Me and My Ninja

Long day. Tiring day. Good day.

I got to hang out with my little asian brother (aka, The Cub, or more commonly, Luke) and Uncle David all day. I then came home and read some about Gatsby and his greatness (also, Fitzgerald, I love you. How do you write the way you do?), and then went off to church for the youth night. Laura Mc came for me, which was lovely. We all played volleyball. Or more appropriately, they played volleyball, I swung wildly, and Laura ducked. Which, in some countries, might be a real game after all. Anyway. The Cub.

Firstly, Uncle D had Luke dressed to impress. He was sporting a Yellow Submarine T-shirt, and underneath, a white T with green letters that read "Kiss me, I'm Irish". People gave the boy some veeeeeery odd looks throughout the day. Anyway - first we went to the pier. The last time I was there it was 4:30 AM, empty, and pitch-black and beautiful. This time it was crowded, a bit muggy, and loud - but still lovely. Luke was afraid at first (nearly crying, the poor lad) because he thought he was going to slip between the cracks in the pier. The only way I could get him to go all the way down the pier was to keep sighting pigeons, and then saying, "Let's get them!" We would then run about twenty yards until the birds flew off, at which time I would find another bird up ahead to aim for. In this fashion, we made it to the end. The pier was filled with fishermen, their bait, and their dogs (among which were such names as Sunshine and Bear). Fishermen, though creepy, are very friendly, and we got a look at a few of their catches. One fellow was sitting on a bench and shouted to me (while Luke and I were busy chasing a pigeon), "Hey, if you guys pull that yellow rope up, you'll see something cool." It sounded a little suspicious to me, but Uncle David went to the railing and gave the yellow rope a few tugs. Presently, a very strange (and somewhat large - perhaps 3 or 4 feet in length) creature was lifted above the surface of the water. I asked the fellow what it was, but I couldn't understand his answer. It sounded like some kind of shark - it was really weird looking. Cool, though... if you're into fish...

Anyway, from the pier we went to In N Out, which was a real blast from the past - Uncle David used to always take us there. Then we drove to the park near the beach, where we flew kites last time. This time, though, Luke and I contented ourselves with running on the sand, trying to knock over the palm trees, and commandeering a pirate ship playground. It was rather crowded there too, which didn't sit well with Luke - the boy is rather possessive of his pirate ship, and of his co-captain. I had to pull him off of a few kids who were attempting to take his place. (After our jaunt on the pier, he wouldn't let me out of his sight, or let my hand out of his. I suppose I've been claimed.) So we ran around growling and calling each other "captain" and having a merry time.

At one point, he was at the ships' wheel and yelled to me, "We're heading through a storm! Hold on!" So I promptly grabbed a pole.
"Don't worry," he said bravely, "I'll get us there!"
"Where are we headed, cap'n?"
"Costco!"

Then later, we were climbing around underneath the jungle-gym (my knees are killing me) and this stupid little kid with a mohawk came in and pointed his fingers like a gun at Luke and started shouting "BANG BANG BANG!" Luke stared at him for a minute and I was about to intervene when he suddenly started waving his arms in Taekwondo fashion and hit the "gun" from the kids' hand. The kid ran away. I was so proud of my little ninja!

I think I'll be a reasonably good mother; I get along so well with the young kids. And then they hit middle-school. Then we should send them all to boot camp...