Had a squabble with my son today.

It was unpleasant.

It came on the heels of his 21st birthday.

21!!!

I started this blog when he was still walking up a dirt road to catch his bus to school!

He was this little …

Our squabble?  It was over a bird.

He wanted/wants a bird.

I said no.

We rent – they poop.  We rent – they scratch their seeds.  We rent – he doesn’t pay any of it.

Truth is, I’ve always wanted a bird too.

But, not a caged one.

One I could put to bed after it flew free in my (owned) home with interaction.

We don’t have that to give.

What he DID get for his birthday was semi-impulsive and it dawned on me today, he has more of me in him than I had thought.

What he didn’t DO on his birthday made me proud.

He thought he was driving later to a friends after his birthday dinner to do college homework – so, he didn’t have a drop of alcohol.

I SO appreciate that.

Respect that.

My son has common sense.

As for the tattoo (of which, I have four) I didn’t love it.

No, I’ll be honest.

I didn’t love the idea of it – because, he HAD a plan.

He wanted to integrate nature and technology and was going to be proud to have that imbedded in his flesh for eternity.

After consulting with a tattoo artist, he was told it would be 5-6 hours in a chair and perhaps he needed a pre-tattoo.  (I’m sure that wasn’t the sentence the guy used – but hey, I’m paraphrasing.)

I felt like he was being coerced into an extra tat.

When Nic sent me a mock up of the tat – and I saw Alice –

I knew he didn’t have me in mind.  (Although, I WAS hoping for his first to be “MOM” in a heart – just kidding.)

Because, this is what he brought me back from his big trip to England:

But, he had heard the story over and over of when I was in a bus in India as a child reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the bus hit a man.

No one really cared.

But, when we hit a chicken!!!!  We had to pay for not only that chicken, but the chickens it would produce, the eggs those offspring would produce etc. etc.

One less mouth to feed in a 3rd world country is above food that feeds them – to a degree.

I kept reading on that bus – but did catch a glimpse of hamburger head.

It was horrible.

But, we took him somewhere good – and my mind stayed in that book.

Bottom line, I said:

And he is honest.  Like me – to the point of discounting himself, if that’s even possible.

We try it, we do – but to lie – it doesn’t lay softly on our chests.  I’m glad he got not only impulsiveness, but HONESTY from me.

And now we’ll both always have Alice.