Guitar Hero And The Ties That Bind

Last night, I arrived home from work at about 7:00 p.m. to find my family sprawled on the couch, sleeping. Oh, dear, I thought, it's going to be a late night. I was very tired since I took a nap Sunday afternoon and didn't sleep well Sunday night. As I was taking my jacket off, Doc stirred to life and welcomed me home.

We chatted for a bit and wondered if we should just go ahead and put the kiddies to bed. We decided to give it a try and Doc lifted Riley up to take her to her room and lo and behold, she woke up. She didn't want to go to bed, she said and scrambled down from her Daddy's arms and onto my lap.

She was hungry so I fixed her some PB&J with a side of Cheetos (I know! Great dinner, right?) and settled in to do the dishes. Shortly after her second sandwich, Lucy woke up with the most spectacualr case of bedhead I've ever seen. She had rolled over onto her face on the couch and started to sweat a bit. So her hair was this colden corona sticking out from all angles around her face. I'd put a picture up, but alas my camera battery wasn't charged and I couldn't capture the moment. You'll just have to take my word for it; it was adorable.

Very soon after Lucy woke up, she was standing in the kitchen kind of lost. She ended up just peeing all over the floor. I knew she didn't mean to; she's been really good about going to the potty. I know she just wasn't awake enough to realize what was going on. This upset her very badly, so we cleaned her and the floor up. And I took her into my arms and we sat on the couch together until she felt better. She loves to sit on my lap facing me and resting her head on my shoulder. Very soon, she will not want to do this much anymore, so I soaked it up.

After everyone had had a bite to eat and it was about 8:30 p.m., the girls started to get wound up. I knew I wouldn't have the energy to fight their energy, so I tried to convince them that they should dance while I played Guitar Hero. Wonder of wonders: they agreed. So, I jammed while they danced and screamed and rocked out. They were jumping on me, hanging from my arms, dancing around and jumping from the couch to the ottoman to me to the floor. Even with all of that going on, I never earned less than four stars on the Medium level.

At one point, Riley grabbed a ball of red, nappy yarn and began to wind it around my legs. She kept winding and winding until both of my thighs were completely immobilized. I was still able to jam, however. When she was done, I asked her why she had done it.

"If you were all tied up and couldn't walk, then you couldn't go to work and then you'd never have to leave!" she explained.

My heart melted and broke at the same time. I told her that everyone has to work and if we didn't work, we wouldn't have this nice house and all of our fun toys.

"We could live somewhere else," she countered.

"I'm sorry, baby, that's just the way it is."

This seemed to satisfy her and we went on with our rock show. Incidentally, when you are playing the Quick Play version and finish the song, you have the opportunity to write your name on the bathroom wall when you achieve a high score, which I always do. When you enter your name and hit Start, the urinal makes a flushing noise. This cracks Lucy up. Everytime it happened, which was after every song I played, Lucy would throw her hands up in the air and yell, "Oh, my gosh!" and laugh and laugh.

After I closed the show with Free Bird (of course), it was time for bed. The girls went to bed reluctantly but without much fuss at 10:30 p.m. I was exhausted. I felt bad because, I'd barely spent any time with Doc. But before you start feeling sorry for him, know that he was wrapped up in a game of Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 on the laptop most of the eveining. He was just in the kitchen and could still appreciate my rock prowess, though. I even dedicated "Message in a Bottle" to him.

Doc, recognizing exhaustion on my face, sent me on my way to bed. I got into my jammies and turned on the DVD of All Creatures Great and Small, a BBC TV version of James Herriot's stories of being a country vet in the Yorkshire Dales. I highly recommend both the TV series and all of his books. As the episode started and I was stretched out in the bed, I was awash in a sense of gladness. The DVD's were fresh, unwatched (I got them for free from the library), I was snuggled up under a brand new down comfortor, it wasn't too cold in the house and I'd just spent a lovely evening romping around with the kids. I was struck by the magnitude of this event as I don't ever remember feeling it before in my life. I mean, I've known happiness before, but it's always been tinged with doubt or pregret. For the first time that I can recall I felt pure gladness with no worries. Believe me, I have plenty to worry about, but for the first time ever, the worries were totally absent from my thoughts.

There are many reasons for this gladness: a combination of therapy, anti-depressants, strong, supportive family, prayer. But I think they are all a gift from God. It was Grace I was experiencing, I'm sure of it. And I'm thankful, very thankful.

And you thought fasting for Lent was a waste of time. OK, so maybe giving up Gold'n Krisp chips did not award me this moment, but at least there were no chip crumbs in the bed to sully the experience.