Friday afternoon education

Last Friday I got back in the post-holiday routine of picking up Vika and Eamon after school. I now meet them at the curb rather than try to park and walk in and they love it. Makes them feel special to have their "ride" at the curb! Vika was a little late this time since she had to go to the "store" outside the Library and buy some gummy earthworms.

But I did get an education on the way home. The kids were talking about Sassy girls and Cool girls. Not having a clue what that meant, Vika explained, "Sassy girls wear short skirts, high heels, lots of makeup, long hair, and walk sexy. And sometimes they have tattoos and let their bellies show. Cool girls wear nice clothes, but don't let their bellies show and don't wear lots of makeup."

Eamon said, "Yeah, I like to look at Sassy Girls. I might want to marry one."

Never one to miss a chance for grandmotherly advice, I told him that while Sassy girls are fun to look at, when he gets married he should choose a Cool girl. He nodded his head - either in understanding or as a way to shut Babushka up!

Then we played Windows. When we were in Tucson I took the child lock off the windows so my friend could breathe in the back seat. Well, V and E discovered that about half way home. In the rear view mirror I could see them look at each other in a conspiratorial way and slowly roll the windows down. (OK, "roll" is probably not the correct word for electric windows but I don't know what else to call it). I let it go until they started putting the windows up and down, up and down.

So I "rolled" Eamon's window up and hit the lock on my console. "Aw, Babushka!" he wailed. But Vika's window was still down. So I quickly hit the unlock, rolled her window up, then tried to hit the lock again. But by this time Eamon had rolled his down again. We played that game for a few minutes until I realized that it would be easier to just wait until I got home and they got out of the car! I also realized that I didn't have to hit the "unlock" to roll the window up from my seat, but at the time the whole thing was a bit frazzling. Yes, we old folks take a bit longer to realize the obvious. There, now I've said it so you don't have to!

We did make one stop at Safeway. Vika asked me if I was going to use the self-checkout lane. I told her we didn't have one in that store. She insisted we did. Then she said, "You wanna bet a dollar?!?" "Do you have a dollar?" I asked. She did so I said, "Sure". Hey, I could use the buck. Of course, as soon as I agreed she became concerned that she might be wrong. And she was. As we got to the registers she realized the error of her ways and said, "I wasn't really betting." I said, "Well, I was and we shook on it!" She was horrified that I would really take her dollar (which, of course, I didn't) and asked if she could pay me at a later date. I said fine, but suggested that next time she either be prepared to pay up or not make a bet. She nodded and then spent the next five minutes begging me to let her buy gum and candy with her dollar! My answer was No and I was very happy to finally get through the checkout and back to the car.

Well, except for the window thing.