Listening: Bach harpsichord concertos.

Watching: Another installment of Touching Evil. I like the way some of the story lines have been carried over from episode to episode.



















Background courtesy of
Ace of Space

In Praise of Older Women

There's a girl in Daniel's day camp who hangs all over him. Selena is a year older than Daniel. She has long, wavy brown hair and a long, thin face and looks rather like a seven-year-old Alanis Morrisette. As soon as we arrived this morning, Selena dragged Daniel over to the table to see the cupcakes she'd brought in for the group's snack. Daniel shrugged and went off to find his friend Danny; Selena tagged along behind him.

Meanwhile, the twins were off garnering their share of hugs and kisses from the other children in the class. Over the past year or so, Stephen and Matthew have become the little pets of the group. Some of the girls even try to pick them up, not an easy task now because the twins at almost four are getting too big to be easily lifted by six- or seven-year-olds.

Stephen is especially popular with the girls because of his ready smile and engaging, almost flirty, personality. He smiles at everyone, but he is particularly attracted to females of all ages. As we were leaving Daniel's school, Stephen remarked, "I like Jenna, and Shadae, and Taylor...I like all kinds of girls!"

I imagine Stephen will have quite an active social life in the years to come. I hope he will take pity on his less socially-adept twin brother.

In fact, I can even imagine one possible scenario:

The time: Ten years in the future
The place: A junior high school hallway

A gaggle of eighth-grade girls are clustered at one end of the hallway, talking and laughing. "Shhh," whispers one. "Here he comes."

Stephen approaches the girls and smiles his thousand-watt smile at them. He singles one of them out, drawing her away from her friends.

"I have to ask you something," he says to her.

She smiles back happily, waiting for him to speak, then her face falls at his next words.

"My brother Matthew really likes you. You wanna go out with him?"