Sometimes

Our son, David, said that yesterday was his happiest day ever because he went to two different schools. In the morning at preschool he mashed potatoes for his preschool’s Thanksgiving feast that happens today, and in the afternoon he went for his screening at the Cathedral school.

Those screenings haven’t historically gone well for our family. Our oldest has a deep spidey sense that he was being examined and when he left he was quiet for most of the morning. As for mine, I cried when Mark Gamble slammed my fingers and, as legend has it, never recovered. During the screenings the parents wait the same way that fathers did years ago for childbirths and make whatever nervous conversations they can about happier places like summer camps and spas. Meanwhile their kids are being asked to stand on one leg, which I am convinced is a better measure of sobriety than whether a boy will be able to handle 8th grade algebra. It is a long hour and a half.

But David, much like San Francisco weather, has only two states - happy or tired. He thought his time at Cathedral was fantastic and loved the legos and the carpet time. After we took the bus home he wanted to play Cathedral in the living room. In particular he wanted to play what he called “Mr. Burns and Mr. Wilkes” where Mr. Burns was in charge of everything and then would have to battle Mr. Wilkes. Perhaps departing from his experience, Mr. Burns had fire power and Mr. Wilkes had earth power and I wished I asked him what Mrs. Jeurgens could do. Whatever David’s version of the school lacked in accuracy, I do believe it had a keen Irish social satire sense of the red team vs. the gold.

This morning he woke up and wanted to go back to Cathedral since it has the best legos in the world. We tried to explain that he has a Thanksgiving feast to go to with all his friends. That he has much to be thankful for and the mash potatoes were going to be delicious.

He still insisted about going to Cathedral.

Finally his brother stepped in to soothe him. He told David, “Cathedral isn’t always great. Sometimes you have to learn things."