Showing posts with label A1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A1. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

An A1 Day

Some of us were having birthdays, Ryan (32) and Jonas (10), and we celebrated with birthday lunch in scenic Gardiner, at the A1 Diner. It was freezing cold outside (14 F) and kind of brisk inside---you could tell that there is little insulation going on in the floor at A1, because it's really a historic diner car from the 1940s that is somehow suspended on stilts by the bridge?! So cool. And such amazing food: classic diner food like burgers (local beef) and meat loaf as well as things like Mojito Duck Breast and Asian noodle bowl with 3 types of soy. Really the best french fries ever (and they are real, not from some frozen package) , with little bits of delicious salt on them. Mmmm.
But really the day was about my 10 year-old boy, Jonas. And the day we first met him, in a hospital that was really groovy and absolutely fine with the four grandparents, uncle, and photographer in attendance at the birth. How I trusted Jake so completely to care for me, so I could do the important work of relaxing and letting my body do its work. How Jake was perched on one bumcheek on the side of the bed supporting me and how my stepdad was holding the rest of him up. The first thing Jonas heard in this loud, unwatery world, was the sound of his parents' laughing; there were other moist eyes in the room, but we were overcome with laughter. Here was someone in our arms who was a total stranger to us a moment ago! Everyone saw that Jonas was a boy before we even knew it!
He has always been a storyteller and story-lover, and sometimes a poet. He loves words. He sees numbers like a map in his head. He has always been hungry for the world. He has always known who he is. He has always been my teacher. He is an artist.
It is sometimes hard for us because we are so alike. He can be difficult and rigid and so can I. He has always pushed for more of everything. He is immensely talented. He is sometimes ill-suited to childhood in that he usually has a clear picture in his mind of how things should and can be. I am certain this is how I was as a child (bossy, difficult, not easily maneuvered by adults), and perhaps sometimes how I am now.
Jonas is my boy who is full of twinkles in the blue eyes that come from Nana. He is funny and generous, caring and thoughtful. It has been an adventure to know him these 10 years and I can't remember a time before.