school and with his dah), not eating the things he loves the most... in particular he told me this morning's free Continental breakfast contained chocolate-covered donuts and bagels--his favorite. He had a banana and yogurt instead. I told him Tuesday morning, baby, you get a chocolate-covered chocolate donut from Dunkin' D!

I'm really really really happy he had a good time... and he was too.

The Professor drove me downtown to the hotel which turned out to be smack-dab in what has become KoreaTown. And it was jam-packed on a Sunday night with trendy young Korean people hanging out in trendy Korean bars and restaurants. I completely forgot it was Sunday, being there. The rest of the city was dead with very little traffic, but not that tiny section.

We arrived promptly at 10, but the Sun wasn't in the lobby so I had to ring the room. The Sun picked up. Ha ha... TF knew it was me. They came down pretty quickly, and TF came up and snarled something like "I'm going to give you $200, go out and buy him some clothes!" Uh, um, OK. And what the hell is wrong with his clothes? His jacket is clean and warm and was pretty expensive, even on sale at Lands End. Oh, but I guess it's three years old, but that's because I buy really expensive coats REALLY big and um, we take care of them so they last a couple of years. Whatever. I shouldn't wonder at these things. Plus, I could use $200 cuz the Sun needs new shoes. He actually bought him a coat... a really nice one, too. The Sun insists it only cost $8. It's the first item of useful clothing TF has bought his kid in seriously, God-knows-when. I guess he figures the child support he gives me is enough. And generally, it is... though I do spend it on karate and violin and FOOD!

But I won this round, this small battle, and he knew it, and I knew he had to snarl something at me. I'm just glad he didn't keep me waiting too long. He kissed the Sun and walked away to the elevator bank and I called after him. He pretended to ignore me until I called his name the third time and he realized I had followed him to the elevator. He turned around. I looked at him and said sincerely "Thank you". He blinked, and stepped into the elevator, but I think it fucked with him cuz he didn't expect that. I meant it, though. I thank him for turning over the Sun without fanfare, for the coat, for his kid getting to see him.

I was going to send him an email later on... but I'm going to wait and see what the fallout is first.

The Sun was chatty once we got home, and once again insisted in sleeping in my bed... and all this shit is over till the next time... Thanks everyone, for your thoughts and for checking in on me...

*Manohman did I have a lot of fun back in the day. Out every night. Singing. Live music. Hanging out with crazy-ass musicians (Freebird! Bruce!) and their equally crazy girlfriends. Made good money and had absolutely nothing to do with it but drink it! Save!? For WHAT? The future!? The future is NOW dammit! The night with the Wild Turkey I woke up the next morning and had to check for my underwear. Long Story. Dammit, maybe this should have been a separate post.... Boy, how things change....

Comments

Julie said…
I was thinking of you at exactly 10P - hoping that all was going smoothly. I'm so happy it did!
professor said…
its not about winning and losing...no one won, but you did work together and compromise...He had to snarl, he is a wolf after all, but shit I wish someone would snarl to me that they are giving me 200.00...that's the best snarl EVER...and above CS...don't wait for the fallout...just flow like water...
The Bear Maiden said…
The problem is for him, it's ALL about winning and losing. He doesn't see "compromise" or "negotiation". If he did life would be so much simpler. He doesn't see that it all worked out for everyone... we all lost a little, and we all got a lot. He only sees he lost. But that's OK. We know...
Anonymous said…
Jesi, glad everything worked out, and it was really really good to see you...
Job said…
glad to hear all of this....

Popular Posts