Mom: Archaeological Menace to Society at the Ripe Old Age of 9
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
[7:43am] After watching a dynamic calliope performance by Sasha Cohen at 10:30 the night before, Collette woke to find OLeif much recovered, and wishing for canned fruit for breakfast. Meanwhile, Collette found that the all-too familiar pain under her tongue was the result of not one, but two canker sores.
In other news, Mom had registered Frances in a junior achievement program, which was actually a functioning village which taught 5-6th graders, junior, and senior highers to learn how to function as adults in the adult world, etc. Frances was even given his own briefcase and would be elected his position within the village of 125 kids.
And Mom told Collette of how when she and Uncle Mo were kids, Great Uncle Harry had taken them to the old Indian cliff dwellings near Santa Fe. He knew where to look, because Mom remembered digging up pieces of white Indian pottery, painted shards just beneath the surface. Collette was not exactly horrified that her mom was a criminal by the time she was nine (a genuine pottery thief), but was more interested in seeing the pottery which Mom still had in a box in the basement. She vaguely remembered seeing the box years ago when her and Carrie’s favorite pastime was scouring the basement for secret passageways and old cool things in boxes (such as Mom’s old doll collection and prom corsages (one of which was made of pink roses and sugar cubes)). Also in the little white box labeled “Adel’s special things,” were pieces of lavender glass also found at the Indian site, which had turned the purple color from having lain in the sun too long.
As Collette spoke with Mom over the phone, OLeif relaxed on the couch watching a morning edition of an old show from the 90’s (which shall be unmentioned) featuring a giant flan (Mexican dessert)). He later redeemed his reputation by watching “Andy Griffith.”
Wednesday found Collette still recovering from the lack of sleep over the weekend, as she fell asleep on the couch late in the afternoon while watching Cleopatra. And then Collette accompanied Carrie and Rose to Plato’s Closet – the sort of resell-it clothing shop where they could sell individual cherry pies and packages of rhinestone earrings at the same counter, which is what Collette found there that very afternoon. For dinner, OLeif felt well enough to head out for some Penn Station and they enjoyed some quiet together and some thoughts.
“What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.”
– A. A. Milne (1882-1956)