Traffic, CPK, and Caroling
On Tuesday nights, I take Eli 5.3 to dinner, and then I give him his bath and put him to bed.Last Tuesday, he decided he wanted to go to California Pizza Kitchen. CPK is at Barton Creek Mall, which is on the other end of town. It's a twenty-minute drive when there's no traffic.
It was, however, 5:15 p.m.
Austin has insanely bad traffic for a city its size. And I knew--I just knew--that this was a terrible idea, because heavy traffic really stresses me out. But I wanted to go to CPK, too, and we'd gone at this time just a few weeks ago, when traffic was very heavy but at least bearable.
So instead of chalking up that first trip to crazy good fortune, I decided to try it again.
An hour and seventeen minutes later, we arrived at the mall.
I'm what's known as a commuting curser. Traffic makes me mutter (insert alliterative word here) about every fifteen seconds.
I couldn't do that with Eli in the car, obviously. And I couldn't let him know how pissed off I was getting, even though the top of my head was about to explode.
Fortunately, I come equipped with cyborg mode. I can hide any emotion in my inventory, particularly when I get pissed off. This is not a positive feature when dealing with adults (just ask Gloria), but it's a positive boon with kids, particularly in a situation like this. So we chatted and listened to his Lion King CD (twice) and finally, finally arrived at the mall.
I was miserable from the drive, even though I wasn't showing it. The day was very nice, though--slightly cool, with no wind--and the mall was quiet, so we decided to sit on CPK's patio.
So we're sitting on the patio, just chatting while we wait for our food. No one else is sitting out there with us. And Eli 5.3 starts singing.
Rockin' around the Christmas Tree
At the Christmas party hop,
Mistletoe hung where you can see
Every couple tries to stop,
That's my favorite Christmas song. I love how Brenda Lee sings that song. I didn't even know Eli had ever heard it before.
Rockin' around the Christmas tree,
Let the Christmas spirit ring,
Later we'll have some pumpkin pie,
And we'll do some caroling.
Eli's singing in a very enthusiastic (though off-key) way. A lady walks by as she exits the mall, hears him, and smiles.
You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear,
Voices singing, "Let's be jolly,
Deck the halls with boughs of holly",
When he comes to the word "deck" in the refrain, he throws his arms up in the air and sings "DECK the halls with boughs of holly!" I can't sing, but I start singing, too, and so we sing Rockin' Around the Christmas tree three times, and I'm glad we came.
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