"The name is Seuss....Blackie B. Seuss" (HOL 96)

House of Laughter 96

Growing up, my sister had a large menagerie of stuffed animals. She named almost everyone of them. I still remember the names of her three main monkeys, Sam (of which my niece Lily received a clone for Christmas one year. A rubber faced monkey with a yellow shirt and rubber banana affixed in his left hand.), Precious White, and Fat Monk.

It is important that your main stuffed animals have good names. Out of nowhere this weekend, Isaac announced the last names of two of his regulars. From now on, Blackie Bear will be known as “Blackie Bear Seuss”. (I thought it was pretty cool that the Isaac gave a shout out to the good Dr.) Blackie Bear’s friend, a small white monkey with velcro on his paws that he received for Christmas, in now known as, “Monkey Rick Jones”. Since only the comic geeks reading this know who “Rick Jones” is, I will explain to those of you have kissed a girl. Incredible Hulk has two sidekicks, a wayward teen named Rick Jones (who later helps Captain America), and a lab monkey named, “Monkey”. Isaac came up with these names on his own out of nowhere.

Sunday, we took Isaac and Aiden to see Sesame Street Live. (Isaac had won tickets at an Easter egg hunt a while ago.) I will say this…it was not as bad as Nemo on Ice. It was loud, and the four ibuprofen I took as a precaution did nothing to prevent a crushing headache. The plot revolved around a new music teacher (The sensibly dressed Jenny) moving to Sesame Street and losing her instruments. The Sesame street gang team up to surprise her with new ones made from garbage. Bert, Ernie, Big Bird , Elmo ( who to my delight Oscar referred to as “The Red Menace”), and Cookie Monster all made appearances, although it was clear that there were more costumes than dancers as many of the characters made only brief appearances. It was the minor characters who were most unsettling though.

Nancy had the aisle seat and was treated to an up close visit with “Prairie Dawn”. Evidently they don’t Febreeze the costumes that often, because Nancy told me that she reeked of B.O. There was another character I was unfamiliar with. There was a girl grouch with a tattered pink dress and ribbons twisted up in wild dreadlocks. She reminded me a lot of Marla from Fight Club. I half expected her to ask the Count to check her for lumps.

As the lights from the first act went up, a person with about 60 enormous Elmo foil balloons walked into the middle of the theater. Nancy asked if we should get some for the boys. I suspected they would have been overpriced and told her that they were probably six or seven dollars each. I was wrong. 10 dollars. Every single one of those balloons was sold. That is over 500 dollars worth of helium and foil. At least thirty dollars worth was stuck on the ceiling by the end of the show. The punch line though is that right before the second act began, they announced that you needed to store these two foot long balloons under your seat for the remainder of the show.

Monday was terrific. I started the morning doing a radio show with some friends at WQFS, and then in the afternoon, Nancy suggested we go kayaking. It was a perfect day. Isaac and I rode in a tandem, and Nancy stretched out in her own kayak. We watched turtles sunning themselves, and huge birds swoop over the water. The sun was bright, but just when it was starting to burn, it would hide behind a cloud. Isaac dangled his hand in the water and splashed around once I assured him that there were no gators, and that the fish wouldn’t bite him. Near the end of our trip, we all just laid back and drifted around the lake watching the clouds. It was a perfect trip.

This morning on the way to daycare, Isaac stopped me to look at a snail on the sidewalk. I asked him if he wanted to pick it up. He was hesitant at first, but picked up and held him in his hand the whole trip to school. I was really surprised that he didn’t panic when he told me that the snail was giving him kisses. I was never that fond of slimy things when I was a kid. When we arrived at daycare, his teacher went up even further in my book when she not only welcomed Isaac’s snail into her class room, but wrote “Snail” on a plate, put a wet piece of paper towel on the plate and encouraged the children to come over and watch. Isaac was the coolest kid in the room this morning.

I never did write about our recent camping trip/ coaster road trip. We went to King’s Dominion with some friends and the brave ones among us spent the night in two cabins near the park. I spent most of the night accidentally swearing at Isaac’s friend Aiden (He who is known at all Greensboro emergency rooms), because he was determined to burn himself on either the grill or the fire pit. Isaac and Aiden slept hard after a night of Smores and lightsaber fights under the stars. The day at the park was pretty good considering we had two small children, two folks without children, three parents who loved riding coasters, and one parent who loved checking the hockey scores on his Iphone. Isaac rode three coasters including Avalanche, and the Scooby Doo Ghoster Coaster…his first woodie. (Oh grow up it’s coaster geekspeak.)

He bravely rode on each one, although the Scooby one was admittedly pretty rough. I want him to get used to them now, so I don’t have to suffer the same embarrassment my own parents did at the tremendous temper tantrums my sister Alison would throw because she was afraid of Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Strength and Honor.
Big Matt

P.S. And of course by “Alison” I mean me at age 12.