My boy. My big 'ol boy. He's getting ready to leave on a two month working road trip tomorrow morning at 4am. My big 'ol roadie. He's headed for Las Vegas and then Michigan setting up music festivals. He's traveling with his buddy, Jesse, who has been his buddy since high school. I love Jesse. They are a good team. Jesse's dad worked for Bill Graham for years and hooked them up. They are really looking forward to this crazy experience! It's a whole bag of tricks: hotel, food, good pay and the opportunity to explore their own music with great musicians.
So these two guys, these two young men getting ready to hit the road...and two moms behind the scenes doing their child's laundry, one more time, for the trip. It makes me smile. It's not that they can't do it themselves or don't want to. It's about them trying to save every penny to have a cushion on the road if they need it and not having a washer and dryer for free anymore. Even the price of the laundromat could break the bank in their books. So they say. And I think, too, it's about two mama's happy to do it.
So I ended up with a duffel bag full of stinky guy stuff in the backseat of my car. A big, neon orange duffel bag that just screamed DANGER - Open at your own risk. But it was a portal back into my heart. It was a pleasure to wash things, to add mom's touch. To actually sort a crazy rumpled mass of dirty clothing into whites, colors and darks and to use bleach and fabric softener. How long had it been? Surely the return bag would blow his mind! To pull the warm fabric from the dryer and hold each clothing piece in my hands and look at it carefully. To lie them on the table and smooth slowly to perfection, holding every moment, and fold. To make them perfect for him, so that when he's on the road and quickly pulls a shirt from his bag he stops for a split second and thinks: Mom. And in that split second he feels loved and safe.
It was a study of its own to read the logos and get into my boy's head again. I didn't let him wear logos when he was little. I didn't believe in them (which might just become a whole other blog post some day) But now it's his choice and I have to say my favorite t-shirt of all times is one that has what looks like a madonna and child and reads Spicy Little Dumpling. Why that tickles me so I do not know, but I am in love with this shirt.
To take notice of his quirks and creativity. Like, I began to notice that a lot of things were a dusty purple color like in the dumpling t-shirt - he clearly decided one day to fill a vat of purple dye on the stove and recreate his wardrobe. I think I folded eight more shirts that very same color. Oh and matched socks that color too. It was a purple kind of day.
Assigning a day a color reminds me of when he was three and he had this made up game. We would all sit around the living room and he would run in a circle in the center of us and would stop and point at someone and call out, "YOU BE_______!" There he would fill in some random word, like a number, or a word like: lemonade!
You would then raise your hand and shout out the word. And then he would call back, "And I be special!" And thus went the game ad infinitum.
So it went like this:
Alex, putting on the brakes in front of me: Mama, You be 15!
Me, quickly raising my hand up high: "15!"
Alex, taking off on a run again, matter-o-fact: "I be special!"
Alex, putting on the brakes in front of his dad: Daddy, you be 22!
Daddy quickly raising his hand up high: "22!"
Alex running again, stops in front of his big sister: "You be lemonade!"
Brookie: "Lemonade!"
And so it went. AND, sometimes he would randomly stop and point back at you and you had to remember and call out your last assigned word once again. Oh you had to be on your toes for this kid!
And so yesterday I thought as I washed and smoothed and folded, "Alex! You be purple!"
Alex is fun like that. He has this uncanny ability to bring fun anywhere he goes. He's quick and bright and enthusiastic. He's big in a room. His 6'6" fills the space, but so does his 6' 6" personality. He always finds humor in the moment, and has some bit of trivia to share. His big brother and sister often accuse him of Talking out of His A**" but truthfully he is a wealth of knowledge. His facts are often random, but they are factual and interesting. You want him on your team in Trivial Persuit.
Monday we spent the day together at the ocean, and while driving out to the beach we talked about nutrition and he gave me the whole spiel about the pineal gland and cravings. I was impressed and I learned something new from him. He kind of is a walking book of weird and true facts, facts to spice up you day. We talked about so many things and then he spent the night at my house. We called Camille and Zak and they came for dinner too. It was exactly what I needed to fill the space of his hitting the road.
Alex William.
Al Bill.
He is kind of a spicy little dumpling.
I'm going to miss having him around these next two months. Oh but what an adventure!
Godspeed, my boy.
I love you.
