Holiday Cheer

I took the family out to dinner one night a few days ago. It wasn’t anything special, just a routine trip to our favorite sammich spot in town, Philly Bilmos. If you’ve never been, you should go. They’re fantastic.

Sylus behaved decently while in the restaurant. We had to threaten him with the baby seat about 10x, but he was good for the most part (ie: no epic fits over lack of chocolate milk, etc).

After dinner, Krysti, Sylus and I wandered down to Big Lots as per Sylus' request. He likes going down to Big Lots to look at the Christmas decorations and we happen to like walking around for a bit after eating, so it was a win-win decision.

As we browsed the aisles aimlessly, Sylus was behaving, but still being an energetic little almost3yr old. I don't remember doing anything out of the ordinary. He’s very aggressively-polite sometimes. He likes to say “excuse me” or “Merry Christmas!” to complete strangers at high levels (to make sure they hear his tiny little voice, I’m sure) and typically much sooner than necessary. For example, a random stranger was standing at the end of an aisle that was a good 20ft in front of us. Sylus decided it was time to start saying “excuse me” about 15ft too soon.

Sylus is pretty good about not touching things, or if he does grab something off the shelf, putting it back upon our request. This trip to Big Lots was no different from any trip to the store. We let him walk on his own as long as he holds onto one of our hands and doesn’t take off running. He definitely passed the test this evening. We interact quite a bit. He likes to point out when he sees things he recognizes (ie: super heroes on the shampoo bottles, etc) and I like to confirm that he is correct in naming Iron Man, Hulk, and Wolverine. As Krysti checked out, I let Sylus wander a bit near the front of the store. He saw Batman on the packaging for a snack of some sort, and he wanted to check it out, so we did.

As we walked out of the store, I hear a voice behind me saying, “excuse me!” so I turn around. It’s a random lady that I recognized from inside the store and she’s holding a card in her hand. I immediately reach for my wallet to make sure I didn’t drop it for some awful reason. As she approaches me, I see that she has a gift card in her hand. She goes to hand it to me and says, “Merry Christmas”. I look her right in the eye (well, mostly in the eye…I was wearing my Santa hat, and the fuzzies cloud my vision a little bit) and say, “you don’t have to do that…” with a bewildered look on my face. She looks back at me and says, “it’s only $25” and clearly won’t take no for an answer. So I take the card, say Merry Christmas, and turn to walk away.

I go to get Sylus in my car, and Krysti gets in her car. We took 2 cars because I met Krysti and Sylus at QFC earlier that evening (immediately after work) so we could see Santa. I drive home in quiet reflection on the events that just transpired. Do I look like I need $25? Why did she choose us for her random act of kindness? Does she know me from somewhere, and I just failed to recognize her? Is this a shred of good karma coming back to me because of all the points I’ve stacked up this past year? Who knows.

Krysti interacted with the lady once more after Sylus and I left. There was some sort of mixup with the gift card, and the lady had to get the cashier to activate a different card or something like that. You’ll have to check with my wife to get the details on the story, but the gist of it is this random lady said we were the nicest little family she had seen in public. She saw how we interacted with Sylus, talked to him calmly, corrected him, but didn’t scold him when he did something he wasn’t supposed to, didn’t yell at him, etc. She basically said we were a breath of fresh air compared to some of the parents/families she had observed over the holiday season; which is understandable, as everyone seems to be a little more stressed out in December.

My first inclination is to pay it forward, and donate the $25 to a different family in need. I have more useless stuff than I need, and have reached a point in my life where I’d rather see someone else, who could use it more than me, benefit from random windfalls of cash. It’s not about the money. The real gift for me was the reaffirmation that I’m doing a good job as a parent and a role model. I’m incredibly proud of myself and my family for all the little achievements we’ve accomplished together. It’s good to know that the general public sees how different our approach is, and maybe we can be a beacon for other young parents and small families.

To the random lady at Big Lots, thank you for the boost in confidence and reassurance that sometimes, I do know what I’m doing as a parent.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

-Linus

I love the NW, and here's a reason why

So I went to shoot some hoops, right. I'm typically the only person out there because I've been lucky enough to find the 20min of sunshine lately. Today was different. I'm out there doing my thing, and this kid in a sweatsuit rolls up and occupies the hoop directly behind mine. I like to call that the first step in "the dance". Playground etiquette says that by opting for an immediately adjacent court when faced with 3 options, you're issuing an open challenge. I do what any regular guy would do when put in this predicament. I scout the competition. He’s definitely in better shape than I am, but his shots aren’t falling. He’s about as tall as I am, but as I mentioned before, I have at least 35lbs on him. I continue to shoot free throws while my lunch break ticks by. After shooting approximately 40% from the charity stripe, I start to shoot jumpers. He makes his way over to my side of the court as he removes his ear bud headphones. “You wanna play a game?” he says. “Sure, why not.” “To 15?” “I was thinking more along the lines of 10. I’m horribly out of shape, and on my lunch break.” “How bout 11? No one plays to even numbers” And away we go. I give him a ton of space at the top of the key. I pretty much conceded to the fact that his first step is 100x quicker than mine, and I don’t want to get beat with my back to the basket. He fires a long 3 and I gobble up the rebound. I dribble to the right, he gives me a 3ft cushion, so I stop and pop 1 from about 16ft out. 1-0 me. I check the ball at the top of the key, and dribble left. I give a jab step, and he backs up giving me enough space to jack up another jumper. He grabs the board, and quickly clears the ball out and drives to the hoop. I chase, he stops, shoots and scores. 1-1. I give him space after he checks the ball, and he hits a 3. In my face. 3-1 him. He takes the ball at the top of the key again, and fires away from 3pt range. He misses, I go all Pachulia on the rebound, and I clear the ball out. I dribble left, then turn it across the court to set up a running hook shot. Bottoms. 3-2. It was all downhill from here on out. 2 more possessions, 2 more rebounds and consecutive missed jumpers from the both of us, and I’m winded. He stalls out at 10-2, I make an errant jumper, and he eventually drains one from long range to end it. We bullshitted for a minute while I try to catch my breath. I find out that he’s a general contractor who works under the table and has done so for the past 4yrs for a friend of his. Nice. Tax free money is good, but I bet the health insurance blows. He tells me he’s a freshman at Clackamas Community College, and a senior took all the playing time at PG ahead of him last year, but this year, it’s his team. Here’s what we know; either you failed a bunch of classes, and are still technically a freshman this year, or you’re a sophomore. Judging by the way the conversation has gone thus far, I’m going to guess the former is true. He goads me into playing another game, and instead of backing down from a challenge and preserving my pride, I accept. He literally shoots 5/6 from 3pt range, and makes short work of me in the 2nd game. 11-1, and I’m sucking wind. As I try to catch my breath, he continues the bullshit session where we left it. He might not be the brightest crayon in the box, but he’s a decent conversationalist. to be continued...