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Fifteen

Froggie turned fifteen yesterday. Fifteen is a lot of years.

Froggie was an inquisitive and independent child. She’d babble incessantly in infancy, and learned to talk very early –speaking a full sentence, “Want more juice in cup, please,” at 18 months. That was an indication (a warning?) of things to come. The child has been talking almost non-stop since that day. (In her toddler years, she even spoke in her sleep.) I’m so glad that she is so able to express herself. Even though she can be shy at times, she finds it easy to speak to almost anyone. I’ve told her she could be the next Oprah.

She has never been at a loss for words. Sometimes her thoughts flow too fast for her mouth to keep up, and she switches topics mid-sentence. It frustrates her when we get confused, unable to follow her soliloquy. (I’ve told her she reminds me of a tiny rubber ball bouncing on a tiled floor… you just never know where it’s going to bounce next.) Her loquaciousness is such a blessing. The house seems quiet and empty when she and her voice aren’t here to fill it up.    Her friendly constant-talking has gained her lots of friends *and* the titles of “Freshman Favorite” at the band’s annual dance and “Sophomore Representive” in the band’s corps of officers.  She plans to try out for drum major next year.  Lord knows she has the voice for it.

These fifteen years truly have flown by. I am very sad to think that she’ll be leaving us to head off to college in three years. Sometimes she worries because she doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up. I tell her it’s rare to know at age fourteen (or fifteen or twenty) what one will be in adulthood. She’s a strong, smart young lady, though. I know that whatever path she chooses, and where ever life should take her, she will be prepared and she will go to her Life with her head held high. …and she’ll probably be talking the entire time….

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Still Crazy

Last night E, the kids and I watched two shows at the same time. We flipped back and forth between “American Inventor,” (which is Monkey’s favorite show) and PBS’s “The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song,” in honor of Paul Simon. We’d watch the Paul Simon show between commercials on the inventor show. We were lucky enough to have James Taylor’s rendition of “Still Crazy After All These Years” fall perfectly (and entirely) in a commercial break.

After the song, I commented to E that that is why we’re are still together, and why our marriage is still so strong: we’re both “still crazy, after all these years.” We recently (on May 29) celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. We’ve been together for 20 years total. In writing and out loud, twenty years seems like a long time…. Sometimes it’s strange to sit back and realize just how long it’s been. Seems like just yesterday we were two high school band geeks; now we’re 20 years older, raising another generation of band geeks.

I hope our kids will always appreciate what a good, strong, happy family we have. If we (and the world) are lucky, when they are grown and leave our home, they’ll find their own crazy spouses out in the crazy world, and have their only crazily happy families.

Weird Monkey

Last weekend (June 2-3), Monkey decided to enter a contest sponsored by a local radio station. The prize: two front row seats to the Weird Al contest, two back stage passes, and an accordion that Weird Al would autograph for the winner. The assignment: make a video (either copying one of Weird Al’s -or- write a spoof song of your own, and set it to music). Monkey chose the latter. He set about writing a spoof of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts.”

He won.

The concert was spectacular. (The only “bad” part was a few minutes before the show started: the woman sitting next to me probably tipped the scales at 250 or so, and when she sat down, her thigh and part of her butt were on my leg.) Monkey LOVED every minute of it (and there were a LOT of minutes… it was 2.5 hours long.) He sang along with nearly every tune, and kept turning to me with a look of utter elation. He also got a thrill early on, when we were still waiting for the gates to open: Someone in line recognized him. We heard a woman say “Hey, I think that’s the kid who (murmur murmur murmur)” and the man she was with turned his head towards us really fast and said, “Who? Oh, yeah.. Mr. Monkey. Congratulations, man!” Then others were whispering, “Oh, that’s him!” (and the like). My son smiled, nodded, and said, “Thank you.” He’s very quiet & reserved, but *I* could tell that he was uber thrilled.

Weird Al had soooo many costume changes; he had a different costume for every song.

(Between songs, they’d play clips from Al TV on 3 large screens.) There were a LOT of songs. By far, the biggest crowd-pleasers were the 2 Star Wars themed ones (Yoda and Saga). (Geek crowd.)

A popular one with the ladies was “Wanna B Ur Lover,” a funny “love song.” Even though it was a crazy song, Froggie heard one woman say “That’s HOT.” (Again, it was a geek crowd.) (Some women love jocks. Some love gangsters. And some love silly brainiacs. I guess it’s Nature’s way of making sure every group procreates and continues on.)

After the show, someone came and presented Monkey with the accordion. It’s a really pretty pearly white Sofia Mari. While Weird Al changed, we waited with security guards, behind a gate. A drunk man (fan) standing near us kept asking my son if he’s going to learn how to play. Monkey kept answering with various forms of “I don’t know.” “I might,” etc. He finally gave up answering and just shrugged. Oddly, the drunk guy seemed more satisfied with the shrug, and finally stopped asking.

When we went in, the first thing Weird Al said was, “That’s a beautiful accordion… may I play it…?” Monkey placed it on the table, and Weird Al tried to play it. (Click pic below to view video.)

Ends up it’s not the kind of accordion he plays, but he still thought it was “cool.” He told Monkey he should learn how to play it, because “The world needs more accordion players.” In person, he’s not at all what he is on tv. My son expected to see the guy that he’s seen in interviews with Conan or Dave Letterman. He was the complete opposite. (My son later commented, “I always thought that high pitched voice was his real voice!”) He was very quiet and shy. He spoke very softly. I think Monkey was relieved to find that he *wasn’t* wacky and way-out when we met him (because Monkey is shy himself, and I think he was a little nervous about meeting Wacky Weird Al). (He reminded me of my son, really. Brilliant if strange mind. Silly on stage. Reserved, soft spoken, and insecure in “real life.”) I noticed he found it easier to talk to children, and I never saw him make eye contact with an adult. When he signed autographs for adults, he kept his eyes down, or looking around. Not rude, just insecure. He was very kind to Duckie, and shook his hand, saying, “Hello there.. I’m Al… very nice to meet you,” and he slumped down low in his chair, for a photo with Duckie, so that their faces would be closer.)

When posing for photos, he looked at the kids rather than the camera.When we got home, Monkey played the accordion until after midnight. Even though he doesn’t say, I can hear the gears in his head cranking. In a distant part of his little mind, he can picture himself learning to play the thing and growing up to use his intelligence and silliness together, to make people laugh. I think he can see himself becoming the next Weird Al. Weird Monkey.