Anyway, Rachel was right when she said it was best to leave this stuff alone for a day or two. I can't change any of it now, and it's not a good idea to wallow in the frustration. Instead, I'll tell you another story. (This one's not all that funny.)
I was sitting in the coffee shop yesterday and this little kid walked in. As soon as he saw me he said "Hey, what's that?" He wasn't pointing at anything in particular, so I picked up my external hard drive and figured I'd confuse him a bit. "It's a 40 GB external Hard Drive." I said.
"A what-what-what?" (Amazing the way parent's things will come out of children's mouths...)
"A 40 GB external hard drive." I said. "It remembers everything I tell it to. See, you can feel it working." I then held out the hard drive, and he grabbed it. You can feel the little disk spinning around if you grab on to it.
" whoah... "
He put the hard drive down on the table and just looked at me. I looked back and smiled and then he asked, "Can you draw on it?"
"Can I draw on it?"
"Yeah. You know, like, draw?"
"Well, I can draw on here" pointing to the monitor "and then it will remember what I drew."
" oh nuh uh..."
"Yeah, sure. Here watch." Then I drew a picture for him in Gimp. (Thanks Tim.)
"Oh No Way!" He shouted.
"Yeah!" I said back.
"Uh uh... give 'im spikey hair." So I gave him spikey hair. "Make a tree" and I made a tree. "
"What color should his shirt be?" Then he proceeded to tell me what color to make everything.
"Make a surf board!" And I said,
"Why don't you draw a surf board?"
" oh, nuh uh... "
"Yeah sure, here just like this." And I showed him how to hold the button down with one finger, and draw with the other. (On my laptop.) So he drew a surf board. (A.)
"What else do you want to draw?" I asked.
"OH! KILLER BEES!" He said.
"Go for it."
Killer Bees. (B)
"Anything else?" I asked.
Then, those little lights that power the mind of a child starting turning on. You could tell he absolutely slipped into his mind and forgot everything but the computer, and the surfer kid on the screen. "Look out! There's a shark!" And he drew a shark. (C.) Then I just let him go, and he went nuts. By the time his mom told him to leave me alone, he had drawn:
The Sun - (D)
A bird eating an apple - (E)
A gun - (F) [we had a long talk afterward about how violence isn't the answer.]
and a Jet Ski - (G) [?]
He really didn't want to quit drawing but his mom was calling him so I said, "Don't worry... the 40 GB hard drive will remember everything you drew."
"Oh yeah! He screamed and I saved the picture.
3 comments:
This is why I will always let you play with my kids...even after "you know what" ;)
The "you know what" from Mandy relates to a time when I was flipping a kid around and I dropped him from shoulder height, head-first on the driveway.
Oops.
Adam- I drove past Sal's tonight and thought of beautiful memories... I can't wait to see everyone, it will be very good times.
And to my Mom... I agree it was an awesome scene. I can still remember scenes from when I was a child and some person I never met before and never will again treated me like a person instead of a kid. I always remember those people, and I think a kid like the one from the other day will always remember that guy who let him draw on the computer. Kind of neat that I'm allowed to be part of the rest of that kid's life now.
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