This week, my teen has been working on finishing the writing portion of his senior project paper, “American Car Culture.” Thursday night—the night before it was due—Cole and I ditched sleep in a collaborative effort to put the final touches on it. No procrastination, this time, he just wasn’t ready to let it go. Cole researched, double checked, and wrote while I brewed tea, poured milk to pair with cookies, ordered Chinese food and played the role of consultant.
Cole: Mom, can I compare the Corvette to Marylyn Monroe?
Me: What is the comparison?
Cole: Marylyn Monroe was a big deal around the time the Corvette was designed and they both had great bodies, looked good in white.
Me: I think you can make the comparison.
Cole: Only problem is, the first Corvette wasn’t very fast.
Me: Have some milk and cookies.
I came up with alternative words for spiffy. Cole felt he had overused it and was clear that in years to come he did not want to look back on his senior paper and think, “If only I had used the word spiffy a few less times.” I couldn’t disagree. Groovy?
Reading a portion of his paper aloud, I asked…
Me: Cole, what is a bevy?
Cole: Is this a test?
Me: No, I’ve never heard of a bevy being used this way.
Cole: Interesting. The lover of words and vocabulary does not know what a bevy is? A flock, a gathering, a lot of something. A bevy of cars. It’s a noun.
Me: Thank you my son, the wordsmith.
Cole: Can you use it in a sentence?
I glared.
Thursday rolled into Friday. Cole printed his research paper, tucked it into his backpack, hugged me and left for school. From the door, I watched him walk away wanting to hang on to him for just a moment longer, as he walked under a tree, a clump of snow fell on him. As he shook the snow off, I could not resist asking from the doorway, “Cole, did a bevy of snowflakes just fall on you?”
He smiled. I did, too.
Odd Loves Company!
that would be a bevy of snow flakes
Oh. Much better. I’m changing. I can’t e-mail you. :-/.
I haven’t done an all-nighter since college. But I can remember working until the sun came up and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Of-course my all-nighters were mostly because I had procrastinated.
Giving up sleep to hang with your kid. I’ll look forward to that someday!
It was fun and I’m a little wistful to see it start to come to an end….so I’m hanging on to every moment. Your time will come. 😀
Oh an all nighted with Cole sounds like a lot of fun. I am sure the end result will receive a bevy of accolades.
Well done!! It was fun. It takes me longer to recover these days, tho… :-/
Oh, I remember those last-minute projects! Why my son decided to procrastinate is beyond me — oh, all right, he gets it honest, as I did the same thing at that age! Guess my parents’ wish — “you’ll get one just like you” — came true. Not a bad thing at all, you know. Looking back, it provided lots of bonding moments!
No procrastination on this one. it was done but there was a strong desire to do more. The first hardest part is starting and once the momentum is going it is hard to stop. And yes, I would never trade sleep for the fun and sometime angst of it all.
I’ll choose that sweet vette! My brain turns to mush at late hours so all nighters were not part of my school experience. I know, I missed out. Congratulations on another successful venture!
Not done yet but moving through another piece. I loved that vette too. And the man who saved the corvette–Zoro was such a character. His ashes are in an urn at the Corvette museum.
I love your witty conversations with Cole. Can’t you set up a webcam? 🙂
I should or secretly switch my phone on! We have our moments for sure but mostly they are good one’s if not in the moment soon after.
I can’t wait to see how his senior project is received. I can’t believe how cold it’s been up there for so long. It better get ir over with before March!
TTFN
MJ
Miss you.