Halloween Hangover.
Kids these days have no idea how good they have it. Every other day seems to be a holiday, conference week, or break—rarely requiring their attendance at school. In fact, they even get to miss November 1st; providing them the luxury to nurse the Halloween hangover. Although against the unnecessary “vacation” days, I do support a day of rest after trick-or-treating.
Between the week-long sugar buzz and little to no sleep, I thought Sandler might actually slow down for a minute and take a break. Per usual, I could not have been more wrong. The day after Halloween he was ready to go full throttle once again. As expected, he began his long weekend with the breakfast of champions (a.k.a. a pile of candy, Coco Puffs and chocolate milk). As I poured my third cup of coffee and looked at his face covered in the brown confection, I knew I was in for a very long three days.
After answering “yes” to the first inevitable question out of his mouth filled with cereal, “Can I go skateboarding?” I tried to prepare myself for whatever unexpected things he would want to cover next. However, there is no proper preparation strategy when it comes to handling Sandler’s questioning or chosen topics. I sipped my caffeine hoping it would provide me the fuel needed for the subject of the day: country music.
I was not paying any attention to the accidental music selection in the background until he asked me if it was country. I answered that it was indeed and felt relieved that there was a simple answer to his inquiry.
Then the follow up question ensued, “How do you know it’s country?”
In response, I gave my solid answer of, “because I know everything,” — hopeful that would put a kibosh on any sort of continued conversation about the subject.
He proceeded with his next question, “What does weed with Willie mean?”
I felt the jolt of my coffee kick in and my ears quickly tuned in to what was coming out of the speaker. Sure enough it was a song about weed with Willie. It was much too early in the day to have to go over such an important issue, not to mention give a history lesson on the great country singer, so I offered Sandler a ride to the skatepark as an emergency distraction. Much to my relief, it worked.
As we drove off, I commended myself for getting out of yet another difficult conversation with Sandler. However, as he sang the lyrics to the song the rest of the weekend I realized I am going to eventually have to figure out a way to change his tune.
- Nikki