The weekend really started early Friday afternoon as I left work to get home early to get the boy ready for Halloween. We successfully recreated and improved his makeup from the previous week. He looked scarier than ever. We gathered the neighbor kids and parent to trek out to another neighborhood to do the deed. We have been going to Hyde Park to trick or treat since the boy was in 2nd grade as his best friend from the Indian summer camp lives out there. We have just continued the tradition, and coincidentally the neighbors have also gone there because a relative lives in the neighborhood. It is a little more affluent part of Boston, and there are many more houses than in our neighborhood, and ripe for the picking.
Mrs. went along this time for a change; usually she stays at hone and waits for the 12 kids who do knock on our door. (I think they are all out in Hyde Park like us.) It was a warm and clear night, perfect for trick or treating, the kids ran ahead while the parents followed at a leisurely pace. The boys costume got lots of comments. At one particular house that does a whole ‘exhibit’ in the garage, and is populated by the residents dressed as witches and various goblins they actually wanted to recruit the boy for their display. He was flattered but the call of fee candy was stronger. Surprisingly the kids wore out before the parents did. And of course they declared their exhaustion at the point that we were furthest from the car. We meandered back stopping at a few promising houses along that way. The kids were satisfied with their take, and I swear that the boy scored close to 5 lbs of candy. We all went home exhausted. Later the boy fell asleep on the floor in front of the television while Mrs. and I relaxed with vodka martinis.
Saturday morning dawned with both Mrs. and the boy suffering migraine headaches. Could it have been an overdose of Vodka and chocolate respectively? I am not allowed to comment on either of those concepts. But suffice to say that we skipped the grownups karate session. We got the boy there, but he claimed to be in too much pain to participate and just sat and watched.
Following karate, he had a birthday party to attend at a local rock climbing gym. He said he was still suffering from the headache, but thought that he could work through it for the sake of the birthday boy. What a trouper. He has been to this particular gym before and is pretty good at climbing the walls and is relatively fearless. We stuck around for a bit and watched and chatted with other parents of the attendees. We are all in awe of our respective offspring at how they have grown and changed in the last year or so. At least one parent who had not seen the boy in a while hardly recognized him. While the rock climbing continued, we slipped out and did our monthly Costco run, making it back just in time to pick him up and head home.
Groceries put away, I had to head back to work for an event in the theatre. The annual Step Show competition sponsored by the African Student Association is the first big student event of the term. Step show groups from all over the greater area are invited to compete, and it big event both on campus and off. This year was a little smaller that in the past with only about 10 groups competing. Past years have brought as many as 16 groups and over 200 performers. I was glad for the smaller show this year, it was easier to manage, and having inexperience house managers it made my task easier. As it was the house was full and we went up almost 15 minutes late trying to get everyone in the theatre. Fortunately the producing group was well organized and other than a couple o little problems the evening was nearly flawless. My green staff performed well too. I can tell who the good house managers are going to be. I appreciate it when they can see what needs to be done without asking. The other advantage of the reduced number of groups is that I got out of the theatre earlier that I might have, but it was still midnight when I got home.
Sunday was not a day of rest. They were all the Saturday chores like laundry and house cleaning to catch up on, and while I was doing that and doing my weekly shift in the help desk for my favorite video chat program (the help desk was dead by the way) Mrs. and the boy were helping wit the open house at the boy’s school.
Enough, there is still an election this week, and I am exhausted already.
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