A Week in Review

Remember when I used to write A Week in Review? Do you remember it fondly? I do. I remember it as a time when I had something to say, before the long age of “eh”. But I have some stories today! So let’s do A Week in Review.

Jonah is turning 9…
And he might not live to see 10 if he doesn’t stop texting me. I’m kidding of course. I love that little boy, but honestly the anticipation for his birthday this weekend has him crazed. It’s all about Harry Potter this year. His teacher at school is reading the books to the class while the kids follow along in their own copies. Jonah loves it – LOVES it. He also loves Legos, and when he found out that Lego makes Harry Potter sets he came a little unhinged.

We were at Walmart a couple of weeks ago and looking at toys. They didn’t have much in the Harry Potter Lego department, and he was a little disappointed. When we got home we looked at some websites, and picked out the sets that he liked. I made a mental note, and then the next week got on Amazon and ordered the Quidditch set. That seemed safer than hoping to find it at a store. I told Marla, and she told Jonah. He pretty much knew what he was getting for his birthday because he had outlined very specific orders, so there was no harm in telling him. No harm until he started writing me every day, several times a day, to ask if I had it yet.

Here are some actual messages:
Monday, Nov 30, 8:57 pm, “Did you get my quidditch set yet?”
8:59 pm, “Did you?”
9:01 pm, “My birthday is this Friday!”

Then he sent a very cute picture of himself.

Tuesday, Dec 1, 3:58 pm, “Did you get the quidditch set?”
7:18 pm, “Did you get the quidditch set?”
9:17 pm, “Did you get the quidditch set?”
9:22 pm, “Party is in 2 days.”
9:23 pm, “When will it be here?”

Really, I’m not making this up. Now granted, I’m not good at checking my phone for text messages, so he probably sent one, waited for an answer (sometimes for a full 2 minutes) before sending another, but still it was getting out of hand. I tried to appease him by saying that I was sure it would be here in time for the party. I should add that he was very sweet, and called me himself to invite me to his party, and then he said he wanted to introduce me to his friends. So polite.

Yesterday I got my first message just before 4, probably about the time he got home from school. I decided to call the apartment office at home to see if they had a box for me (the mailman drops boxes off at the office). They had a delivery from Amazon, so I called Marla and told her that the quidditch set was here, and that I’d bring it to the party. The party is today. Jonah got on the phone, too, so I told him, and he said that he couldn’t wait, and that he can’t sleep because he’s so excited. I guess that explains the 9:22 pm texts. I assured him that he would be ok. He wasn’t so sure.

Later, another text message:
“Could bring the package?”
I told him I’d bring it to the party the next day.
“Today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” with enough exclamation points to fill up the phone's screen.
I didn’t give in.
Another message, “Can you come over?”
No, I couldn’t.
I was on the freeway driving home when my phone went off again. I looked and saw simply this, “Give me the set.”

He was one step away from threats of violence.

But I didn’t cave. This morning my phone rang at 6:00, waking me out of a dead sleep. It took too long to gain conscientiousness to get to the phone, but I saw that the missed call was from Jonah. Maybe that was his revenge, if he can’t sleep then neither will I.

Tonight I will go see Jonah at his birthday party and hand over the Harry Potter Lego’s Quidditch set. It will be a huge relief for both of us.

Books
Dear Sierra wrote a good blog post about the little library they have at her house, and it made me think about all of the books from my childhood. She talked about writing her name in her books when she was little, and I did the same thing. Here’s a picture of one example.

I like to date things and give specific information, even to this day. The book is “Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and as you know it’s the first book in the Little House series. My great aunt Evelyn sent me one each year for Christmas. She died before she could send the whole set, so when I was older, in fact when I was working at the bookstore, I decided to order the books I didn’t have to complete the set. When I got the first ordered book I held it in my hands, and it seemed so small. I remembered my books from Evelyn being much bigger, and was a little upset that the set wasn’t going to match. Mom still had my original books at home, so it was some time before I had those in hand again, and when I did I was shocked to see that my old books were the same size as my new books! They weren’t smaller, I was bigger. I was honestly shocked to see the difference between my memory and the reality. I suppose everything seems big when you’re little.

There is, in that book, a story about Laura, Mary and Ma boiling molasses and sugar and then pouring it into clean snow where it hardened and made candy. My mom thought that was a fun idea, so she did the same thing. We got a big pan of clean snow from the yard, and poured in the syrup, in squiggley shapes, and let it harden. It tasted like molasses taffy.

We had a set of children’s picture books on American history. I think I’ve mentioned these before. Dad read them to me, and when my little brother Courtney got older I read them to him. I have them now at home, and still pull them out from time to time. There’s a lot to learn in a children’s history book. These really are a much loved treasure.

Well, I think that’s enough for today. Thanks, as always, for checking in.
You are loved.