O me miserum*. It was a phrase bandied about so often in the passages of Latin we studied at school (made me feel the Romans were a right dour lot). And it’s one I sometimes feel compelled to stamp onto Sweetpea’s forehead.
She is heading towards her 13th year, and man are we all feeling it. Although alongside that stamp I could add another that’s something along the lines of ‘But other days I feel great. Life’s just one big rollercoaster!’ But what would be the Latin for rollercoasters? Did the Romans even have equivalents of rollercoasters? Or did they get their thrills watching people being fed to lions, or maybe having the odd slide down an aqueduct?
Whatever (as Sweetpea is wont to say). You get the drift. Her moods swing, and when she’s up she’s high up, and when she’s down it’s brutal. She is mastering the acts of stomping, slamming her bedroom doors, throwing things at me (usually an electronic device I am confiscating), and saying ‘Okaaaay! God!’ when I remind her for the fifth time to please pick up the socks from the living room floor.
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We tend to duck when Sweetpea is in a foul mood, and skulk, and avoid. What with the loud voice, the terror in her eyes, and the new Doc Marten boots she got for Christmas, she resembles a skinhead… or would, were her hair not so damn long, curly and beautiful.
And then she redeems herself… majorly. My favorite Christmas present (perhaps my favorite present ever) was a deck of cards she just gave me. Each one was wrapped with a piece of paper and one of 52 things she loves about me, from “I feel warm when you hug me” to “You never forget about anyone, not even scruffy little dogs”, and “Our $20 shopping trips.”
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The last one may have been a strategic move on her part, as we hadn’t had one for a while. They’re when I give each of us $20 to spend, usually in Ross or some other clothes discount place. Kinda fun to see what we can get for our twenty bucks.
So we did it yesterday. Her $20 bought a new bag. She announced she needed jeans and “you said you’d buy them for me” then that she needed socks and “I shouldn’t have to buy socks with my allowance”. Then she sneaked in a pair of dance socks at the checkout with “Oh, can I have these too?” I drew the line at the dance socks and muttered, “Now I think we shouldn’t do this. You’re trying to squeeze as much out of me as you can here.”
Cue huffing and stomping, and the clatter of DM boots…
* Translation: “O woe is me.”
