Day One

Okay, already, I'm sorry for all the tests on the last post. I was up late and got carried away. Seriously, though, this is my favorite thing about my job, not working in the summer. I get to keep kid hours, and I take way too much advantage of it.
This week Casey is at his youth retreat on the gulf in Alabama. I hope he is having the best time and making some wonderful memories. That leaves Charlie and I on our own. As sad as it is true, that leaves Charlie and I without much adult supervision and little voice of reason. Mark and Casey are the adults in this family and Charlie and I are, well...not so much.
Yesterday was our first day with it being just the two of us. We took Porter, our chocolate lab, into Petsmart to get his nails clipped and opted for the whole 9 yards of bath, clipping his nails, brushing his teeth and the breath spray (why, don't know cause that dog's kisses are the absolute best...no breath problems) and whatever else comes with the $50 package. This gave Charlie and I 3 hours to kill. We decided to try one of the restaurants that Tom S had suggested to me, and I did even call to get directions Tom, but we passed by a Pei Wei and well...we do love Pei Wei. Sorry Tom, maybe today we can stay more focused. Anyway, we had a really good lunch. We both love our food so spicy that we have to eat through our tears, so when we ask for 3x spicy, they know us there and go that extra mile for us.
When we're leaving Pei Wei, I asked Charlie if he'd like to go to Guitar Center and look over the guitars. He said, no, not really...LOL, as if. So, we're on our way to Guitar Center. See, in the back of my mind, I hear an adult voice, but I'm just so good at not listening to it. Okay, for those of you who actually read and pay attention to what I write, you might remember that I'd talked about our considering getting Charlie a new guitar. His favorite that he uses most, his electric (a B.C. Rich Warlock) had had all the strings break off inside from the volume knob and were a jumbled mess. Fine, I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, but this is as close as I can describe the broken guitar. So, when we're at the guitar store, and Charlie is off looking for his dream guitar, I ask a few of the sales guys about Charlies broken guitar. They tell me that is the main problem always reported with that brand. Well, he's had it about 4 years and it's the first time it's needed repair, it's a year out of warranty and it was a rather cheap guitar (on sale for $200) anyway. They tell me it might be able to be repaired with out costing more than the guitar itself cost, depending on whether it needed a new volume something or other. Yeah, I pay attention. C'mon, it's like a foreign language to me.
Charlie is always researching guitars. He's decided a while ago that he wanted a Jackson Rhoades. Yeah, I don't know either. Anyway, he asked if they had one and they told him they had just gotten the new model in that morning, but they only had one. They showed him the 2005 model that they'd had and it was $299. Charlie was playing on it and I asked the sales guy if he'd bring me the new model that they'd just got in. When Charlie saw the new model, his eyes looked like a 4 year olds on Christmas morning. He started playing it as he and the sales guy talked about all the bells and whistles that it had that the older model didn't. There wasn't a price tag on it yet, as they'd just unpacked it, so the sales guy scanned it for me and when he told me the price, Charlie immediately said, 'Mom, the other one is just fine for me'. I love this kid.

Now I know the general censuses here was that we should let Charlie buy this for himself. Thing is, Charlie has bought his last two guitars for himself without any help from us. The only guitar we ever bought him was his first one about 7 years ago. Mark told me a few nights ago that he wanted to buy Charlie this guitar, that he wanted Charlie to know how proud he was of his talent and that he was behind him 100% in his music. Well, if you knew Mark, you'd know how big this is. Marks always been a big fan of Casey, mostly because of how involved Casey is in athletics. Casey was great in Tae Kwon Do, and has played football since he was about 6 and he's very good. Charlie...didn't like Tae Kwon Do, played football at 6, didn't like it. Tried that baseball for little kids (what's it called?), didn't like it. Tried hockey for 2 years, never really liked it. Went back to football for 2 years, hated it. Tried wrestling this year, and just never really enjoyed it. Thing is, he's good at it all, but just didn't enjoy it. So, this bothered us because it always seemed he had so much talent, but just refused to enjoy it. I know, we were trying to force it on him. So, don't bother telling me, okay? Mark caught on faster than I did and this next year (sophomore year) for Charlie will be the first year since he was 4 years old that we're not forcing him into a sport. But he's always loved music. In spite of our trying to lead him in a different direction, he's stayed his course. And, in spite of his parents, he's really good. So, for Mark to get behind him, and want to support him, is huge. I've always supported his music, and been a fan of his talent, but I just also wanted to keep him in sports. There are scholarships there, people!!

Back to the Guitar Center. So, long story short, we walked out with the brand new model and Charlie still can't believe it. He's played nearly every song he knows on it, tried it with every distortion pedal he owns and has had his amp up loud enough to make the glasses in my cabinets rattle. Good times.

Charlie and I tend to stay up till around 3 a.m., which makes it hard for me to get up at 5 and see Mark off to work, but then I'm back in bed till around noon. I do love working for the school district.