October 11, 2008

Déjà vu

So, the girls are spending the night with us. They arrived this afternoon while I was out at the market. As I drove up to the house, I saw Michael’s little Prius in the driveway. That made me happy.

As I stepped into the house, I almost tripped over some shoes that the youngest had slipped off just inside the door. She is her father’s daughter after all.

I picked up the shoes and moved them to a safer spot. Since no one was in sight, I called up the stairs to let the guys know that the car needed unloading. I caught a glimpse of Gaia Girl busily engaged at my computer, and was not surprised that she did not answer.

Long before her father had reached her exalted age, he had already developed the amazing ability of 'selective hearing'; and since she is also her father’s daughter, I knew that my voice had not yet registered.

Mike and Pete came down to help, all the while deep in a discussion about politics. This is nothing new at our house. As one can see from my blog, this is an oft discussed topic here.

The discussion went on as the groceries were carried in, unpacked and put away. While concentrating on getting the groceries away, I listened with half an ear.

It was quite a while before the girls came down. They both seemed taller than they were just two weeks ago. They are at an age when the changes are happening swiftly. And even though this is a usual occurrence, I am always a bit taken aback.

After a while Gaia Girl sat down to chat. I noticed that she was wearing eyeliner. She looked much older and more mature than I had ever seen her before. She is really quite beautiful. Yet somehow it seems as though this is all happening way too fast. But, then of course, it must always seem this way to grandparents.

Not long ago, I came across a stash of old photos of my best friend and me in Junior High. In the age of Marilyn Monroe, the two of us did everything we could to appear older and more mature. The picture captured two 13 year old girls in form fitting dresses, striking a pose with chests thrust out and lips all pursed and pouty. The girls in the picture appeared much more experienced than they actually were. We were play-acting of course, but if I had been my mother, I think I would have been alarmed.

...Getting back to the original thought, after her Dad left, Gaia Girl sat down to chat. She told me that she heard that Barack Obama had recently been in Ohio. I asked if any of her other grandparents had gone to see him? She said she didn’t know about that. Then she said; "You know Nana, they aren't as interested in politics as your are."

I replied; "I guess I am pretty interested in that kind of stuff.” Gaia Girl replied; “Nana, you are not kind of interested in politics, you are VERY interested in politics! It is all over your computer.” It’s not that she wouldn’t have known this without being on my computer; but it is obvious that she has been checking out my online history again.

The last time the girls were here, Mira told me that there were inappropriate websites on my computer. I am not quite sure to what she was referring, or how she got to places that she thought were not quite proper, since there is not much stored on the desktop they were using, but I guess that the girls have ways of navigating around this new world I’ve never thought of.

Well, at least on some future date, maybe I will not be remembered as a boring and straight-laced old lady. Not that there would be anything exactly wrong with that. It would be pretty cool to be remembered as a prim and proper lady. But it might be more fun to be thought of as a fully engaged woman who talked about politics and played at the beach with seaweed.

Posted by Judi at October 11, 2008 10:49 PM | TrackBack
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