Don't Pinch any, Man!

Lil Man and I heard him come in around 7:30 this morning.

"Daddy?" he asked me and I mumbled something about daylight not always meaning it's time to get up. "Hunny, Mama!" he responded and added "Daddy! Ho0o0ome? Daddy! I hunny!" We rolled around in the blankets, snuggly and warm until I heard his keys land in the glass bowl on the counter and The Man made his way down the hall to the master bedroom.

"Heeey Lil Man!" he said from the door way. The party hadn't left his voice yet.

"Look at you crawling home in the morning!" I teased him. "What are you, a rock star?"

"I know." he lamented "Why do people have parties at night?"

"I hunny! Want down, Daddy!" Lil Man interrupted. The girls, hearing the commotion, came blinking and pink from Lil Dew's room and crawled up in the bed with Lil Man and I.

"I got some milk." he said

"Well, that's good," I pictured the girls pouring cereal for breakfast. "but you forgot the rest of the groceries." I groaned, wondering why I felt so stiff considering I went to bed at a decent hour. For some reason, when The Man isn't home I go to bed early.

"DOWN!" Lil Man insisted and the entire crew made their way out to the kitchen, leaving me rolling in the messy covers wondering if I could sleep through breakfast. Soon the ache in my head left me no choice and I slid from smooth warm sheets into cool worn-in denim and made my toward the refrigerator that houses the dew. I could smell that breakfast was nearly done, too.

"So. How was the party?" I asked him. Last night was his littlest brother's 24th birthday party.

"You should have gone instead!" he said, sounding surprised "Everyone knew you!"

"What?" I asked laughing. Neither of us knew very many of Sock's friends.

"They did! All these girls kept talking about you to me!" he said and I realized he meant friends of Sock's Mate who I've met out dancing.

"That's a couple thing. If you've met one side of a couple you talk about them to their other half to make conversation." I explained as I spooned nesquick into cups for the kids.

"There was this one girl from that night I had the campout with the kids and this other girl about this tall and another one who says you're like the biggest ass kicker ever." he was slicing pancakes up for Lil Man and spooning scrambled eggs onto plates next to steak.

"Yeah.. Umm the description "this one girl" isn't really doing much for me." I said before the end of his sentence hit me. "Wait, WHAT? An ass kicker?" we both laughed and laughed at the idea that I might appear to be an ass kicker to someone else.

"It was crazy, they all knew you!" he repeated as we carried the plates to the table and the kids swarmed around us.

"Well," I shrugged, nonchalant. "I'm Dew(ed)." We started opening windows as smoke filled the room from the oven. I shook my head at him, smiling. "And you thought you might not have a good time!"

"It was fun." he said, grinning. "I hate drunk talking though. It was so loud!"

"Why was it loud?" I asked him. The party had been at his own brother's house; it seemed like he could have turned any music down.

"There was music.. And talking… and" he paused "maybe I was just some shouting guy!" he suddenly realized

"Ahahah!" I laughed "That's when you know you're old!"

"Yeah, they were a bunch of kids." he said laughing. "I wanted to smell this guys shit and he said Don't pinch any, man" we started laughing at the idea that The Man needed to pinch weed off some kid.

"Nobody wants their shit smelled! I think that's a party foul!" I told The Man.

"Really? I just wanted to smell it! He acted like I was going to say Look! Over there!" The Man gestured a finger toward our window, then pantomimed stealing a pinch out of someone's baggy, which left us both giggling madly.

"So, did anyone else stay over?" I asked him, trying to picture him sleeping on their couch as he lowered the length of his body on ours.

"Nope. And good thing, there wasn't any extra room on that couch. Everyone else had rides and shit. One guy was supposed to go to work at midnight! They were telling him to drink beer!" We shook our heads at the craziness of youth. It always blows The Man's mind that other people don't take work as seriously as he does.

"Well, I'm glad you had a good time!" I tossed a blanket over him.

"Crispy said something about BBQing later today…I don't know I'm beat." The Man said

"Well, Crispy BBQs are late in the day so we'll see how you're doing then." his eyes had sealed as soon as the quilt settled over him.