Dispatches from the fun grown-up

Last night started well, with Beena greeting me as she came up the steps with, "I missed you!", and ended well, since the Responsible Adults involved had entirely lost track of time. (This is always a good sign.) Also, I seem to be accepted as part of the entourage/furniture for Spud. (He gave me several spontaneous hugs, so I'm not entirely furniture, but he also plopped his butt down on me whenever the spirit moved him. As a baby should. And he smelled like clean baby hair. I think clean baby hair smell should maybe be a controlled substance.)

My favorite line of the whole evening was when I got up to make the little girls sandwiches, and Bri announced, "I'm going to help her, and nobody's going to stop me!" Okay then! Poor child, with people flinging themselves in the path of her helpful urges! So I got to hear the ups and downs of Miss Bri's life uninterrupted by siblings or adults while we made sandwiches together, including musings about pigmentation and the rainbow, pottery, school vacations, and who likes which kind of peanut butter.

Have I mentioned that I like being the fun grown-up? I've often said that 8 or 9 is my least favorite age, but in practice this doesn't seem to translate to enjoying the actual kids any less.

Also, I'm particularly amused that songwind's accent comes back when he tells stories about his family. I know how this goes, because mine used to do that, too, when I lived away from its source. Maybe it still does a bit. I'm not sure.

I find that a little earlier venting about something that was bothering me seems to have helped immensely. Also markgritter is being even nicer to me than usual (and he's usually nice to me). So that's all to the good. I don't know entirely what I'm doing with the rest of the day, but a lunch date for Thai is a good start, I think.

PSA for Young Nerd Brigade

Note to at least three young men I saw getting coffee (because the Thai place near us was closed):

Do you know why looking like Cory Doctorow works for Cory Doctorow? It's because of his full-on geeky enthusiasm. No, really. It is. If you get his haircut and his glasses but not his gadgets and passions and knowledge about both, it will not work for you. Get a different haircut and glasses. Seriously. They're not very universal. Something else will likely stand you in better stead. I would advise you to also get things like passionate interest in nerdly topics, but the haircut and glasses are bound to be an easier thing to start with.

The sad thing is, I doubt that those particular guys were attempting to look like Cory Doctorow specifically, and yet I can't see any other good reason why those sartorial choices should get made.

There are things I love about retro fashion (bell! sleeves!), but one thing I really miss is the attempt to look futuristic and not just look like what people used to think futuristic would look like.