CD That's Me

Happy 2009! New Years always force people to think about and make changes in their lives. The resolutions are listed on some task list and many are recycled from year to year. This year I decided instead of the regular resolutions (get in shape, lose the extra holiday lbs, learn something new and so on. . .) I would make a list of intentions.

I think Mike did too and one of his intentions was to spend more time with his family. All of a sudden I was thinking about what I intended to do with our 12 year old nephew who he had invited to spend 24 hours with us this weekend.

12 year old girl, not a problem. I could think of a bunch of places to take her, Mia’s for a manicure, the Copley for an early introduction to Barney’s, J Crew for the after Christmas sale (she would fit into an XS) and lunch with the girls. A boy presents a different story.

Cameron arrived Friday at 4PM. Mike was not at home. . .of course he ran into traffic after leaving the recording studio. So there I was at home still in my sweaty work out gear with my nephew. The first task at hand was getting Grover to tolerate another “kid” in the house. He is quite territorial and I have to say a bit spoiled. By the time the two had bonded, Mike walked in the door and I was able to shower and get ready for dinner.

My one good idea was to take Cameron to one of our favorite restaurants Shabu Zen. It is Japanese crock pot cooking and you make/cook everything yourself at the table. It is fun and healthy. Cameron loves to cook and to eat, so he was very excited. On the table was a number of dishes with mix ins for the sauce. Everything you cook is flavored by the sauce you create – mild to extra spicy. Mike instructed Cam to taste each to see what he liked. He forgot to tell him the little green seed things were chilis. Four glasses of ice water and a banana smoothie later and he was fine. He actually loved the dining experience and ate all the shrimp and scallops. On the way hme we stopped at the Bleacher Bar to show him one of Mike’s projects and an inside view of Fenway Park.

We got home around 8ish and decide to watch a movie. I had been dying to see WALL*E and thought having a real live kid in the house was the perfect occasion. Okay 12 year olds talk and I mean — a lot, any subject and they know it all and have all the answers. I was on the couch in the middle of Mike (now snoring to beat the band), Grover who had wedged himself between me and Cam and Cam who was providing play-by-play commentary punctuated by the non-stop “. . . but Aunt Christine, robots can’t fall in love, they are not programmed that way. They do not have any feelings.” I am a still a sucker for a good romantic comedy and finally made everyone go to bed only so we could wake up the next morning to watch the end.

I woke up to the sound and smell of breakfast. Mike and Cam were in the kitchen making us buttermilk pancakes. We ate and then watched the end of the movie. We had to explain to Cam that the Japanese had made a robot that does have human emotions. Logic is the only way to reason with a 12 year old. He listened and I enjoyed the rest of the movie in peace.

Next on our agenda was bowling. We walked to Kings and were the first ones there. Cam threw a strike on his first ball! The rest did not go so great but he tried. Mike and I were a bit rusty but we managed to have a blast. I bowled a 103 my second string and was the winner so I really had a blast.

We walked back home after bowling and ate lunch at another one of our local and highly frequented spots Sonsie . 12 year olds are not impressed by the number of people you know or by the fact that a drink is named after their almost famous Aunt. Mike and Cam spent the rest of the afternoon on his computer playing Mike’s favorite new game Spore. I tried to create a creature but was told my Greckazoid although very cute, would never survive in early life. I replied he could charm his way out of situations and it was better to be a lover than a fighter and then seized the opportunity to take a nap.

We really had a great time with Cam but the 24 hours passed very quickly and it was time to take him home. I think he was the most sad about leaving Spore. If he wasn’t playing it, he was talking about the game. Continuously. Again, we had to use logic and tell him that it was always better to listen than to be a talker. You could almost see the wheels turning in his brain as he tried to figure that one out.

Finally we explained to our 12 year old guest, the more he listened, the more he would learn.