A Fergie By Any Other Name...

Fergie marks her first year with us next month, and in her first year with us, we've found a number of nicknames for her.  Our puppy-training instructor cautioned us to not wear out her name calling to her time and again, lest it lose its power.  We've certainly compensated with her nicknames:

• Puppums: (n)  I do remember Mom's cat got called Mr. Puddums for awhile, so I guess this just fit as the Fergie analogue.  It then led to…
• Pums: (n) the abbreviated form of "puppums."
• Flurfy: (adj) Some debate ensued as to whether she was "fluffy" or merely "furry."  Here's the compromise.  You have to say this in your best "Ehrmagherd!" voice: "Ehrmagherd! She's so flurfy!"
• Flurfy purpy: (adj + n) Her status as a flurfy young dog.  "Ehrmagherd! A flurfy purpy!"
• Happy puppy: (adj + n)Pretty self-evident when the full-body wag is on.
• Miss Pups:  (n) Rarer.  Used more when someone is bring snobby: "Oh, looks like Miss Pups is choosing to ignore her dinner tonight."
• Fergalicious: (adj) Of course this had to get used.  I don't favor it myself, but it has been used.  Sigh.

I'll keep adding to this as I think of others.

Senior Patrol Leader

When I was in Boy Scouts, back when dinosaurs roamed the savannah plains, I was awkward, not beloved, and so never even got elected to Patrol Leader; I remember being upset at not being named an Assistant Patrol Leader even.  The Senior Patrol Leader, the SPL, the chief Scout--that, I knew, was never to be me.  More likely John Hagen or one of the other really good Scouts.  I'm sure that fed into my decision to step out of Scouting as a freshman, having made only First Class.

Last Monday, when picking up David (the Life Scout) from his Troop meeting, he announced he'd thrown his name into contention to be SPL for his Troop at their elections.  He was one of four candidates, including his best-friend John; the top vote getter this week would be SPL, and the #s 2 and 3 would be Assistant SPLs; the fourth-place finisher was out of a job.  I remember being a little cautious: after all, his attendance over the fall hadn't been stellar, would folks want to elect him if his commitment wasn't there?

This week, he climbed into the car and said he had one of the jobs, but didn't know which yet.  They announced one boy had lost, but since the Scoutmaster himself wasn't there, they were going to let Mr Sciacca announce the name when he returned.  I was relieved; at least he wasn't fourth.  On the strength of that alone, we got Dairy Queen for the family on the way home, to celebrate.

Tuesday morning came the e-mail from Mr Sciacca: David had won.  He will be responsible for leading his Troop of 90-some Scouts, including welcoming this year's crop of Brownseas as the new boys rise from Cub Scouts in the later winter.  His pride was palpable last night.  When I came home, he came upstairs without being called, to show me the message from Mr Sciacca.  We hugged and I told him how happy I was and proud I was.

He immediately started settling into his new role.  Mr Sciacca said there were two boys who needed staff jobs; David jumped right in and gave them each a call to offer them the job.  He's started thinking of meetings he can have, and activities to do, and how he wants to go to each of the Cub Scout crossing-over ceremonies to welcome his new Scouts personally.  If he can keep up this level of commitment, I think he'll do a great job.

I'm beginning to see a theme for the year--the meaning of adolescence, the one-foot-in-one-foot-out aspect of this stage of life.  Here he is, honored and elected and chosen by his Troop as the one they want to see him as a leader for the next six months; here I am awash in pride for what he's been able to earn, in terms of respect and trust, over the past nearly five years in the Troop.  And in the next minute, as we try to salvage the wreckage of homework and prepare for the Geometry midterm today (oy…), we see the, um, still-developing nature of his maturity.  I suppose I had my own similar stage.  I suppose his sister will have hers, in her own unique way.

Today, though, is all about David and the honor he's achieved.  This coming Monday he goes to a merit badge day to earn two more of the last badges he needs for Eagle; at the winter court of honor he could earn as many as four of them, leaving only two to go (one of which he's in the middle of).  This could be a truly great year for him; I hope and pray the one-foot-in nature prevails.

Learning to Drive: Making the Leap

The process by which David will begin to join the 210 million licensed drivers in the United States began this Wednesday night, an evening that was almost a perfect illustration of the concept of "adolescence."

Virginia mandates that parents and their teens must attend a 90-minute briefing before the teen can be licensed.  The doors to the auditorium locked promptly at 7, and for the next 90 minutes the hair-raising ride began.  David's PE teachers double as the driver's ed teachers, and they alternated with a FCPD officer in providing lectures and videos about driver's ed.  Some of it was helpful, like how the licensure process works in the Commonwealth.  Some of it was scary, such as the statistics about accident rates among male drivers aged 18-19.  And some of it was absolutely heart-rending, such as the video about texting and driving, which related three stories of lives cut down or torn apart.  

I have always had a nightmare in which we open our front door to find a FCPD officer standing there to bring our world crashing down.  I now have to face that over the next few months we will be equipping David to deal with the lunacy of traffic and driving in NoVA, and pray we will do well enough to keep that wolf from our door.  More than once in the evening I felt guilt, over not being an ideal role model for him to copy from; and wistfulness, as the boy whose birth I remember as being just a couple of days ago is now shaving and getting ready to pilot a two-ton vehicle at highway speeds.

It's hard to say what his reaction was to the night: he didn't betray much at the videos.  He hasn't seemed in a rush to study his driver's manual, or indeed to get started on this process.  But in his own way--trying desperately to hide it beneath that teen boy mask of cool--I sensed anticipation, anxiousness to get started, and yes, a respectable amount of intimidation at the prospect of what he's about to undertake and how incredibly bad things can break if they go wrong.  If I read him right, then, I think that's a pretty constructive place to start.

An evening that began with one foot cautiously edging into deeply adult waters--conversations and videos all about responsibilities and consequences--changed when we got home and David wanted to power-down before heading to bed.  His vehicle for doing so? Old reruns of The Kids Next Door.  How very much like a teen: one moment on the verge of adulthood, the next, retreating into the familiar warm confines of childhood.  I had to smile.  We'll have our challenges, getting ready for the next few months and the driving tests still ahead.  But he's still my little boy after all, for one more night.

2013 vs Goals: How'd I Do?

A couple of weeks after 2013 began, I posted some thoughts on how this year would be different.  Before it ends, a quick check on how well those plans came about:

• Item 1, get a puppy: Huge Furry Check.  As you know, Fergie has been brightening our home since early February.
• Item 2, renovate the master bath and/or kitchen: Kinda Check.  After all the back and forth and side distractions, the contracts have been signed, and work begins next month on our new master bathroom.  The kitchen will have to wait.
• Item 3, redo living room etc.: Kinda Check.  The scrapbooking materials have indeed been moved downstairs, and David has chosen to make it part of his Family Life merit badge for Scouts to (a) clear out the train stuff and make a space for Mary's scrapping downstairs, and then (b) help us paint the living room a new color.  He's taken apart one of the now-extraneous train sets; we need to finish with the others and then move onto the painting (once Mary selects a color).
• Item 4, drumming: Big Check.  Not only have I my own kit now, but I've had several more opportunities to play, both with my home church but now also with Burke UMC's LifeSign service,the latter of which I never would have anticipated at the start of the year.  As 2014 begins, I'm sharing lead drum duties in both places, it would appear….
• Item 5, writing projects: Ummm….  In reality I've begun collecting materials for two projects, one of which is further along than the other, but neither is done this year, and if I'm honest with myself, I'll be lucky to finish by the time I'm 50.

Isn't that always how it seems to go with my goals? Some things done completely, some things under way and moving in the right direction, and some other things I just haven't been able to move the ball on as much as I had hoped.  Candidly, I doubt 2014 will be much different: some things I may deeply want to accomplish, I will probably look back in 365 days and say, Well, that didn't work out.  That doesn't mean we don't keep trying: which, if anything, is probably the best or even the only lesson I can take from any New Year's resolutions.

Christmas 2013

We've posted a set of pictures from our Christmas morning adventures; click here or on the link at right, and come see our holiday!