Fast Friends...

A couple of years ago, Amber had the kids at the Pflugerville public library and Max (8 or 9 at the time) came up to her and told her that he just made a friend over there and that the kid also had a rock in his pocket. Funny kid. He somehow befriended the only other kid in the library who had a rock in their pocket. Never mind how rare it would be to ever have a rock in your pocket while at the library, or to ever have reason to mention it to anyone else… Max somehow found the only other kid (city, state, country, world??) that did and made almost instant friends with him. Max, that kid is funny. He will talk to anyone I think. Of course he will also give his opinion on just about anything as well. He does not have an off switch that I have found.

Remember when you could make a friend almost instantly? For most of us, that was a few decades ago but we still see it with our kids. It’s funny to watch them get thrown together with perfect strangers (friend’s kids), have to get along and entertain them, and then have them begging to see them again the next day…all while only having known them for a few short hours. Children are absolutely remarkable like that. We lose a lot of innocence growing up. This seems sad somehow because I believe that deep down we are almost all good people who share a lot of the same desires… desires that should see us make friends quicker with the people we interact with in our day to day lives. Keep waving to people, keep making small talk with others in lines… and in my case, keep talking to other drivers (I think sometimes they can hear me… could be the accompanying gestures though). ;]

We have had a pretty busy couple of weeks. Austin was really fun and we got to catch up with most of the Daughtry clan while there. We even made it to a high school football game to watch Allison’s school beat up on another team. Halftime let us see her band perform the routine which sent them to the State level competition that same weekend which made the Friday game a dress rehearsal of sorts. I think they did really well and while some of the performance was lost on me, it was no doubt entertaining. My brother in law Jim had a pretty good take on it… after watching one lone girl running around erratically at one point during the performance, Jim leans over and says “If there isn’t a wolf in this story, I am going to be disappointed”. Funny stuff.

My mom came up to see Max in his first orchestra concert. We were all pretty impressed with it all. The kids did amazingly well and it was not at all apparent that they have only been playing their instruments a few weeks. I was pretty blown away by it all. We listened to the beginning players (Max’s group) and then sat through the Intermediate and Advanced groups which pretty much fall in line with the middle school grades with the occasional exception. My mom went on to comment that the kids she heard tonight were more impressive than the Central High School orchestra concerts she has heard in years past. It is impressive what almost mandatory private tutoring and lots of practice can achieve. We are glad Max is in a program of this scale. He is learning really quickly and both Amber and I are actually enjoying his home practicing. It’s a really soothing sound the Cello.

While Mom was here she got to enjoy the wonder of high speed internet connectivity. I think she had a ball putting the whoop on her sisters’ garden in Facebook… all masterfully done in mere minutes. I haven’t used Facebook in a long time now but she tells me that almost the entire family is now using it to keep up with one another. I will stick with the phone, the keyboard and the occasional visit.

Amber went as a punk rocker to work Friday. They were having an office party or lunch and she decided to dress up. I think the war paint I put on her cheek probably got her a look or two on the drive into work. I didn’t take pictures, but I should have. Next time I will sneak in a shot or two.

We had some of Amber’s friends from work over for Halloween so that we could get the kids together to trick-or-treat. Our kids weren’t going to do it until they decided at the very last minute (Friday) that getting candy for free sounded pretty good. Luc bailed on the idea but he knew I would buy a bunch for us to hand out… so net result is he accomplishes his goal with almost the absolute minimum effort. Sounds like Luc.

The visiting family had a boy a year or two younger than Max who also liked video games and pretty much all other things that boys like. They also had a girl about Karah’s age and they made friends almost immediately… resulting in a sleepover Saturday night after all the festivities. See what I mean about making friends quickly? The girls decided they wanted to walk the kids, and the guys were allowed to hang out and hand out candy for the first time in as many years as I can remember. I usually get the neighborhood walking duty. This year I got to watch F1 qualifying from Abu Dabai that I had recorded earlier and skip between a couple of college football games. Amber even took Ginger out with them on the leash and everyone returned saying they had a great time. Cool. This is a trend I can get into. ;]

Anyway the kids got along great and they ate entirely too much candy… while all of us adults tried hard to ignore that it was in the room. Not a lot of trick or treaters this year it seemed like. All that mattered was that our kids had fun and they did, so mission accomplished. So they took the Crunch with them for the sleepover and on the way home they decided that they hadn’t eaten dinner yet so they were going to stop and pick up something quick. When the mom asked Karah if she would eat something if they stopped, Karah quickly asked “Are you going to say anything to my mom? …because my mom would tell me I didn’t need anything and that I should have had more dinner…”. Funny girl…and spot on. That is exactly what Amber said she would have told her upon hearing the story from her friend a couple of days later. That girl can eat.

Lucster is doing well and reading like a madman. He is knocking down Crichton and Clancy books every week. He went through his required reading list and starting asking us for books…he is suddenly into political thrillers and I have been sharing some of my favorite books with him. He is growing up too fast. If you have any good books to lend us, let me know as I am almost out of stuff for him to read. Looks like a trip to Half Price Books for us soon. No progress on getting him interested in being a kicker for the football team. I will let you all know. ;]

I hope everyone is having a good week. Looking forward to Thanksgiving and catching up with family. C-Ya.

bb