On a Homework Night recently, Ruby wanted to get an opinion on a haiku she came up with for 5th grade; she asked for mine, because, she said to my wife, "My Dad's a poet." No one needs to tell me any different.

scat

One Sunday morning, in the blistering cold, Ruby and I headed towards the Pretzel Factory. I scatted to my daughter and asked her who would do such a thing. She said, "You should answer that. You just did!"

stars and gumballs

Tonight, Ruby and I went to mass and the homily explained freedom as a matter of fixed points, without which would collapse into destruction, like a kite. Deep enough. As an aside, Ruby said her thumbnails were made of stars. I asked what her eyeballs were made of; she said, "gumballs."

daddy/daughter day

My favorite thing about daddy/daughter day is: when we tackled each other.
-- Ruby

My favorite thing about daddy/daughter day is: getting lost at the mall.
-- Joe

pretty dumb

A man who was texting on the bus asked me, "Yo, Buddy, how do you spell 'there'?"
I replied, "As in a place or possession, like, 'their stuff'?" He said, "Like something's not there." I spelled t-h-e-r-e.
He appreciated my help.

When I told Ruby about my encounter, she announced, "Pretty dumb."

metal mania

Watching retro metal videos, Ruby saw David Lee Roth's band. When I told her they were all boys, she gasped, "What, they're all boys? How???"

in rememberance

Going over Ruby's notes on her religion studies for her exams, I asked where Jesus prayed before being sentenced to death. Jokingly, she said, "Olive Garden," instead of the 'Garden of Olives'.
We both knew better, but laughed appropriately.

When it comes to Holy Thursday, Ruby understands that the body and blood mean something other than they are, just not sure exactly...

God's Last Name

At Bridge and Pratt, this sultry afternoon, I asked my Taxi driver to bring me to Bridge and Pratt. Obviously, I meant something different. I happened to be looking at the "Bridge and Pratt Cafe" sign upon entering the cab, so it was on my mind.

In any case, the driver laughed and told me, "Officially, that is not a place."

I let it go.

While riding to my actual destination, "Cottman and Frankford," I thought of when Ruby asked me why God doesn't have a last name. I said, because he is a Trinity, spoken of in three names, or the beginning and the end, everything as one.

She responded that was fine.

At mass, she always has many questions. I asked her to wait and pay attention to what is happening. She inquired, "How can I pay attention when nothing is going on?"

diplomatics in the living room

Over fajitas at the coffee table, sitting on the sofa, I asked Ruby if she was going to be a well-behaved teenager. She responded, "I don't know. That's in the future."

Playing one of Ruby's DS games, I realized my turn ended rather abruptly; I asked her why it was over so soon. She said if you're bad at it, the quicker it ends.

depressions in the sidewalks

On our way to the playground off of 7th and South Streets, Ruby concluded the puddles on the cobble-stoned pavement were made by melted ice. I said the depressions in the sidewalks gave them their shape. She asked, "Do you mean the sidewalks are sad?" I said, "No, but the pockets in them allow puddles to be formed." She responded that they are depressed "because of winter, probably, or that they can't play."

sentimental schoolyard

At some point, when leaving Ruby to enter school, she gets out of the car and walks by herself across the parking lot (the schoolyard) to go to class. All of a sudden, in my eyes, I am not with her; she seems alone, bringing herself to the door, without me.

I know it's sentimental to think of her, her hand in mind, all the way to the building in our own, joyous stride. But now she is being independent, more than ever, right now, to me.

When she says (so I still feel like she needs me, I hope) "will you come with me?," I must and always say "yes."

it's a good day to

A few days ago, Jim Carroll died. We heard it on the morning radio as we were going to school (2nd grade). Ruby anxiously wondered, "Who was Jim Carroll?". I said he was an author, a singer and songwriter. She asked how old he was when he died. I answered, "60". She replied, "Well, that makes sense."

getting taller

On our way home from getting water-ice ( wildberry for me, chocolate for her) I asked Ruby to stand next to me to see how she is growing up. The top of her head came to the bottom of my chest. She remarked, "Wow, I'm up to your privates."

the stars need to be polished

Today, like most days, Ruby and I see trash which is recycleable on the streets when we go to church or school. If I don't notice something, she does, points to it and brings it to my attention: "Daddy...."

I'm in the habit now of picking up aluminum cans along with plastic and glass bottles on the way back home to put them in our industrial-blue recycle bin. When we came back this hot morning, my total was five. Even though the ocean becomes a soup of plastic, we just feel like it's something we should do.

I said to my wife I still can't believe why people let this happen. Ruby said, "Yeah, because some people are litter-bugs and don't want the Earth to be shiny. The stars need to be polished, the sun has to be cleaned and its strokes (meaning its rays) have to have lip balm on them."

haiku advice (for Linh Dinh)

fuck the streets, the beat
doorways, bums, drunks, hustlers
dig smokin' hot chicks

only hamsters are sexy

I visited Ruby's dance class one windy afternoon and thought the warm-up song blaring from the portable disc player was a little risque for seven to eleven year olds. The hit single in question was Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl."

Ruby asked me what 'risque' meant. I said it was more appropriate for older kids, like 'grown up stuff' that had to do with how people behave, like dress-up, but different, sort of burlesque.

She asked curiously about that word, too. I said it was like a show where characters act in funny ways, sometimes to laugh at the things they do or are, yet seriously take on certain subjects (again) more for adult concerns.

She said that was cool. It reminded us of a hamster she noticed at a party with a coller around its neck which had a name on it that she spelled for me but wasn't sure she was allowed to say out loud. The word is s-e-x-y.

I explained only hamsters can be sexy. At this, of course, she laughed.

pray for rain - and sun

Recently, Ruby and I went to church where, as far as transubstance is concerned, she remarked that the priest was making pancakes and fruit punch. I whispered to her that it was symbolically the body and blood of Jesus, his sacrifice at the Last Supper to remember him by.

I said, as we walked home beneath the swift clouds and through a steady rain with flowered and black umbrellas, that I would pray for Ruby to get better from her Pink Eye. She replied she would pray for my back to feel better, as it is 'out' and very painful.

She yelled at the sky to listen to her for me to get well. She asked if my back was fixed. I said prayers take time, you have to have patience. She said, "Why do we have to wait?" I told that's what we do, like for the sun to come again, to remember what happens before and what's next.

"anything described can be described some more" **

A section of Ruby's dictionary:

"Gumption" = "Tackle Daddy"

"Moxy" = "Throw Daddy out the window"

"Spirit" = "Feed Daddy to the ducks by the river"

"Daddy" = "Music freak who plays in the trees"

"Ruby" = "Princess and da bomb"

** The title of this post is from the "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly" song by Bob Dorough from Schoolhouse Rock.

That yellow chip and the teeth report

Last Sunday, at church, after I had received Communion, Ruby whispered to me, "What does that yellow chip taste like? Does it have a flavor?" As we knelt in our pew, I whispered back, "It tastes dry; it has a dry flavor." She guessed that was o.k., but not as good as a treat, even though too many treats are bad for you and your teeth.

Before we arrived at church, we talked about Jeremy, Ruby's hamster. His teeth were too long when she got him, so we've been making sure he has a variety of things to gnaw on to get them to the right length. Ruby says he has been doing a good job, "That's the teeth report."

we'd make nice pets

Last weekend, Ruby picked out her first pet, a hamster, longhaired and male. The store had one longhaired left, in the back, not in the usual place for display. Longhaired hamsters are supposed to have a better temperment.
I could not go into the back room because I have allergic asthma; the air was thick with the scent of fur, where they live, isolated.
So when Ruby found me in the aisles, she said, smiling excitedly and skipping along, "Come meet Jeremy."
Ruby, now, is always concerned for Jeremy, wants to make sure he's alright, checking on him and, when he gets to explore his surroundings, especially beyond his cage, treating him as tenderly as we would be treated, if we were in his position and loved.