A Mundane but Lovely Evening...

I forgot what used to be normal for me. Coming home from a long day of work and seeing my little kids. Rarely was I greeted like the "conqueroring hero" but I was greeted by smiling, often dirty, but very cute faces. Now, that they're older and live with their mom, I don't have this experience...funny how it slips away, these times and you don't even know that they've left until you get a sweet reminder.

All that to say, it was really nice to come home tonight and find my daughter Miranda relaxing on my couch watching a DVD on the TV. I got a nice smile from a cute face that wasn't the least bit dirty, framed by blonde locks.

We had a plan to play some basketball and then come home for burritos for dinner. So I dashed upstairs and changed into shorts and put on my new basketball shoes. Miranda flipped off her sandals and jumped into her old basketball shoes - that I teased her, saying they still looked like new. She confessed she hadn't worn them or played basketball in a couple of years. I loved watching her play on the CSDF girls' teams in junior high and her freshman and sophomore years high school. She wasn't talented but she was tenacious with good anticipation. Her last two years of high school, she chose to do acting in the school's spring play instead of playing hoop. Being a theatre person, I really enjoyed see her work on stage, too.

So as I was shooting around with her on a school blacktop, I asked which she preferred, "Drama or basketball." She shrugged and said she didn't know. I was surprised. I thought she would have picked drama because she had so much fun and did so well. She said, "I miss playing defense." I laughed. She's only 5'3" and I told her she was too short to play basketball. Then I asked her why she was so short...as if she could have done something about it. She pointed the finger back at me. "It's your family's fault!" She said something to the effect of I got my blond hair from my mother and everything else from you. Okay.

While we continued to just shoot around, we chatted about college life and Gallaudet. I warned her that she might gain weight when she goes away to school. She said she knew about the freshman 15 pounds. Then she told me she didn't like Gallaudet U's cafeteria food. She said it wasn't as healthy as CSDF. She knows because she's stayed in Gallaudet's dorms 3 times for the Hoy and Clerc tournaments and a volleyball camp she attended. It's kind of a relief knowing she knows the campus somewhat already. In six weeks or so, it will be her home away from home.

I asked her if she cried when her boyfriend left on Tuesday for his parents' home in Minnesota. She said she did. I couldn't resist another tease. "You're a big baby!" She laughed and said she wasn't...my big baby signs turned into an African dance she once did on stage at CSDF years ago. She laughed at me again.

Tonight's malaprop - when trying to sign "goat" I signed something quite bizarre that had Miranda scrunching up her face with wonderment. When I fingerspelled "goat", she signed it correctly and we both laughed at how far off I was from signing it. Oh, well, goat doesn't come up often in my limited ASL conversations, so I tend to forget those types of words, but I think I remember and invariably then end up signing something extremely ridiculous. Oh, well, such is my daughter's cross to bear: she has a ASL-challenged, stupid hearing Dad.

After awhile Miranda said she was tired and hungry so we came home for dinner. I made some burritos and she actually liked them. No complaints, even though I didn't have all the condiments that are usually provided at her mother's house: namely salsa and sour cream.

It was a really nice, quiet, mundane evening...I know I'm going wish I had a few more like these come September.