We are waiting in line at the checkout desk at the Orthopedist's office, waiting to handle paperwork and payment and such. By we, I should clarify, I mean me and my 15-year-old daughter, Robyn. It is a Pediatric Orthopedist, which always feels funny to me because my kids are older. There are all these little babies and toddlers and grade-school children running around. Meanwhile I'm there getting Robyn's cast removed from her broken pinky, the one she broke playing basketball about a month ago. She's almost six feet tall and... well, that just looks a little funny at the Pediatric Orthopedist is all I'm saying. I can tell she feels a bit awkward about the contrast, so, as a good father, I decide to needle her about it.
In front of us at the desk is a mother with a tiny two-year-old girl. The clerk says, "Would you like a sticker?" The girl would indeed like one, apparently, so she picks out a panda sticker.
When it's our turn, I ask Robyn, "Would you like a sticker, Robyn?"
"No," she says, smiling in that embarrassed way. She starts fiddling with the stickers, rearranging them and straightening them in their little rack.
"Are you sure you don't want the turtle one?" I ask her. "It's cute."
She picks it up and looks at it. "Oh," she says, "it is a turtle. I thought it was something else."
"It's very definitely a turtle," I respond, furrowing my brow and wondering how should could think otherwise.
"You're very definitely a turtle," she quips.
She has a point.
Hello, friends. How are you today?
Later. Love.
P. S. - On the way back to the car she remembers that Jason Mraz looked like a turtle on Saturday Night Live last Saturday. He sang from the side of his mouth and craned his neck crookedly, tilting his head as he crooned into the microphone. Just like a turtle does. She has a point. Thanks for stopping by.
