Thursday, February 11, 2010

Shouldn't somebody know this information?

So for the following story, you must envision Master J and what he is wearing today (and honestly, quite a few days lately). Over the jeans and tee shirt he wore to school, he is wearing a green hooded sweatshirt. The hood is pulled up. On top of that, he has added a burgundy bathrobe. Because he got the belt to this bathrobe caught in his ceiling fan a while back (yeah, don't ask), he has to use one of his leather belts to hold it together. Tucked into the leather belt is a Jedi lightsaber. He walks around whipping out the lightsaber at times and "fights" with whatever is in front of him, swirling around and making the appropriate noises that would accompany such a fight. Got that vision in your head? Okay, then you're ready for today's story.

I've been trying to work with Master J again lately about not interrupting me while I'm on the phone. We had this problem when he was two or three years old and I thought we had it beat. Evidently not as it has come back with a vengeance.

Several weeks ago, when I was on a business call, he danced around holding candy up in front of me, trying to get me to nod my head that he could have it. While I was on a business phone call. With a client. Trying to answer their very specific questions about what was going on with their deal. I dealt with my client as best I could, all the while shooting daggers out my eyes at my wayward son. When I got off my call, I calmly informed Master J that he could not have the candy. I let him know in no uncertain terms that had he asked me at any other time than when I was on the phone, the answer would have been "yes". It was because he chose to ask at a time when I could not reasonably be expected to think about his request that he could not have it at all. I further informed him that in the future if he interrupted me, whatever he was trying to get from me would not happen. He was not happy, but I did have several weeks with no phone interruptions. Until today.

Today, while I was on the phone with Miss Lee, Master J walked right up to me and started talking at me like I was just standing around. I couldn't believe it. I turned away from him several times, pointing at the phone in my hand first. Each time, he would circle around to my front to try and talk to me. Finally, he gave up and went into the other room. My phone call ended and I started thinking about what just happened. Now here's the thing, it's been several weeks since the last time this happened and for the former incident, I had kind of made up the consequences on the fly. So now, I knew I needed to follow through and be consistent with what happens when I get interrupted on the phone, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what the hell the consequence was supposed to be. So I got smart.

I called Master J back into the room and...

Me: Master J, do you remember the last time you interrupted me while I was on the phone a few weeks ago?

MJ: Yes.

Me: What did I say would happen if you interrupted me the next time on the phone. (See what a genius I am?)

MJ: I don't know. What did you say would happen?

Me (oh shit!): Ummm, I was...kind of hoping you would know.

As I'm looking at him in his full getup, I see the hint of a grin on his mouth. He knows I'm screwed. He knows I have no freaking idea what is supposed to happen next. But he also knows enough not to say anything too snarky here. He just looks at me with wide eyes, that slight smile still tugging the corners of his mouth, full Jedi stance with his hand resting on his lightsaber. And I can feel the laughter coming. From me. I can't help it, it just starts bubbling up until I totally lose it. I start laughing so hard I have tears running down my face. And I can't stop. I do manage to choke out "go to your room" in between laughs and amazingly, he goes. I think I might have had a chance of holding it together had he not been dressed the way he was. Unfortunately, the combination of his goofy outfit and the fact that my complete blondness got called out (again) made that impossible. I think we can safely give the points on this one to my Jedi knight.

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