Boudicca's Voice

15 Years Ago Today...

Today is Ringo's 15th birthday. When I started blogging... he was 9, going into 4th grade. Now he's getting his learner's permit to drive... probably next week. (It's all blog fodder, right?!)

It's so funny, reflecting on who he was and where he is going. The where he is going is a bit hazy, but it's interesting watching the path he's taken.

I was doing a comparison mentally today between he and Mr. T, not in a bad way, but in their differences and wondering if there is a correlation to their personalities.

Ringo, although extraordinarily mature in 'getting' what is going on around him, a good grasp on laughing at the absurdities others don't readily see, is my slowest to grow, the slowest to mature. He started to shave his upper lip this year, got hairy legs last year, and really hit a bit of a growth spurt this past summer, taking him to 5'2", which has him concerned he won't hit his Dad's height of 5'6". (We aren't big people, in girth or stature.) But with that as well, he's been slow to be driven to make the A's, slow to grasp the concept that making the grade will get you into the school of choice later.

I think he's a late bloomer... in every aspect, although when you speak to him, his soul seems old. Does that make sense? He has a very adult mind and adult approach to things... mostly. (We'll get to that in a minute.) But he just feels like a late bloomer in other ways.

Meanwhile, his brother two years his junior, already needs to shave his upper lip, the legs are getting hairy crazy, and he hit some insane growth spurt where he's already nearly caught up with his older brother. Always driven, T completely 'gets' the grade thing. He'a ahead of the curve on a lot of things and always has been. In kindergarten he played with the girls because he found the boys too immature. By 2nd grade, he finally gravitated to the boys, but because of this early relationship with the girls, he is able to move amongst both groups.

So I do wonder if there is a growth/maturity correlation in our family. Look at me, trying to do some sort of funky math analysis on my kids and why they are who they are.

Absurd.

But it has made me think.

Ringo picks his college of choice by... snow. He wants to go where it snows. T picks his school of choice (Georgia Tech) because he thinks it's one of the best as he wants to study engineering.

The other day, Ringo said to me, 'Mom, what's the name of that school that Son#4 talks about? Uncle M (Son#4's dad) went there."

Me: Boston College. Why?

Ringo: Maybe I want to go there. It snows in Boston.

Me: *cough* Dude. *cough* Even if you get accepted with your straight B grades, you won't get any scholarship money and I can't afford to send you there!

Holy crap. This the kid who said to me, "Mom, this is the last time I'm going to private Catholic school. After high school, no more private Catholic schools for me."

I guess nobody ever bothered to tell him that BC was a Jesuit school.

Good Grief.

But back to the late bloomer thing. Most kids get into music in about 5th grade, finding some sort of musical niche, I believe. With him, it was end of 7th, and by 8th grade, something clicked and he became all music all the time. Double bass, electric bass, drum... he's constantly drumming, listening, thinking music.

Yet he doesn't want to make it a career. He wants to just love doing it on the side. (The best of all the worlds.)

His whole goal for what he wants to do for a living? Just as he chooses his college based on snow, he is currently basing what he wants to do for a living on what kind of car he could buy.

This is classic conversation:

Ringo: Mom, does 'xyz profession' make enough money to be able to buy a Ferrari?

Me: *blink* Umm... well you could if you stayed single and lived in a one room apartment and ate rice krispies for dinner for 5 years and save most of your paycheck.

Ringo: Yeah, that's not for me.

We're picking our profession on... Ferrari potential?

And as aghast as I was at first... for that first second... I realized it's a boy thing.

Fast cars are cool... fast women will not be so cool. I may have to post a sign in my house that says 'No Hos Allowed'.

Which brings me to the fact that he really has a lot of friends who are girls, but doesn't date. (He's mentally stuck on his height.) I even have folks call and ask if my son can go with them to dinner, which leads me to the funny story on Friday.

Ringo was asked to go to dinner with a friend of his (a girl he's known since kindergarten) and her family. (Side note: when speaking of her and her family to my folks, they are 'The Murdering Campbells'. I am thinking of putting The Massacre of Glencoe on his phone for her ringtone. I think it would be lost on everyone but us, however. Our own little inside family joke... well, inside the family and this blog.)

Anyway, great people, really, they are driving through their neighborhood to get to the restaurant when a minivan pulls out very very slowly... slow like seriously old people drive.

Mrs. Murdering Campbell (I do love her) said, "Oh. Those poor people. They look lost."

My son looked out the window, sighed, and said, "No, they aren't lost. That's my grandfather and his buddy, Joe."

Heh. We keep laughing. In a horrified and twisted way. (Pop's buddy drives just as bad as he did before his license got pulled.)

So today my son turns 15. I think he'll learn how to drive looking out for old people hazards on the road.

His birthday dinner request? London broil with twice baked potatoes, and a chocolate ganache bombe, which is a cake cooked in a jelly roll pan, then cut into slices so it lines a bowl, filled with layers of different chocolate mousses, and then flipped over and covered with a chocolate ganache.

And so to Ringo, on his 15th birthday, I say, “Happy Birthday my 1st son. Should all the children be so blessed to be as loved as you are… for if they were, I suspect the problems of this world would be so very different… We love you so.”

P.S. I'd rather he base his college of choice on the weather and not a flippin' girl!

Posted by Boudicca at March 3, 2010 11:10 PM