Skip to main content

Mutt and Jeff

Friendships are beautiful things. The problem is that by middle school age and pretty much from then on, even the best of friendships are riddled with a certain amount of concern over what the other person in the duo thinks of you. The bliss of friendships before this stage just can't be compared to anything else, especially when it comes to little boys.

Eric has a friend at school named Isaac. By visual standards, you really can't find two people more different. Isaac is my size, at least 5'3, probably 120 pounds or more, looking like a small adult, or at least much more than his 10 years. Eric is on the smaller size, short, thin, maybe not looking quite his age of 10. But believe me when I say that their behavior is right on que with one another--by watching them interact, you can totally tell they are both 10!. It is sweet to see little guys enjoy one another before the age of toughness has arrived. They giggle, laugh, act totally goofy and think the other is all the better for it. For whatever reason, from the first meeting, Isaac has totally adored Eric. With Eric a first born, he is very accustomed to being the big cheese, so he took right to that like a fly on poop. It went so far as Isaac getting wire-rimmed glasses exactly like Eric's even though they wouldn't have been the fashionable choice for his not-so-delicate features. Ever since the beginning, a pair was born, a friendship was cemented and it has been going strong ever since. Isaac spent the afternoon at our house yesterday and fussed like a 2-year-old getting a lollipop taken away when he had to leave. Not easy to shuffle a grown-up sized kid into a van when they don't want to go!

Come to think if it, this phenomenon may have more to do with boy friendships than girl ones. Even John has guy friends who try to outdo one another with goofy stunts, bravado acts and other such nonsense. And Caroline, now 8, has been having little spats with some of her girlfriends since kindergarten. Maybe that is why it seems so sweet to me.

Comments

Anonymous said…
That really is sweet. I am finding that boys just are naturally sweet. At least Connor is. I guess I'll find out about Liam in a few months :) abb
3/05/2006 3:33 PM
Anonymous said…
Jen, you are so hilarious! Only you would say "he took right to that like a fly on poop!!!" Your blogs just crack me right up. You've missed your calling, you need to quit medical transcription and write for some magazine somewhere, you are the new Erma Bombeck!
3/05/2006 9:27 PM
Anonymous said…
I'm reminded of packages when I read this article. A package can be filled with the very same thing one in a large box and one in a small... Different wrapping paper on each with miss match bows each holding the very same thing. How true this is of character and what we are made of. It's really cool that at such young ages they look to find what their friends are really made of on the inside. Great story!

- Debbie Stewart
3/06/2006 11:26 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Too Close For Comfort

Depressing: Def., "Realizing that you and your Dearly Beloved are entirely to close to wearing the same pant size. Case in point - Hero Guy came ' har har-ing' out of the bedroom relating that he had accidentally been wearing a pair of my jeans for the last 15 minutes. He wondered why they felt so weird (translated - TIGHT) until he took them off and inspected the tag. He gloated that at least he knows he can fit into a Ladies Size ___ (you really think I'm going to tell you the number?!). My Observations: 1) He had a MONSTER wedgie, so the jeans were entirely too small for him. 2) They are my "fat" jeans, a size bigger than what I actually wear, but I just like the broken-in feeling of them. Or the roominess or something. 3) They were the stretchy kind of jeans, so an elephant could have painted itself into them. 4) What's he bragging about having a girlish figure for anyway? Not very macho if you ask me. Hmph.
11 comments
Read more

Stickin' It Out

I got married today. Well, not exactly today. It was Friday, June 2. But the year was 1989 - 17 years ago. "Amazing", people say. "Good for you", they comment. "You must have picked the right one", the add. Amazing? Yes. Good for me? I'll admit it. But it has nothing to do with picking the right one, really. It's not because I found the perfect boy, and it's certainly not because he found the perfect girl. It might sound a little unromantic, but there never really is a 'right one' floating around out there waiting in the cosmos for the other 'right one' to crash and connect. There may be 'better ones'; there may be 'more easily compatible' or something or other. But the real story is you start becoming the right one the moment you vow that "you do". When I married, I had been 20 for a whole 33 days, we had just completed a 2-year long-distance realtionship and HE was five years older tha
19 comments
Read more

Mixed Feelings

It's been a long time in coming, but as of this morning, I'm no longer a medical transcriptionist. I'm not sure how I feel about that...a little bit relieved, a little bit sad, a lot bit uncertain about whether I'll regret this decision. For the last year or so, I've found that the transcription work isn't fulfilling the need I once had to stay at home with my babies and have an income. I've increasingly felt that I need more interaction and less monotony. I've also felt the pressure of work that constantly needs to be done, with no sense of ever being really "finished." No matter how much work you've done for the day, there's always another note waiting to be transcribed. That goes for sick days, holidays, vacations days or any kind of days. This year, I've dabbled in substituting as a school monitor and office staff, and kind of found my niche in the last few weeks. I'll be working a couple of hours a day in one of the
13 comments
Read more