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Birthday Dinner
I'm only a beer teetotaller, not a champagne teetotaller.
-- George Bernard Shaw: Proserpine, in Candida
Tuesday, May 16, 2000
One year ago: Communion
Two years ago: Street Fair
Three years ago: A Petrified Fountain of Thought
I got up early Monday morning at Jack's house, and headed south. It's really a nice time to make the drive! Before six in the morning is the dawn time, all pink and purple, and there's not much traffic. As I got closer to Seattle, there were more cars and people.
I remembered that we were short on beverages at the office just as I pulled off of I-405, so I stopped at Larry's Market, a rather tony gourmet grocery store. Usually Kellie makes supply runs to Costco for us, but there hadn't been time for that last week, what with getting ready for the Money Show. I got soda, plus a few bagels and some cheddar-jalapeno cream cheese (we are getting pretty far from cream cheese here, I think!).
Chip and Pete were already in the offfice when I got there at seven fifteen, working on a few last-minute things. Kellie and Arthur arrived later. They all left for the airport at nine thirty. Pete drove, because his car had had some electrical problems over the weekend and he was going to borrow Chip's car.
I worked alone until lunch time, when I got a call from Pete. He'd stopped at a dealership and bought a car! This wasn't completely on impulse; he'd been doing some research on the net recently. But still! I was surprised. He wanted to take the rest of the day off and take care of his old car, and run some other errands, and I said that was fine with me. I worked alone in the office until Jonathan, our high-school intern arrived.
* * * * * * * *
Today I told Pete that it was my turn to run an errand. I needed to go buy some birthday gifts for my nephew B----. He's a bright kid with an enquiring turn of mind, and my sister had suggested that scientific gifts would be good. My sister wrote me about a few recent "B----isms."
Overhearing a discussion of the school auction, and how the old location was too small, but the atmosphere was so much better: "There is only one atmosphere on earth!" Thank goodness nobody laughed, but said that yes, he was right, but it's just an expression.
A long time ago, I made a prediction that his relationship skills might improve when he started looking at that issue as another scientific problem to be solved. He might be moving in that direction! He said to his mother, "Why am I so quiet at school?" She replied, "I don't know. You're not really quiet at home." This shows he is starting to think about his own behavior.
he is thinking now about invisible vs. transparent. "Is a window invisible? Can you see it?" He is looking for the boundary. When does something cross the line from transparent to invisible? This reminded my sister of the issue when he was four - thumb: is it a finger or not? He gave this a lot of thought back then.
I headed over to Zany Brainy. This is a favorite store of my other sister, but I think the chain just opened up around here recently. It's good to go to a toy store where everything is good -- no Toys R Us crap. I got a few books: one by Bill Nye the Science Guy, and one with 3D pictures of Mars. Also, a beady buddy craft kit of a roach (much better than a kitty), and a "OO-aah" home chemistry set.
I left work at a reasonable time (I'd had to stay late on Monday), and headed over to my sister's place. We had some time to chat before the kids and my brother-in-law got home from baseball practice, and my friend A---- arrived. Dinner was Pizza Hut pizza, delivered, by the birthday boy's request. He was really excited about getting to the presents, and about the whole birthday thing. To make the evening more festive, he requested that a game be played between the pizza and the birthday cake: Bunny Money. But first, he went off and created a new "chance" card to add to the game. This was really not a bad idea! He wrote on a slip of paper "Clean the world! collect all the money" which would automatically make you win the game. That way, he got the fun of the game, but it didn't last too long.
* * * * * * * *
I drove my buddy A---- to his downtown apartment (we'd discussed film festival plans during dinner and while the rest played the game), then went home myself. There was email from Jack, giving me the update: "The test today wasn't too bad. Real uncomfortable, I had to lie in one position without moving for an hour with an IV drip into me (after they had already shot me full of some kind of radioactive isotope)." He'll see the surgeon tomorrow, and I hope they'll actually schedule his gall bladder operation!
My brother had left me a message yesterday, then hadn't been in when I called him back. Tonight he called when I was home. He's sober right now, but has been depressed, not working, and now is behind in his rent and bills. Would I help him out? I have a bad feeling about this. How would he have handled such a problem if he'd stayed in DC? He didn't pay me back what he borrowed in the winter -- not a large sum, but I'd told myself not to lend him any more before that was paid back. (He said at the time he needed it for food and cigarettes, but fessed up recently that he spent it on booze.) He says he's going back to work tomorrow. I told him to call me after he'd been to work. There's a possibility he can get Salvation Army assistance with the rent. Maybe I could pay the medical coverage bills if he brings them to me. I don't trust him in regard to actually handing him the money. But I don't want to be that involved in his life, darn it! So I don't know what to do.
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