Important Priorities Before the Morning Commute

I had the humiliation of dragging Ian out of bed, giving him cereal and milk, throwing together his knapsack and snack, and rushing out the door with him to wait for the bus the other day, only to discover from the lady across the street, after waiting about 15 minutes past the time the bus was expected, "No school today - it's Veterans' Day!"

I felt bad at having woken young Ian up for nothing, so when he requested it, I let him watch a movie (he was still the only one up), and of course he selected a Benji one - particularly the one where Benji goes to Greece. Ian told me I could stay and watch it with him, but then I told him that No, I actually had to go to work right now... Ian wasn't convinced that work was so imperative, and he really wanted to share this cinematic gem with me, so he proposed the following compromise:

"Wait till you see a picture of Benji, and then you'll see something else, and then you can go to work."

I waited, until the underworld-spy-posing-as-an-Athenian-taxi-driver-parked-at-the-foot-of-the-Parthenon slowly, stirringly pronounced "Benji", as he looked at a picture of that talented dog in a local newspaper. [This was the point where Benji became a target of an international jewel-smuggling conspiracy, of course.] This was the picture that Ian wanted me to see - to have the humorous experience of seeing a small, sweet dog we all know and love being spotted in a major newspaper.

After that moment in the movie, Ian told me I was free to go.

(November 11, 2009)