"How was school?"

But first ... I have to tell you that I have awesome parents. They are the ones that put up with me despite my weirdness (referenced in previous posts). There are a few stories I would love to tell that feature them, and I just want to make sure people know they are wonderful and I love them.

Parental Unit Story #1

When I was little, you already know what a chatterbox I was.

My dad would come home from work and ask, "Hi Nathan. How was school?"

I would launch into a story about all the things that happened during school. At first, I had my dad's full attention. However, he would start to look at the paper in his hands, which would turn from fleeting glances to full absorption pretty quick. Inevitably, he would walk out on me while I was in mid sentence.

It used to make me feel a little bad that my dad wasn't interested in my full report.

But then I realized ...

He probably asked his other eight children the same question when they were growing up and probably got responses like "fine," "pretty good," "average," etc.

I don't think he ever got used to my responses: "Oh, it was pretty good. I got to school five minutes earlier than normal and had enough time to play on the jungle jim before the bell rang. In class we drew pictures of the earth, and my teacher made me describe my picture to her because she said it looked nothing like the assignment. I told her my earth still had dinosaurs on it ... and can you believe that the Tyrannosaurus Rex had such small arms? My friend and I wish WE had longer arms too. We want to build a fort in the backyard for our clubhouse, but we think we need more than just longer arms to do it ..."

Did this discovery help me condense my stories? Nope. I'm still working on that one.