Category: Grindin’

Grindin’: Ponying Up

I try to make a point of bringing Singing Biscuit a treat whenever I pick him up early from his after-school program.  The reason for doing this is that I often remind him to get his homework done so that all we will have to do at home is a review, and I know he sometimes feels really bad if he does not manage to complete his homework. We have an hour & change commute home in the evenings and anything that keeps his spirits and blood sugar up during the nighttime routine is worthwhile investment.

Of late, I’ve been bringing him two slices from his favorite pizzeria.  As I walked back to the car with his slices en route to picking him up, I couldn’t help but laugh at myself.  Here I am bringing the kid a treat for picking him up early.

Have I gone soft?

Is this bribery?

I don’t know what it is, but I will say this much, when I reached the car and the pizza’s aroma began filling up the air, I was way too tempted to down those slices myself…

Grindin’: Teenagers Do the Darnedest Things

If I were an anthropologists my area of study would undoubtedly be teenagers. Having lived with one for a little over a year now I am amazed by how fascinating the teenage species is. And while I bear some recollection of once being a teenager myself, I fear that my existence pales in comparison to that of my esteemed subject and co-habitant Teen Biscuit.

Of late, I have been mesmerized by the advanced logic of Teen Biscuit and his peers.

Case in point, on New Year’s Eve Teen Biscuit returned home sans his keys, which meant that I had to get out of bed and open the door for him.  When Snuggle Biscuit woke up the next morning, she told me that Teen Biscuit had sent a text around 12am letting us know that he had been relieved of his jacket while at this party.

When Teen Biscuit woke up later that morning to give us the full details of his encounter we learned that he was not actually relieved jacked of his possessions, he in fact left them at the party. To be clear he left his coat which for some reason was bearing his keys, his wallet and his cell phone at the party.

To his credit, he did return after the party was over to search for it, only to discover someone had taken it home.

(Paraphrasing my former pastor, let me lean in a little closer here, the biscuit walked into a party, stuffed all his possessions in his coat, threw it in a room and went his merry way.)

Prior to my tenure co-habitating with a teenager I’d have thought it was impossible for someone to commit such an act. Now a year into this ethnographic study, I realize it is actually consistent with teenage behavior/logic.

You see according to Teen Biscuit, the act of putting all of one’s possessions in an item that was out of eyesight and then forgetting said item was not a flagrant offense.  The offense was that someone had the audacity to take this item when there was no one left to claim it.

And you know what…he’s absolutely right, #sortofkindanot.

And we’re back…

I have to realize that I am cheating my readers when I disappear during critical junctures.  Since I last wrote I started a new job at a school in DC.  The teaching from teaching at a college to teaching at a high school is a big enough transition in its own right, but when coupled with also transitioning from being a stay at home parent, the shift is staggering.

I miss Turtle Biscuit to say the least.  Since I’ve started work she’s started crawling and sitting up on her own.  A month ago I would’ve been the first person to see these transitions.  Now, I’m often the last.  It feels odd to get a summary of her day and her progress toward a new milestone instead of experiencing these things first hand.

There’s so much to say about this shift, and I intended on writing much of it down. However, in spite of my best intentions, I never completed the final installments in the Home Alone series nor did I put pen to paper about the feelings I had when I left Turtle Biscuit in the mornings to go to work.

All that I can say is that I will try to do better, but as I am learning in a whole new way these days, you can’t turn back time.