How to Take a Mental Memory Picture

Jenocide (see nickname tab) shared a treasure with me this morning on facebook. This picture is just so precious to me. We are each holding one of our own children, and one of the other's.

That's Tiny Transporter right there in my arms, in one of my favorite outfits of his, the jeans overalls. I'm also holding her youngest. The picture just brought me to tears. Those tiny boys are so grown up now. That's OYT screaming his head off in her arms. He screamed a LOT as a child. She's holding her oldest, too.

Seeing this picture reminded me of a habit I developed when they were young. (This was before digital cameras...) I didn't take a lot of pictures because money was tight and developing film was expensive. Then there's the part about if you have two children under 3, you rarely have your hands free to take a picture. Not to mention, the moment you want probably includes YOU. So no picture.

What I would do instead is take a mental picture. Purposefully say to myself, “Remember this moment. It's rare. They're growing up too fast. REMEMBER.” I'd like to share one of those moments with you.

I'm a mountain biker (or was, before all these breathing issues) so when The Transporter was born, I got a Burley bike trailer and took him with me. We upgraded to a double when OYT joined us. We went all over town, exploring and finding ways to connect the pieces of the (now finally connected) developing bike path being built.

By the time of this mental picture, the boys are almost too old for me to drag them around. They barely fit in the trailer anymore, and were too tall to put the mesh protector down. (Yeah, probably illegal...but they were wearing the seatbelts and bike helmets. You know about my bike helmet thing...)

Imagine a 5 1/2 year old Transporter, well, you don't have to imagine, I do have this:

and a 3 year-old OYT:

crammed into a Burley trailer. The Transporter is wearing neon-green sunglasses, much too big for him. He insisted on bringing Woody (of Toy Story fame) with him. We are going down our favorite hill at a speed that causes them to giggle and scream with roller-coaster glee. The Transporter has Woody outside the trailer, flying like Buzz would, and asks me to turn around and look. I do. And wish for my camera. But at 20 mph (which is really fast on a bike with a trailer and 80 pounds of boys) it's a quick glance and no way would I have been able to capture that shot. So I took it in my head.

I can see it clearly to this day. The silly grins on their faces, poor Woody flying along beside the trailer, and I can still hear their delight at the adventure we were having.

Do you have any mental pictures you'd like to share? Or are you one of those perfect parents who has pictures AND video of every milestone?

~Tina

Jenocide Rides The Text Train To the Station

It's time you met Jenocide. We've been friends since we were both pregnant with our now almost 16 year-old sons and have weathered many a storm together. This has all been long distance, because she had the nerve to move across the country after we'd only been friends about a year. I have forgiven...just not forgotten.

Jenocide is not, shy, not afraid of conflict, even if it comes to severe conflict. She kinda relishes in being a bad-ass. I haven't written about her before, because she's a very private person...but enough is enough...time to meet her. I decided the best way to “get her feet wet” on my blog was to throw her in the deep end of the pool...and she wouldn't have it any other way.

So here's what's actually a typical TRUE story of the kind of conflicts she finds herself in.

Warning...this story contains a lot of “colorful metaphors.” To quote Spock in Star Trek IV, “During this time period, lots of colorful metaphors were used in communication.” Translation = bad words. Since I try to keep my blog pretty much PG, I will substitute and try to convey the depth of the word choices without offending anyone. Wish me luck.

Do you use craigslist? We do a lot, and have never had anything remotely like this happen. Jenocide and husband were in the process of buying a car for their soon to be new driver, and had made complicated arrangements through craigslist with a man named Art to drive 2 ½ hours one way, take the car to a mechanic to have it inspected, but were pretty sure they were coming home with the car. They hadn't gotten the VIN as the mechanic had requested, even after several attempts, but were proceeding anyway. As they are pulling out of the driveway, Jenocide texts them to say they're on their way.

“We're on our way“

“I can't do this. I get 20 calls a day on this flippin' car”

“Are you kidding me? You realize we're coming to buy this car. At least you had the decency to tell me before we drove all the FLIPPIN' way there. What's wrong with you people?”

“This Art's wife. I don't have time for this BS with my schedule or your BS inspection so bring the mechanic to us you (derogatory name for a female)”

“You really think I'm going to drive two hours and pay for a car I can't test drive or inspect? Flip you and you're POS probably stolen vehicle. Good luck selling it to one of those 20 people. Don't contact me again.”

“FU. You said you were buying the car, so come here and buy it or we'll find you and make you really pay.”

It was at this point Jenocide thought, wow, this has escalated insanely quickly to something really ugly, but I kinda feel like riding this text train all the way to the station. So she decides to bait her.

“You do realize your husband texted me your address last night, right? You realize I can find YOU and you have no idea who I am or how to find ME? So bring your trash a** on down here. In fact, I look forward to it.”

“FU. I've sold 20 cars on craigslist and you're the only idiot who wanted an inspection and all this BS. You're a stupid (more derogatory terms for female, cringeworthy). You may not buy this car now. I've decided not to sell it to you. “

“You're still coming here to find me, right? Because I've got to be honest, I'm looking forward to it. I've set aside my whole day to wait for you.”

“FU. We'll meet you (at a middle point) and you can buy the car only now it's $300 more.”

“Ma'am, here's my counter offer...you come find me, and I'll give you the money, and you can keep your POS car. How'd that be? What time should I expect you?”

Apparently Art's wife was now done conversing.

As it turns out, this was providence. They found a MUCH nicer, much newer, better quality car IN TOWN and bought that. And she's still waiting to hear back from Art's wife ;-)

It's plain to see that she's a character. I AVOID conflict. She relishes it. I find her stories quite entertaining, and if I were in some back alley and in trouble, I wouldn't need a superhero of any kind, just Jenocide.

Do you have you craigslist experience? Do you enjoy a good knock-down text war with an insane stranger? Would you like to borrow my superhero?

~Tina