7:58 a.m. - May 22, 2004
Mother May I?
Had dinner with two lesbians and their twin five-year-olds who taught me to play Mother May I with some ingenious questions like What are the names of five different kinds of horses? and What are the names of ten different kinds of trees, not including fruit trees?. Precocious. Their mothers had asked if I would informally evaluate their language skills in English and French and hands down, they are remarkably ahead of their peers. I enjoyed playing games with them before Shabbat dinner and having them howl in glee when I inverted two words of the wine blessing. It's been a while since I did Shabbat and it was a nice reminder of things that were, not quite nostalgia and not quite a review of an academic exercise; it was more a bittersweet nostalgia tempered by having something more fulfilling now.
The two mothers had fun watching me with the kids - it takes me a while to warm up - and be stumped on lines from The Sound of Music and the movie with a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. As for cartoons and Finding Nemo, I was in over my head.
And such a beautiful drive home with the city on my left and a bagful of leftovers. A lot of laughter, just what I needed.
I have a busy day ahead.
