there was no housekeeping done yesterday. i did break from the music extension work to watch three episodes of evangelion with mr smear, but i think i passed out for quite a significant amount of them :P
otherwise, i tried to coach him and encourage him to work on his rube goldberg machine (homework), which was rather demanding on my patience (but my patience prevailed).
and i learned something fascinating about calf muscles and exercising them that i think everyone should know.
i walked mr smear to his friend's place at around 4pm - it didn't occur to me that there might be a bus - with him dressed for trick-or-treating. some teenager on a scooter whizzed past and as he clocked mr smear we heard him loudly "what - the - fuck?!" which had us in hysterics 😂
it turned out 4pm was the time for the kids to meet up, 6pm to go trick-or-treating. so i caught a bus home, got some more stuff done while stuffing myself on leftovers, and then bussed back to accompany the three friends as mr smear's shadow pack-animal.
first, let me just say that the number of kids participating, the effort invested in their costumes and treat stations, was heartwarming. it was so much fun!
second, five minutes before arriving to accompany the kids, i was struck with sudden bloating and gas that lasted a little over an hour, rendering me decidedly uncomfortable during the hour-long mission.
on the one hand, following them was an interesting experience and generally positive, particularly because of all the other kids and parents and the general atmosphere was great. on the other, there were a couple of behaviors that made the hour drag considerably.
first and foremost, mr smear's wrong-side-of-the-tracks friend, whose constant swearing and use of combative language is jarring and embarrassing, even at a distance. then there were his greedy attempts (often successful) to grab all the candy, sometimes its containers as well. mr smear told him off a number of times, and even yelled "my friend's a thief" when he managed to grab an entire pumpkin-shaped candy container...
second, mr smear didn't understand the concept of me being a shadow, and he kept trying to make sure that i wasn't going to lose them... which was sweet, but really took him out of the experience and separated him from his friends on multiple occasions :(
when we returned to his friend's place, they wanted to watch a horror movie. the other two were asking for movies that are really inappropriate, and i took the opportunity to explain why watching great movies before you're ready for them is a mistake - that you can only ever watch a great movie for the first time once, and it's a shame if you're not old enough / experienced enough to fully appreciate what makes it great or shocking.
"you know we're going to forget this whole conversation in, like, five minutes, right?"
fuckin' A.
i also took my turn trying to teach his friend how to blow his nose. how the fuck does a kid grow up not knowing how to blow his fucking nose?
mr smear's friend's mom gave mr smear a full bowl of mushroom krupnik soup, which was delicious. it was also the last of their soup. his first few spoons were enthusiastic (he said it reminds him of fry's mushroom pies), but his next few were less so and then he did what he always does... "garbage bin dad?" 🤦♂️
to make it worse, he told him friend that "it started off tasting really good, and then it stopped tasting good". his friend told him he shouldn't insult his mom's cooking, and his response was "yeah, but..."
FML.
anyway, after a bit more awkwardness i managed to extricate us from the dinner and we caught a bus home, with him informing me along the way that he's not sure he wants to do this again because he's so self-conscious. i really don't understand this kid :(
while he showered, i caught gd up on the evening's shenanigans while sipping on the "drink me - penis reducer" parting gift from tahoma's (i don't know what was in it, but it was delicious). after putting mr smear to bed, i spent some more time tweaking the extension, and eventually went to bed.
i guess i slept pretty well. i'm trying to make the most of these two "recharge" days, which started with gd upset over our neighbor's treatment of their dog and now has her cancelling her physio appointment and sewing class because something just twinged in her neck and she's unable to leave the house :(
...
alright, one crisis at a time, one admin item at a time. i can do this.
