I'm Late

          As I sit down to our visit this week, the biggest thing on my mind is, I’m late.

I’m late, I’m late for a very important date! I’m late!

You are important to me and I look forward to our weekly get-togethers.

          “Why are you late?” I know you wanna know.

          I’m late because instead of sticking to my schedule, instead of staying in my rut of spending Saturday writing, I did something else instead.

          Here’s what happened.

          Do you remember when my church had talent night and I showed off some of the things I make? Our Pastor’s teenage daughter Heidi asked if I’d show her how to make the book boxes. You know me, I love to teach. “Of course!” I told her.

          This week, I’d gotten a call from Heidi’s mom. “Could she come on Friday or Saturday?” Mary asked.

          “Friday would be great!”

          Although my week was full of stories and pictures, I carved out three hours to spend with Heidi.

          “Now, when they get here,” I told my handsome mountain man, “you are not to show them around the house.”

          “I like to show off the house,” Mike said.

          “Yeah, I know but you’re a crappy housekeeper — and so am I!”

          I hate housework and make no bones about it. I do what I have to do and that’s about it. I’ve told you before but I’ll tell you again. I like washing dishes so mostly I keep them done. I don’t mind doing the laundry and I’ve been known to scrub a toilet or two but sweeping and dusting — I just really hate them. I’ll sweep when I have to plow my way through and dust when it’s stacked up so high it’s falling off like snow. Those my sweets, are what’s called hyperbole but it gets my point across. In case you missed it, I hate sweeping and dusting — and washing windows, too, I forgot that.

          “What’s the first thing Michael does when Mary gets here?” I asked my Miss Rosie.

          “Shows her around the house?” she guesses.

          “Yep.”

           Rosie laughs. “Well, at least now you don’t have to worry about cleaning every time before they come over.”

          “I hadn’t looked at it that way.” They’ve seen the real us and now I don’t have to put on airs!

          Heidi went to work cutting out the pieces she’d need while Mike gave Mary a tour before she left.

          At the end of three hours, Heidi had her box cut out, glued together, and covered with a sturdying layer of paper and glue.

        “Peg! That’s not a real word!” you say.

          I know, right!

          “You should say …covered with a layer of paper and glue to make it sturdy.”

          I just think sturdying gets my point across.

          When Mary came back to get Heidi she sat and visited for a while. In fact, it didn’t seem like she was in a hurry.

          “If you’re not in too much of a hurry, Heidi could put the hinge on her box,” I suggested.

          Mary glanced at her watch. “No, I don’t have to be anywhere else.”

          Heidi not only got the hinge on, she got it covered with paper and glue so the next time she comes, she can do the next step. Putting on the plaster of Paris.

          Bondi and Raini were excited to see new people. Bondi stands back and barks while Raini jumps all over them. Raini had to have a timeout in her kennel until she settled down and Bondi ended up in Mary’s lap, just like a baby.

          We were making plans for Heidi to come back and work on her box more.

          “Next week is going to be too busy,” Mary said. “It’ll likely be a while until we can come back.”

          “How about tomorrow,” Mike volunteered my letter blogging day.

          My head snapped around and I looked at him. “It’s my letter blog day,” I say out of the corner of my mouth while still smiling at Heidi and Mary.

          “Heidi could work on it while you work on your blog?” he suggested.

          “It’s okay with me as long as I can interrupt to ask questions,” Heidi said.

          I knew that the next step would require more supervision and direction than my back would afford. I knew I wouldn’t get much done on my letter blog, yet I readily agreed. My letter blog would get done when it gets done and I really wanted Heidi to do as much as she could on her box. I was excited for her.

          “How about the same time tomorrow?” I asked.

          “Sounds good,” Mary said.

          Saturday. I don’t know where my morning went but I hadn’t gotten much done by way of sorting and resizing pictures when one o’clock rolled around and they were here.

          Mary and Heidi handled Raini pretty well the day before so I left her out.

          Bondi barked her fool head off.

          “You let me hold you yesterday,” Mary reminded Bondi from a few feet away.

          I picked Bondi up, she settled down, stretched her head out, and her nose twitched as she picked up Mary’s scent. Her little tail started thumping my back and she tried to climb from my arms into Mary’s. Then the love fest was on. Bondi once again submitted to Mary’s ministrations.

          “You wanna have a cup of tea?” I invited Mary to sit with us.

          “I’d like that.” She graciously accepted both the tea and the seat.

          The hours passed and our conversation flowed easily from one subject to another. One of the subjects we touched on was words and how sometimes the kids say one word when they really mean something else.

          “There’s a word that always throws me,” I told Mary. Then what did I do? I gave her the wrong word! I gave her what I thought the definition of the word was instead of the word itself.

Aye-yi-yi!

“Mischievous,” I said. “I always think it means full of mischief.”

          “Why, sure,” Mary agreed.

          “But it doesn’t.” I’m such an idiot. “It means too smart.”

          I could tell Mary didn’t agree or was confused but too polite to contradict me. I was in bed that night, in that land between wake and sleep when PRECOCIOUS pops into my head.

          Aye-yi-yi!

          It’s precocious that I think — thought meant full of mischief when the dictionary defines it as: unusually advanced or mature in development, especially mental development: a precocious child.

          I bet she thinks I’m an idiot now.

          Heidi and I made a batch of plaster of Paris. She was putting it on her box and it looked like we had made too much. Rather than waste it, I pulled a box I had sitting on the shelf that I’d started and never finished. It was ready for plaster so I might just as well work on it while Heidi worked on hers. After they were coated in plaster, we set them aside to dry while we looked at molds.

“Sort through the molds and see what you’d like to decorate it with,” I told her.

Heidi chose the dragon and some filigrees.

“No flowers?” I asked.

“I don’t think dragons and flowers go together,” Heidi said.

“It’s our world. They can go together if we want them to.”

While Heidi worked on her dragon and Mary held Bondi, I made the letters for DREAM. “You wanna put this on your box?” I asked offering the letters. “You can have a Dream Box.”

Heidi put the letters on and liked it.

Having success with that, I once again tried for flowers and made her one. “How about this one?” I asked showing it to her.

Heidi crinkled her nose and shook her head, “Nah.”

“Then how about pipes and cogs?” I suggested. I do love me a little steampunk.

I was wearing her down. “A cog maybe,” she conceded.

I made one and gave it to her. She placed it. “That looks pretty good. I need another one for over here.”

“How about a flower for over there?” I asked hopefully.

Heidi shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“Fine!” I mocked being mad but wasn’t.

I pushed flowers every chance I got and it became a running joke. After another such push and another shoot down, my eyes landed on the box I’d plastered but had no plans for. Inspiration struck. I handed the box to Mary. “Let’s make this one for the little girlies.”

Mary took the box and I could tell she was happy to participate.

“Flowers?” Mary asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“And butterflies, if they like them.”

“They do,” she confirmed.

I started sorting through molds, pulling some of my favorite ones out. “How about a unicorn for the center piece?” I asked showing it to her.

Mary shook her head. “They like horses but aren’t really into unicorns.

Now that Mary and I had a project to work on, I turned to Heidi. “You’re on your own now. I’m not going to make you anything else!” I pretended I was still upset about Heidi not putting any flowers on her Dragon Dream Box. In my mind’s eye I saw Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank when he didn’t get his way and I heard his words come out of my mouth, “You’re dead to me now.”

Mary made the flowers and designed the layout while I made the letters for Holly and Elise’s names, the Bucci’s six-year-old twins.

          At the end of our session, we had two very handsome boxes ready for paint.

          With the Christmas season coming, with parties to plan, and shopping to do, I don’t know when the Bucci gals’ll be back to finish their boxes but I’ll tell you this. I had an enjoyable afternoon with these two beautiful ladies.

           Done — for now. Look for an extra letter blog in a day or so. Until then, know that you're in my heart.