Thursday, March 3, 2011

Double Double, Toil and Trouble

There are some mornings that no amount of warm vanilla creamy coffee can make more tolerable.

Sometimes the dynamic duo simply are not in the mood to share the same space. And they let me know in no uncertain terms.

It was a cloudy,  misty morning as we headed on our way to school today and apparently the back seats mood was reflective of the weather.

I was discussing the finer points of Macbeth with Alex when drifting up from behind me comes grumping and complaining.

I stopped talking and the back seat stopped talking. I started up again and so did the back seat.

"What is going on?"

"Katherine is staring at me."

"I am not.... I'm just looking over there and I can't help it if your face is in my way."

Really? This early in the morning and you two are already finding ways to annoy each other?

"Please stop looking at each other. At least until we get to school."

There that should fix that.

Back to Shakespeare.

"MOM!!!"

I glance in the back seat and Katherine has her backpack lifted up onto her shoulder, resting against her head apparently to keep Jeffrey from looking at her.

"Katherine what are you doing?"

"Nothing."

I've noticed that they each put a lot of effort into doing nothing.

"Please put that down and look out your window. If I have to stop suddenly that backpack is going to fly through the air and hit Alex in the head."

She debated on whether or not that would fun to watch but when she caught my eye in the rear view she reluctantly dumped the pack on the floor and turned to look out her window.

Finally. Maybe the rest of the trip would be quiet.

Alex noted that the car carrier driving along side of us was headed to the Jeep dealer in the automall.

"Look at all those different types of Jeeps. Theres the classic, the rugged and then look at the new ones, that one is kind of fluffy and the other one looks squishy."

Really Alex? Fluffy and squishy? Did MacBeth suck up all your brain power this morning?

My sister drives a jeep. I'll have to call and ask her which one she has.. the fluffy one or the squishy one. Of course she'll think I'm a nut job but I guess it won't be too much of a change in opinion.

"MOM!!!"

Seriously... again??

"What now?"

"Katherine is looking out my window. I specifically heard you tell her to look out her own window."

"Katherine can you please look out your own window."

"But there's nothing interesting out my window. Jeffrey always has the good stuff on his side of the car. Can I look out the front window at least?"

"No... you can look out your window and that's my final offer. "

"But Jeffrey can't look out the front window either right?"

They are not going to make it easy this morning are they?

I cranked up the radio and distracted them with some tunes. I dropped Alex off and managed to get them to their destination without much more ado.

Clearly some mornings I need the giant industrial size coffee just to keep me from losing perspective of why I am in the car with them in the first place.

6 hours of no bickering or complaining or negotiating. Until I have to pick them up and do the whole thing in reverse.

As Shakespeare said " Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night til it be morrow." Or the afternoon. Whichever comes first.