Pass the Motrin

Poor Alex and Ian. This place was crawling with teenaged girls last night, several more than we had counted on, and the noise level was outrageous. They wound up sitting out on the back patio in the cold and wind for a long time, trying to escape the noise. I really felt bad for Alex, because he gave up a date with Stephanie to stay home and keep Rachel amused, and in the end he really didn’t need to. They could have gone out and Rachel never would have missed them.

Every time they go sit out there, I keep thinking they look like Denny Crane and Alan Shore at the end of every episode of Boston Legal, sitting outside with a drink and a cigar, though with them the drinks are bottled water and Diet Coke and the closest thing to smoke is when it’s really cold, their breath fogs up. Most of the time when they sit out there like that I kind of want to eavesdrop, because I have no idea what it is they talk about and I’m just nosy enough to want to know. They look so serious, like they have these giant problems that have to be solved right now, and I don’t intrude because Alex is closer to 16 than 15 now and 90% of what he thinks about are things I don’t want to really know that he’s thinking about.

Ian won’t tell me exactly what they talk about most of the time, but he does confirm that much of it is stuff I don’t want to hear. So I avoid intruding. After they’d been out there a while Stephanie headed out to sit with them and I assumed that meant Ian would be coming back inside, but he stayed out there for a good 45 minutes, and every time I looked they all seemed so serious.

This time I wanted to intrude and came straight out and asked what was so deep that they were talking about. I wasn’t sure I wanted an answer, but at the same time I did.

Bathroom remodeling. They were sitting out in the cold discussing remodeling my dad’s guest bathroom and exactly what kind of finishes he wants, and whether the shower stall would look better with subway tile, 12 x 12 tile, or mosaic. And there was talk of vapor barriers and subflooring and half a dozen other things that I had no idea what he was saying when he was telling me about it.

In about five minutes he managed to bore me into wishing they’d actually been talking about sex.

In any case, they have a summer project lined up. My dad is getting another new bathroom, Stephanie is apparently interested in learning about the whole process, and Alex is one step closer to wanting to build a house from the foundation up.

I think if he ever does, it will be a soundproof cabin in the back yard where he can shove Rachel and her friends. It really did get to be too much, and when they all headed home a little after 10:30, even I had a headache.

She gets to go back to school tomorrow, though we have to make sure she has an excused out from P.E. class for at least the week. She has a follow up appointment later in the week and we’ll ask then, but I’m guessing she won’t be allowed to do much of anything physical for a while. She won’t mind it if it means getting out of chores, but she’s going to be really mad when she realizes it means no running, TKD, or even picking Thad and Travis up.