Wilmington Weekend Update #5

Wilmington Weekend Update #5

This weekend started early, on Tuesday. Margaret took the day off and I took three hours out of work to take Sellers and Abby to Jungle Rapids Water Park for a field trip with Sellers’s class. I’d never been before, and I have to confess to some trepidation looking up at the “Volcano” water slide. After a couple of trips around the Lazy River on a two-person inner tube I got my courage up. Fortunately Sellers and Abby led the way and promised to hold my hand if I got scared. We had such a great ride we decided to tackle the Tidy Bowl, a much taller tube that shoots us out into what can only be described as a pink and yellow toilet, where you take a few spins before plummeting down the drain and back into the Lazy River. Despite the gorgeous weather, we all realized we were freezing cold after an hour and a half, at which point it was about time to leave anyway. But now that I know it’s there you can’t keep me away from that toilet:

Sellers and Julian had a routine week, and Abby wrote a play for her classmates at art camp called, “Save or Be Sorry,” in which a sea turtle eats a plastic bag and a panda is perplexed to find bubble gum stuck to his favorite bamboo stalk. We missed the premiere, but I understand there were tears. For her efforts Abby was rewarded with a plastic sea horse, making her the second professional playwright in the family after Margaret “Grandmommy” Brandon James Collins.

Friday we returned to the television, attempting to watch Top Chef. It turned out the kids have soured on this show, so they sulked off to the playroom where they fashioned fanciful costumes. If there was any doubt we’re a strange family…

Saturday opened dark and rainy, a boon to Margaret’s burgeoning garden, but a bummer for the kids whose beach outing was supplanted by running on the treadmill.
Of course they also got to go back to The Home Depot (yes, we’re in a rut) where they sat on boxes while we bought new doorknobs and deadbolts. As the nice men tediously re-keyed five different locks the children came very close to dying of boredom. That is, they whined so much we almost killed them. Margaret had to run to the hospital for three patients, so the kids entertained themselves by turning our fireplace tools into a bunny rabbit and then putting on a show of improvised songs.


Saturday night was a party for our friend Bill Hession’s fortieth birthday. Bill, a radiologist, lives a few streets over with his wife Nancy, a dermatologist, and their two boys (not -ologists to the best of our knowledge). We didn’t think we were going to attend since our babysitter was called home to help her mom with an eye infection and our back-up sitter was at a wedding and our back-up-back-up sitter got pregnant. But Nancy gave us some numbers, and at the last second a UNCW student named Shelby showed up, to the children’s delight. The kids gave her the house tour, with special attention to animals and the messy room the sitter’s not supposed to see. Margaret and I made it a little late to the hip sushi joint downtown to nosh fish, sip wine, and see Bill grin through all the gag gifts, from the bottle of Rogaine to the adult diapers.

Sunday began for me at 5:30 AM with a one-person athletic event I like to call the Hung Over 5 Kilometer Fun Run. I hope never to repeat this event, but if I do I’m shortening the name to the Hung Over 5 Kilometer Run. Eventually the kids filtered downstairs and began the now-traditional Weekend Whine for Doughnuts. So we let Mommy sleep in a little and mini-vanned our way through the Krispy Kreme drive-through to get our case of Hot-Nows. Margaret had to round again, so the kids watched TV while I wrote a commentary. Then we headed down to the water with the next door neighbors where we snagged a good-sized shell and several colorful minnows with the cast net before fleeing from threatening clouds.

Bill and Nancy accepted our invitation to continue the previous night’s party, so they brought their kids over for hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream, and beer (okay, no beer for the kids). We got to talking and ended up putting the kids to bed way, way too late.

We’re now running the dishwasher and washing machine and gathering Abby’s stuff to attend Marine Quest camp this week. She loves the opportunity to trek through tidal pools and collect the things that dwell in them. We have no special plans for the week, except that I’m on call Saturday. I hope you’ve all had a great weekend!
Davi