Monday, June 27, 2005
Bruce is here now, but he has to go back to Columbia tomorrow. We had a good visit tonight, after dinner.
I picked up burritos from Moe’s. He says there are no Moe’s in Columbia. I like their food – upscale Tex-Mex. They make a great burrito. Dinner for the 3 of us was $17 – not bad.
He was intrigued with the magnetic dart board I set up in the family room. You have to throw those darts hard. Alesia is already a good dart thrower. She is good with her hands.
We had a dart board at our house in the lake, and for a brief time we were both good at darts. We also had an old pool table for a while and we got to be good pool players. We knew the table’s flaws, and exploited them.
Lewis came down one time, in the late ‘70’s, and Dad challenged him to play a game of 8 ball. Lewis protested, said he hadn’t played pool in 30 or so years. Dad goaded him. Lewis played and won, effortlessly. That’s when Dad told me the story of Grandaddy Thompson being a pool hustler sometimes, during the Depression, when there wasn’t enough money and he could sneak away to Augusta. Cordelia hated gambling but she looked the other way if it meant her children had shoes. They had enough to eat because Grandaddy ran a tiny general store.
Bruce has to go back tomorrow. I hate that. I like having him here. It feels more like a family place.
Mom has to go to the doctor, the bone specialist, on Wednesday morning, for a followup visit. I hope he clears her to do more physical therapy. She’s making progress, but she needs to push harder. Bruce and I think she’s getting too many pain meds and getting somewhat complacent.
I am trying to plan something for us to do on July 4th, in between visits to Mom. She asked me today what I wanted for my birthday and I said let’s wait and have it after you’re home.
We talked about Alesia’s birthday, a better topic. Bruce is going to help me buy a bicycle for her.
Work is still really hectic. I hate putting out fires all day and never feeling on top of things.
My right arm hurts from sleeping on it funny. At least, I hope that’s why. I hope I’m not getting arthritis in it.
I posted this on my Yahoo Single Adoptive Moms board:
I was at a family wedding over the weekend and was chatting with some
of my cousins - all very intelligent, reasonably sophisticated
people - and my cousin's new wife made the most stunning remark right
in front of me. The topic was Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes [OK, it
wasn't intellectual chat but whatever] and this woman said, "Well he
probably wanted to marry a woman a lot younger so he could finally
have a son of his own."
Cruise has a son, Conor, who is somewhere around 10 years old now and
was adopted as an infant. I'm sure he thinks of Conor as "a son of
his own."
I was just stunned she blurted that out right in front of me, and
Alesia was just a couple of feet away.
I was sickened. I couldn't look at her. There was a very brief,
awkward silence and someone changed the topic and the talking rolled
right on. I liked this new cousin-in-law up until she made that
remark, then I wanted to slap her.
My brother says I am overly sensitive, and just ignore it. Mom also
said I need to just forget it, but it hurts too much right now. It
just saddens me to think there are so many people out there who think
our children don't count for us somehow, just because they aren't
biological.
Even though I adopted Alesia at age 13 I would gladly trade my life
for hers, if necessary. I know y'all would for your kids, too. Nobody
can really comprehend how much I love my daughter, or even how much
goofy Tom Cruise loves his son, unless they have been through the
incredible experience of adoption.
