babies

I went to the grocery store the other day, shopping for my weekly groceries, some ground turkey, chicken thighs, potatoes, bananas and more when all of a sudden this shrieking alarm sounded. I instinctively froze for a second and then without regard headed for the exit. I do admit it was the highest pitch fire alarm I have ever heard, but still I headed to the exit walking quickly past the dairy and turned down the Asian theme isle when all of a sudden I stopped dead in my tracks. " WHAT THE HELL", the alarm I heard was not an alarm at all, it was a larger than usual baby boy, screaming and not liking his cart at all. Where was his mom, about 20 feet down the isle on her cell phone just talking away and shopping for something,not paying attention to her child. Well I thought you are kidding me, So I did what I thought was best. I rolled that cart with the screaming baby boy to its mother, "here you go".....She turned and gave me such a look of disdain and I said " now you know how we all feel ", get off your phone and care for your son. Then I grabbed some sriracha sauce and headed off to find my cart leaving behind now 2 screaming babies. Well I paid for my groceries and was placing them in the back seat of my truck when I heard "hey bud". I turned around and saw no one. "look down numb nuts". What the f. It was the baby boy I had encountered, "you talk?" I asked. "no"he shot back with a smile and a wink. I must be going crazy I thought to myself but if I was so be it. "So whats up little man"? "Don't call me that"....I just wanted to let you know we babies have something to say. O.K. what is it? we babies cry because we can not TALK! we cry because we wet our diapers, we cry because we are tired, we cry because we are hungry, we cry because we are scared, we do not know how to control our volume, no we won't be quiet, Oh is that a pacifier? Did I say we can't talk, if we could we would not be crying all the time. so sorry for interrupting your movie or for making your shopping less fun but we are not as bad as those dogs, sorry for ruining your meals and your romantic dinner and if you smell something very bad and we are crying god help you...I agreed with this larger than usual talking baby boy . I closed my door and turned back but the baby boy was gone, I knew that this was just my mind playing games on me, funny, but as I was about to get into my truck out came the mother carrying the baby boy on her shoulders and who now appeared asleep. I thought as she came closer that it is a tough tough job to be a parent and to be a baby and I forgive all babies for all their indiscretions of behavior. The mom and baby boy walked by me , the mom and myself exchanged smiles and as I watched her carry her sleeping baby boy he suddenly opened his eyes, smiled and winked, drooled on his moms shoulders then fell back to sleep. I laughed and got in my truck and have not stopped smiling. maybe this was not my mind playing tricks on me and the larger than usual baby boy was right...babies are not as bad as dogs.....

As good as it gets

August 4th, 2011

every now and then we hang around greatness. That adjective can be used loosely at best. Not this time. I have a friend not a best friend but friend none the less. He works hard and has a plan. He looks for love and more times than not finds friends. He always has a place to go, always invited by someone to do something. He helps anyone who needs it without any reservation. I my self have been stranded on a Friday night , one call to him and 30 minutes later he is there, He does not have a pet but you will find a cute Chiwawa hanging out at his place when his owner is off at school. I have never and I mean never heard him say a coarse word. Boy could he, you see my friend has Crohn's and for all who do not know Crohn's is a long-term inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal (GI) system. He has been in an out of the hospital because of this, His diet has changed( anything good makes him sick, ice makes him feel better). He was in a relationship and it ended because of this. Pain, I mean constant, piercing, intolerable pain that would make anyone give up. Not my friend, he says nothing. He demands of himself to go to work, help customers, they need him he says, he wont let them down, all the while having to endure this pain. He has been in the hospital 2 of the last 4 weeks, at least there he can get morphine and the pain for that moment of time disappears. This will be his life from now on, this is what he gets to look forward too, everyday and I mean everyday dealing with pain but hey if I did not tell you, did not point at him while we were all out and say that's my friend with Crohn's you would never know. Sit around the table with him, sit at the bar with him, go to dinner with him, watch a movie with him, take a road trip with him and experience his greatness as he will never let you know about his pain. My friend has Crohn's and he refuses to let Crohn's control his live, spend a moment with him and see what he is made of because that is as good as it gets.

Mark