Next week, it begins. I become...whatever the hell it is I am to Paul.
He's taken to calling me "Dad," which is weird, since his mom and I don't even live together. (Yet.) But is some sense, I guess I'm taking over parental unit responsibilities, at least part-time. Tabbatha's new job requires her to work into the evening, so I'll be picking Paul up at day care, feeding him and hanging out with him until she gets off work.
I realize most people wouldn't consider picking a kid up at day care to be some kind of great adventure, but what do you want? This is all new. My life as I've known it is being replaced by an entirely different reality, full of mundane little details most people don't even consider, but which to me seem as exotic as anything Sinbad encountered in all his voyages.
Like grocery shopping. For me, Buying food has always been easy: What am I likely to eat this week? (Answer: Pretty much the exact same thing I ate last week.) But last night I found myself stumbling through the supermarket wondering, will he like this? I don't want him to have too much junk food, but on the other hand, I want to get him stuff he'll actually eat. Tabbatha says he likes bologna sandwiches with ketchup. Ketchup? I never buy ketchup. Who the hell wants ketchup on bologna? Who wants bologna, anyway, when you could have some nice salami? Or is that imposing my tastes on him? And if I get him to try something, and he doesn't like it, will he trust me again? In which case, how on earth will I ever get him to watch Raiders Of The Lost Ark?
I also have to watch out to make sure I don't get suckered. Tuesday nights are Kids Eat Free Nights at Pizza Hut. We went there this past Tuesday, and he made it pretty clear he expects this to become a tradition. (Sadly, since they also have an all-you-can-eat buffet on Tuesdays, which gives me an excuse to stuff massive amounts of food into my enormous head, he may get his way on this one.) He's also expecting me to take him to the video game emporium at the mall, and some park he knows about, and...God, I don't know. Tons of stuff. We'll see.
This is on top of the fact that I have to take him to baseball practice three nights a week, and in fact Monday night is his first game of the season. I know nothing about this stuff. I figure he'll be lucky if I get him there--the field on the south side has about a million seperate diamonds, and how the hell am I supposed to know which one hosts his games?
But I'll figure it out, because I have to. I have people depending on me now. I'm a grown-up.
