Saturday, June 14, 2008

Red Dragon, Digression and Ice Cream (Cone)

Simon likes to explore the house while I'm sitting & nursing Anson... i.e. unavailable to follow him and see what he's into. A few days ago he came out of our bedroom carrying this shirt of mine, that had been on a pile of clothes I was sorting to pack. He was so excited about the red dragon picture on it that he just lit up when I asked if he wanted to wear it. He didn't take it off for the rest of the day...and actually wore it like a nightshirt at quiet time. It only came off after ice cream spilled on it.
Red Dragon Hobbies is a hobby shop in Otisville, Michigan. Or it was 12 years ago - I don't know if it still is. When I was a junior or senior in high school some friends & I ventured out to find the shop...I'm not sure why. It seemed to be completely in the middle of nowhere (ever heard of Otisville, MI? Me neither.) and wasn't even that big as far as hobby shops go. But that group of friends certainly had a penchant for peculiar adventures, so off we went. I think I bought some dice for playing D&D (not that I needed more, but they get to be a fun & cheap addiction when you're gaming) and then one of the guys found this shirt. I thought it was the ugliest shirt I'd seen, and he said "that's the point. It's great." or something akin to that sentiment. So I bought it. And I wore it. A lot. Still do, in fact. It's probably my mom's least favorite thing I own & wear, but somehow the sheer ugliness of the shirt itself and the oddness of the situation of my obtaining it made me love it all the more. This was also the same group of geeky gamer guy friends that were my escape from the typical teen "image" in high school. I remember deliberately wearing the ugliest things I could find at 2nd-hand shops and combining them into really ugly clashing outfit combos...just to see if they'd act any differently with me. It was a test to me...did they like me less if I was ugly? Nope. They treated me exactly the same regardless. That was the best gift transmitted by a group of high school friends, and these guys had it figured out. But I digress...this is my son's blog, not my own. I will end my digression simply by saying how glad I am that Simon loves my ugly shirt as much as I do, and maybe I can somehow pass on the legacy of unconditional friendship and image-blind love through its ugliness on another generation.

After dinner we had ice cream cones. Well, Adam and I had them. Simon insisted on the cone being "clean" and the ice cream being in a bowl. This is him showing off the cone:
the ice cream:
and the nibbled-on cone with a little ice cream in the bottom that he gleefully "scooped" himself...with his spoon, from his bowl, and dropped into the cone:
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