City Boy

Just got in from roughly seven hours, give or take, of driving to and from Dallas. I had to go get my students’ shoes from the State Fair folks, so I loaded up Harrison, Sister Mary S. and Sister Mary G. and we hauled butt up the road to the big city. The drive was pretty uneventful both directions—a little bit of road construction on the way up, but otherwise unremarkable.

We had a really nice time talking and laughing about the foibles of teenagers and the education thereof. Harrison enjoyed having his two favorite adults (Mommy and Daddy, aside) competing for his attention. For his part, he was really well behaved, holding my hand while walking along the streets and not getting too wound up and hyper.

At supper, we ate Mexican food (I had an awesome salad with avocado and crab!), and Harrison ate his cheese enchilada and his side of avocado (definitely my kid!) very politely. His only distraction was the TV within eyesight of his seat, but even with that, he finished his food and was calm and polite the entire time. The Marys commented on how well behaved he was being and I informed them that he knew that if he misbehaved, he’d get in a pile of trouble.

After supper, we walked around the West End area a little and then walked over to the fountain plaza that had been designed by I.M. Pei, which was really cool. Harrison loved seeing the sights (“Mommy, we’re in New York Dallas!”) and delighted in seeing all the funny shapes of buildings. I had to laugh when he saw the winged horse on the Mobile Oil Company’s building and he said, “Look, Mommy! There’s an angel horse!” You know? That’s his frame of reference—it makes as much sense as a horse that was given to a hero by a Greek goddess.

Anyhoo, it’s late and I’m tired. We have to get up and go to a birthday party in the morning. No rest for the weary!