Odds and Ends on a Sunday
The form of the conversation was Kiki telling me about her concerns related to intellectual property theft in relation to her artwork. The true content of the conversation was her feeling that the world is a big, scary place and she’s about to venture forth in it solo. Hugs and chocolate helped.
We all sat down at the dinner table together. We don’t have any regular patterns for when we’ll all sit down together, at least not lately. It is more likely to happen on Sunday afternoons, and definitely more likely during the school months than during the summer. We passed around food and I made announcements to the kids about the coming week so that they would know what to expect. Mostly that we’ll have influxes of people the first three days of the week and that the last two days we’ll flee the house and go on outings. There was some debate about where the outings should take us, but a compromise was reached. I think. Link did a really good non-responsive 15-year-old face. It is hard to get all four enthusiastic about the same trips in advance, but I’m pretty sure we’ll all find things to enjoy while we’re out.
I’d just finished showing Howard the packet of GenCon papers. These include this year’s sales tax license, proof of event insurance, hotel reservations, and an explanation of how he may need to go to the hotel of our booth help in order to make sure that the bill ends up on our credit card. Earlier we’d spent time going through iterations of convention flyers and packing his suitcase. I’d assembled a list of errands for me to run tomorrow to make sure that all the pieces are in place for GenCon. I sat in a chair in his office and he sat across from me painting.
“Know what is nice?” I said. “It’s nice that I know all the things to do in order to get this ready. I don’t have to feel panicked that I’m forgetting something.”
“What’s nice is that you’re amazing.” Howard replied, because the evening had demonstrated how many preparatory tasks I’ve managed and solved without him needing to think of them at all. Some days I get it right and can tell that I have. Tomorrow’s task list is full of things, as is Tuesday’s, but for once I feel competent to accomplish it all.