I took this week for me. How do you like that?
After Breakfast at Wimbledon last Sunday, I drove the boys to my in-laws' home for a two day visit sans mommy. Nothing like your toddler waving you off and yelling, "Bye Mom, don't worry! Bye bye bye!" to reassure you that they'll do just fine without you. Once the grandparent fun begins, no kid wants to risk their mom ending it too early, so best to get her out of sight of the ice cream indulgences and endless hours in the wading pool.
This time, my twinge of guilt at taking a break for myself only lasted a minute or two, because it was obvious that this break was going to be a load of fun for the boys, too. Two birds, one stone. Let the fun begin.
Risking making all of you out-of-inlaws-visit-range readers too jealous, I'll make my description of my day and a half off break quick: it was all about Johnny Depp. Almost immediately after getting home, I drove myself to the movies and made a night of it. I bought a ticket to the late showing of Knocked Up (Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen) and spent the 45 minutes before the movie started to wander in and out of the other movies. With a vat of Coke in hand and a fistful of candy, I snuck into the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Because it would be fairly obvious that I was crashing the show, I stole the first seat I saw, which was at the end of the third row. People, there is nothing like a 20 foot image of Johnny Depp towering over you to dash all thoughts of toddlers and babies. Good God. That man is perfection.
Seriously, all of you Google Reader readers are missing out on my SnapShots images here.
Next up was the beginning of Evan Almighty (Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman). While he's no Johnny Depp, it was a good warm-up act for the funny that was to be Knocked Up. Maybe I was just in the mood for it, but Knocked Up was freaking hilarious. It was just what I needed.
Of course, not all thoughts of being a mom escaped me. In the row in front of me at my feature were four high school or college age boys, totally clean cut beach types in leather flip flops, plaid or khaki shorts, polos and t-shirts, and that omnipresent shaggy bangs look all the laid back boys seem to be sporting right now. While checking out the tan, lean legs propped up on the seats in front of them, just a couple of years ago I would have had thoughts of :
"He's so cute! I wonder what he's like?"
...in an "I know I'm married, but I can still look" kind of way. That night, however, my thoughts were more like:
"He's so cute! I wonder what his mom is like?"
That's right. Talk about flipping the script.
I was wondering if I was glimpsing my own boys a number of years from now. I was hoping my boys would grow up to be so cool and laid back, cute and fun. I was wondering what it takes to raise them successfully, so that they can be set free in the world and be as pulled together as these boys seemed to be. So they can be trusted to go to a late movie with their friends and I'll know they won't act obnoxious or rude, but rather maybe catch the eye of some cute and pulled together girl to spend a little of the summer with before school starts again.
Wow. When did my brain start functioning so differently?
I love it, though.
I also loved the rest of my free time. I spent the next day window-shopping, drinking coffee, driving around aimlessly without having to silently pray that I wouldn't drive off the road while picking up dropped toys from the floorboard to hand off to outstretched hands in the backseat, and generally never thinking twice about anything. No computer. No phone. No nothing but me.
Oh, and Johnny Depp.
I just had to find out what the end of that movie was all about, so I went back and watched all of Pirates of the Caribbean the next day. And yes, I sat in the third row again because why not? Third row center. My entire field of vision filled by nothing but deliciously dirty Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp.
Because why not?
Writer. Mother.
