Musings at Altitude

After almost 3 straight years of traveling (typically flying somewhere 48 weeks out of the year), I finally get business responsibilities near home here in Colorado Springs and stay home for the first of three weeks straight and my wife decides to take advantage of that and head to Wyoming to be with her grandbaby.  With my wife gone, I’ve had to take on the additional responsibilities of being mom and dad to my 14 year old, and she has taken maximum advantage of that as she plants seeds for all the things she wants that she very well knows her mom would immediately say “get real” on.

Today for example.  My 14 year old and her best friend forever (BFF) have decided that they need to go shopping to get a present for a friend (her birthday), to look for a dress for homecoming, and to look for Halloween costumes.  Since I’m a guy, I fully understand the present thing – that’s a must get – but I can’t possibly understand the need to go shopping for a homecoming dress three weeks out (or maybe at all) and I certainly can’t understand the shopping for a Halloween costume thing when we’re almost two months out!  And one more important thing – after 25 years of marriage, I’m not nearly stupid enough to let her buy a homecoming dress today without the ever scrutinizing eyes of my wife on that dress and how she looks before buying it!

Since I now have to honor that commitment to take my daughter and her BFF shopping, I was up fairly early this morning getting my routine things done and it dawned on me while cooking my eggs that since I committed to taking them shopping that I also now committed to hanging around to have the credit card ready to pay for stuff.  It also dawned on me that since my 14 year old would gag to have me shopping with her and I would gag walking around with them while they were shopping that I’d have to hang out somewhere in the general proximity of their location with credit card in hand in anxious anticipation of the text message from my 14 year old saying “register 2 in GAP” or something like that.  Since she wants to go to a fairly high end strip mall with mostly clothes boutiques, there aren’t any great stores for me to shop in unless I’m looking for candles or something chic for my wife.  I guess I could go hang out at California Pizza Kitchen, or Champps, or PF Changs at 9:30 in the morning, but I’m not sure that’s possible or appropriate and I’m definitely not hungry after wolfing down my 4 egg omelette.  There is also a Starbucks in the general vicinity, but I’ve committed to myself to limit my number of quad grande soy with whip caramel machiato’s to no more than 4 per week, and if my current count is accurate (after 3 pumpkin spice latte’s yesterday), I’m already at 7 high cost but very tasty coffee treats for this week alone with two more coffee drinking days till Monday for the coffee reset.  What an incredible dilemma!   Even worse, this is a Saturday with college football in high gear with the East Coast games already on during her prime shopping times! 

As the buildup continues to our departure for her shopping excursion, she’s popped into the office several times wanting my opinion on her makeup, to let me know her plans, to let me know through her actions that she’s ready to go, and to let me know most importantly of all that she’s found her flip flops.

I miss my wife a lot while she’s gone, but maybe never more than when I’m participating in the prep phase for a weekend shopping spree with my 14 year old.  There’s something very, very mother and daughter about this, and there’s something very, very not so father and daughter about this.  I will suffer through though, and I’ll add this time with my 14 year old to the last three nights out at dinner and all the stories I have from those to the various other stories of the last few days and I’ll have a book of things to tell my wife when she gets home this evening. 

Of course, she’ll probably look at the debit card account on line first to see what I gave in to and bought for my 14 year old and after scolding me on how I give in too quick and letting me know how “she really didn’t need that” she’ll give me a hug for not yet buying that new cell phone or I-pod touch, because after all, $100 in clothes here and there doesn’t quite add up to giving in to the $400, now-I’m-so-cool cell phone that my 14 year old really wants, and though I’ve been teetering on the edge of caving I’m still standing firm against, for now anyway!