White Christmas, Corn Nuts, and Blowing Bubbles
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Ah…. a cloudy day. What could be better? It had been wondered in days past if Collette was half-vampire, so much did she prefer the dark wild days to the sunny ones. She awoke at 4:37 in the morning to the unpleasant sensation of feeling as though her shoulder had been popped out of joint – battle wound from the week before – and then promptly fell asleep again.
Tuesday night, Curly ran off with Rose’s clarinet for further musical opportunities. And by the time Collette arrived to tutor Wednesday morning, Carrie had received another dye-job to eliminate the blue. It also seemed as though there was to be another jaunt to the tattoo parlor, this time for St. Lucia’s first stab, before she and Carrie met with Elizabeth to leave for Chicago early the next morning. Lucia picked up Carrie after making a last-minute research on the Hebrew spelling of Lucia’s tattoo.
“I’m so nervous!” Lucia fanned herself with her hand, grinning broadly. “I can’t do it, Carrie!”
But Carrie dismissed her concerns and off they zoomed with Lucia behind the wheel.
Meanwhile, Linnea was at a birthday party at Great-Skate, Mom and Rose were at lunch at Miss Aimee B’s with Joy Tecumseh and Juliet, and Rose would spend the next day purchasing her college textbooks and student ID, babysitting for a women’s Bible study with Molly, and volunteering again at the soda stand for CYIA at the fair in St. Charles that same evening. She had also received a hair-cut at the hands of Carrie-Bri. Joe had been called away to post campaign signs for some politician with Curly.
“Yes!” He shouted while on the phone. “Fifty bucks! Fifty bucks to put signs in the ground! Money!”
Social calendars were odd things. Day to day brought interesting moments, around the mundane. To have it be said of one’s time – a life lived in the fullness of Jesus Christ, to His glory. That was how the seemingly mundane never really seemed to be all that bad.
And Frances jived to some oldies in the kitchen after Collette had set out French toast for lunch. He followed it later with a bowl of chocolate chip ice cream.
It was to White Christmas at the Muny that night for Mrs. English, Mom, Diana, Collette, Eve, and Rose. Despite getting her hair tugged at several times from a whining child sitting behind her, the evening was good. And the crowd gasped when the obnoxious granny character used the “h-e-double-hockey-sticks” on stage.
By the time they all piled back into the van at the end of the play, the moms were laughing hysterically about things.
“Man, they’re like two peas in a pod,” Diana looked at them skeptically. “They just get so silly when they’re together.”
The conversation turned towards the English’s vacation, aided by Diana’s killing sarcasm.
“Mom’s like a drill sergeant,” Diana said loudly. “She had schedules taped up in the van for who was on cleaning duty. And it was so embarrassing when our cousin, who we like hardly even know, got in the van and asked about it. And I had to explain that Mom split us up into clean-up teams. It was so embarrassing.”
“Mom had personal flotation devices under our seats for when we drove over the river!” She went on.
“Really?” Mom laughed, not convinced.
“She is joking here, Adel,” Mrs. English laughed. “You know how Diana loves to dramatize.”
“And it was so crowded,” Eve said. “Almost everyone had on their own headphones, ten pillows, and three seats empty.”
“Only three seats to circulate the fresh air,” Diana said dramatically. “It was so crowded, the boys always had to jump out the back door.”
Mrs. English and Mom were shaking with laughter.
“We did a count-off every time we got to a gas station or anywhere, before we left.”
“Now that is true,” Mrs. English agreed.
“Just like our trip eight years before…”
“Oh, I am so glad I was only ten then. I couldn’t be embarrassed.” Eve said.
“And then every time we got to a gas station, there was only one bathroom! It took, like forty minutes every time we stopped. It was ridiculous!”
Diana was on a roll.
“I’m telling you. Every stop, every stop, Adam would buy corn nuts, hot tamales, and lemon drops. Every stop!”
“He must have spent like a hundred dollars on hot tamales,” Eve agreed
“Mom, I don’t think he’s a good steward of his money,” Diana said, almost concerned.
“Oh, come on, Diana” Eve took Adam’s side. “He’s only twelve years old. Give him a break. He was hungry.”
“But, still… That’s forty dollars he spent that he could have saved.”
“And then we were all listening to Phantom of the Opera,” Diana continued, “and Eleda knows all the words. Like, I’m really surprised she knew everything. So all of us girls were singing to Phantom of the Opera and the boys were rolling their eyes. It was so funny!”
Upon further reflection, Diana also added:
“I miss our vacation.”
And she went on to tell them how Bing learned how to pronounce “rendezvous” during a game in the van.
“Oh!” he exclaimed, when Diana explained to him, “I thought it was “ron-des-vus”.”
The van roared over that one.
“And Diana learned how to blow bubbles for the first time!” Mrs. English said proudly.
“Mom,” Diana started. “Well, Tor was the one who finally explained how, so I could understand. I didn’t realize that when you puff, you have to stick your tongue part-way out of your mouth. I had so much fun blowing bubbles.”
And then the conversation turned to Starbucks and the amazing variety of drinks, “designer drinks” as Mom called them, the syrups and shots and flavors and whipped cream and chais and coffees and lattes and frappuccinos and cappuccinos and the list continued into the infinity of recesses and cabinets Starbucks must have owned in order to house all flavors.
The van was a little slap-happy when they pulled into the park ‘n ride at around ten till midnight.