something about responsibility

I haven't blogged in a while, and I really don't have any particularly formed thought to get out tonight. I do, however, have two things I want to tell you about. The moral of the story I'll let you decide yourself.

I was cooking dinner [yes, I cook sometimes] a few nights ago and was in the process of cooking broccoli on the stove top. A little tree of the broccoli stalk fell on the floor in front of the stove, and I watched it fall, saw where it landed [right by my foot], and actively chose not to pick it up. The next morning, there it lay, hard now from being out overnight. The morning after that, there it lay, hard and brown now from being out for two day. I continued to glance at it and completely ignore it like I couldn't see it for at least a week. I'm in the kitchen like 20 times a day, and I just kept seeing the broccoli and refusing to pick it up. I know if I had been at home in my Mama's kitchen and had left it there, she would have picked it up, just like she picks up all the other crap we leave laying around when we are home. Somehow, in my mind, me leaning over and picking up the hard brown broccoli stalk on my kitchen floor and putting it in the trash was just entirely too much of a confirmation that I really am on my own, and that my Mama isn't here to clean up after me. Anyway... after a week, I did it, and now the broccoli is gone. And that was that.

This weekend I went home and met all my siblings there for a visit. The house was unimaginably loud and crazy... 2 super patient parents, 5 "kids" over the age of 16, 4 extra guests [everybody had a plus one but me... story of my life haha], 2 big house dogs, 2 outside cats, 5 inside cats, 5 turtles, and a little frog. So. Much. Fun. My stomach still hurts a little from laughing so much [or maybe it's from crashing to the floor during a headstand attempt in the living room, who really knows]. The point is, my youngest sister, Sam, who is 16, is in a Child Development class at school. As it just so happened, this weekend was her turn to take home a simulation baby doll that eats, burps, dirties diapers [just with a censor, not real doody, don't worry], wants to be rocked, and cries at 4am. The point is obviously to teach the kids how hard it would be to have a baby at this point in their lives.

Sam has a boyfriend that lives about 20 minutes away. Friday night she went to his house and called us on her way home. She had been gone about 5 minutes and the baby started crying. She pulled over on the side of the road, got out, got in the back seat to unbuckle her from the car seat, and then had to walk her on the side of the road while she fussed for 10 minutes. She was finally quiet, so Sam got back in the car and proceeded toward home. 5 minutes later, the baby starts again. This time she stayed in the car because she was not in a well lit area, and called mom because she was so frustrated. She put her flashers on so no one would run into her, because she was parked on a narrow road. The baby wanted to eat, so she sat on the side of the road feeding it for 15 minutes. During the middle of the meal, a car pulled up behind her and a man got out to make sure she was okay [small towns, gotta love the good Samaritans]. At this point, my 16 year old sister rolled down her window and explained that she was fine, she was just stopped to feed a fake baby. She was frazzled, to say the least, and we had never laughed at her so hard in our lives.

Sam walking the baby in to a restaurant Saturday night

So, there you have it. Two random things that captivated enough of my thoughts that I wanted to share them. Not sure yet what the lesson is behind them, as I stated previously. Something about personal responsibility or growing up, I'm sure. If you figure it out, let me know :)