4.30.09 2134. Waiting for jello to cool in the refrigerator. Work was slow today due to the rain coming down. It keeps the creeps at bay most of the time. Right as I was about to close shop today my friend came in with her 4 year old kid (she'll be 4 in a month so we'll call her 4) This kid is killer. She always says "Excuse me, Chris" before she asks me something and as soon as I see her she give me that look of "Guess who's gonna be holding me for the next 5 hours". It's me and I love it. Something about a kid clutching on to you and laughing is amazing. I never want kids myself but I love other peoples and it's so cool to hang with them sometimes. We walked to the coffee shop and while my coffee cooled my little friend took me into the other room and we pretended that we were in a castle. Mind you, I haven't pretended or played make-believe anything... Maybe ever. I'll hang with a kiddo but I've never been asked to do this before. I was determined to do the best I could though, as I couldn't let her down.

She told me what the secret word was that SHE had to say before I could let her in. It's the name of the artist whom her parent's gallery is filled with pieces from. Good call. Password strength:excellent. After I let her in the gates we had to get the layout down. There was a table for breakfast, a table for dinner, two sinks to brush our teeth in (I decided she could use a chair as it's more her height and I took another table), the floor were the beds and the cast iron chair in the corner by the door would be the throne.

I told her I though she would make the better princess and she agreed. There was no story here. We mostly just ate and brushed our teeth. At one point a monster started making some noise in the corner and we investigated. He was trying to scare her so I pulled her aside and told her to shake her fist and say "YOU DON'T SCARE...

4.30.09 2134. Waiting for jello to cool in the refrigerator. Work was slow today due to the rain coming down. It keeps the creeps at bay most of the time. Right as I was about to close shop today my friend came in with her 4 year old kid (she'll be 4 in a month so we'll call her 4) This kid is killer. She always says "Excuse me, Chris" before she asks me something and as soon as I see her she give me that look of "Guess who's gonna be holding me for the next 5 hours". It's me and I love it. Something about a kid clutching on to you and laughing is amazing. I never want kids myself but I love other peoples and it's so cool to hang with them sometimes. We walked to the coffee shop and while my coffee cooled my little friend took me into the other room and we pretended that we were in a castle. Mind you, I haven't pretended or played make-believe anything... Maybe ever. I'll hang with a kiddo but I've never been asked to do this before. I was determined to do the best I could though, as I couldn't let her down.

She told me what the secret word was that SHE had to say before I could let her in. It's the name of the artist whom her parent's gallery is filled with pieces from. Good call. Password strength:excellent. After I let her in the gates we had to get the layout down. There was a table for breakfast, a table for dinner, two sinks to brush our teeth in (I decided she could use a chair as it's more her height and I took another table), the floor were the beds and the cast iron chair in the corner by the door would be the throne.

I told her I though she would make the better princess and she agreed. There was no story here. We mostly just ate and brushed our teeth. At one point a monster started making some noise in the corner and we investigated. He was trying to scare her so I pulled her aside and told her to shake her fist and say "YOU DON'T SCARE ME, MONSTER". Thankfully, this worked. After we told the monster that we weren't scared I suggested that we open dialogue with him and try to work this out. He was lonely and I told my little buddy that we should probably teach him how to say that he wants to play in a nice way so he doesn't scare people if he's sad and want's friends. We taught him how to high five, though I really don't know if he had hands or not, and how to smile. It was fun. My first instinct was to un-sheath my pen kept tight to my bosom on the collar of my shirt and slay this horrible beast... I thought that for about 2.5 seconds when I realized thats probably not what I need to be showing a kid. I figured talking out our differences would be the best solution, and after all, if the monster didn't comply I still had my pen and could end his life quickly. I don't want to get all hippy dippy about not killing monsters and talking it out as a metaphor for what we could be teaching kids but, ya know, read into it as you will.

After we were done playing we said our goodbyes and I spent the rest of the evening talking about the prospect of a show space in Greensburg and what it would take and who would go and bla bla bla bla. This has been talked to death endless times. Throw in some shit about the new terminator movie and a friend selling his awesome bass guitar and that's the end of the road for me.

I'm back here, like I said, waiting for jello to cool. I'm restless and am going to do much pushups to burn myself out. I am reading F Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night" and I like it so far. FSF is a great writer and it's nice to read some fiction for once instead of trying to cram facts into my brain. One could liken my brain and knowledge to a stone trying to soak up water. In the famous words of Mr. M Tracy "It ain't happenin' brother,"...