What Was I Thinking?

From the time I was throwing up every day for a month, I guessed motherhood wouldn’t always be easy. Then there was the Things I Never Thought I’d Do part of motherhood. Like breastfeeding in diverse places—on airplanes, leaning against the tires of a huge diesel truck, or my back against a tree at Seattle Center. Then there was standing up to the Pakistani who lived downstairs and smoked horrible Pakistani cigarettes when we lived in Connecticut. “You’ve GOT to shut your windows. I won’t have my baby breathing your smoke!” And I can’t forget climbing into the ball pit at McDonald’s to rescue Braeden when I was VERY pregnant with Emma.

The things mothers do.

Last night I added to my list. I took Braeden to a book-signing event for Christopher Paolini. Yesterday was a typical day where I was running behind and trying to squeeze everything in. I tried to catch up all day then Braeden, who had finished his work, asked if he could get on the computer. I quickly logged him on, not knowing that my laundry, preparing for school, and bill paying would definitely not get done as a result.

Braeden read about the book signing online and I got caught up in his excitement. It’s hard for me not to share in excitement about books. I called about tickets, not surprised to learn they were sold out. I found out that we did have a chance of going, if we bought a Brisinger book (we already have one having pre-ordered from Amazon). We would have red tickets, which would mean we would be in the standby line. Braeden was getting more and more excited. I called Adam to work out the details. Did he want to go or did he want me to? I’d bring the kids to Seattle and one of us could take the younger ones home and the other one could stay with Braeden.

Adam had taken the train to work.

I was too invested to back out by then. I bought another Brisinger over the phone and Adam decided he should have Mark and Emma at work with him (they could play the Wii which some of his co-workers share) and I would go to the book signing.

There was a lot of rain and a lot of traffic and I was typically frazzled by the time I’d navigated to Union Station to get Adam. (You have to understand; the first time I drove in a town with traffic lights was in college.) I slid over to let Adam drive us to Town Hall. We hopped out and eagerly joined the line of people standing in the rain. I popped out my little umbrella and congratulated myself. I felt like my friend Teresa who is wonderful at leading her children on adventures. I was smugly thinking about how impressed Teresa would be with me. Then I just got tired of standing in line. In the rain. We were in that line for 1 ½ hours. I started eavesdropping on other people’s conversations in my boredom and quickly realized some of the people were weird. People walked by in full medieval costume, costumes from the Eragon books (which I have not read). Braeden is usually my partner in crime when it comes to quietly mocking people under our breath but he didn’t oblige. I said, “Look at these people.” He said, “I wish I’d worn my cloak.” Sigh. That’s my boy.

We finally, happily, made it into the auditorium. We sat through a half hour presentation by Christopher Paolini. He was smart and witty and very likable. Braeden laughed and cheered with the rest of the enthusiasts and I didn’t know what on earth he was talking about but did try to act surprised/impressed when he revealed the next dragon would be green.

Then they announced that everyone could only have two books signed and that we were all going to line up in an orderly fashion. The yellow tickets were lettered A through E. Red ticket holders would go dead last. It was 8:00 by then. They had some activities going on downstairs—refreshments and a little craft project, a band performing and a fortune-teller. After we’d seen all there was to see we went back upstairs to wait (I’d thankfully brought a book to read). We waited and waited. We checked in periodically with Adam. They were doing fine. They’d been to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The kids were playing the Wii.

We waited still. A guy sitting near us offered us an E ticket. (Too bad we weren’t sitting next to an A or B with an extra ticket!)

I talked with Adam again. The kids were getting antsy. He was trying to keep them from going through his co-workers desks. He took them out for milkshakes.

Finally, FINALLY we got the call that the E’s could line up. That was about 10:00. As I stood in the long line, I couldn’t believe how stupid I was to even be there. I was surrounded with the fantasy version of trekkies. It was late and my family was tired. And my feet hurt. At nearly 11:00 we got our books signed. As we approached the desk, Braeden got more and more excited. He asked me if he looked OK. Christopher Paolini was very nice and friendly and thanked us for coming and talked to Braeden very briefly and sent us on our way. I was impressed. He’d been signing his name for three hours and he was still nice to a star-struck kid who’d been waiting.

So the whole thing may not have been the best idea I’ve ever had but someday, maybe Braeden will think back on it. Maybe he’ll realize what a pain it was for his dad and for me. Maybe he’ll think, wow, they really love me.

Because we really do.