I went to grab ‘little’ from his house, I was a about 15 minutes late.  When I arrived he was waiting on his steps and I didn’t even get a chance to get out of the car before he was opening up the rear passenger door.   That’s where he sits because he’s not over 90 lbs.  He was excited about the bookstore too but I was super hungry and proposed a different idea to him.  I said, ‘You know, it’s such a nice day out, how’s about we head up to the grocery store, grab some meat, and bbq tonight?!? … or would you rather go read at the Wild Rumpus?’  It was a low move I know, because I pitched the new idea to him just so. It was kind of a set up but I knew he’d be happy about it.

His face lit up.  ’Does that mean we’re headed over to your house?’  When I answered yes I don’t even think he could have told me what the Wild Rumpus was… he as super excited to head over to my house and check out my digs.

We went to the grocery store and went about getting our fixens for burgers and chocolate chip cookies for dessert!!  I was pushing him around on the cart and he absolutely loved it. He stood on the front and would lean out as far as he could, just laughing and having a good old time.  Every time we passed someone it was ‘excuse me’ and ‘thank you’ when they would oblige.  I absolutely adore how courteous he is! It’s very refreshing.  He really is going to be a lady killer when he get’s older! He’s just to nice to handle.

When we went to check out, we did the self check aisle and he wanted to scan everything by himself.  The produce gave him some trouble when he had to type in the numbers but he loved it.  He didn’t quite understand the idea of the credit card though.  I let him swipe it, then when we walked out, he asked why we hadn’t payed for our groceries.  I explained to him we had but he still had a confused look on his face… ahhh so much to learn and so innocent!! I’ve noticed that about him, again I’ve never had younger siblings/cousins so I’m not use to how these kids operate, but everything new he wants to try or he wants to learn about. Not only does he want to try but he wants to master it right away.  When he doesn’t get it on the first try he rarely gets frustrated, rather more determined to finish what he’s put his mind too.  There really doesn’t seem to be anything that doesn’t interest him!

When we got home, he went snooping around the garage right away.  When he came across the mower he said, ‘hey, I’ve never tried one of these before.’ I asked him if he wanted to mow the lawn, semi joking. To be honest it needed it badly within the next couple days.  He shook his head excitedly yes.   It was really fun! I showed him the oil, filled the gas, how to work the choke, what the spark plugs were and how they operated, the self propulsion lever and how it operated.  He loved using the socket set to get the plugs out. He was particularyawed by the blade on the bottom when I flipped it on it’s side to show him the undercarriage.  We had a little safety lesson about usage and he was all ears.  I started it for him, did a round to show him how it’s done, then we pushed it together to get the feel.  I let him take a few swipes. He wore out pretty quick.  He missed a few rows but after all the lawn looked pretty solid!

'Little' Mowing the lawn

After we were done we kicked back and had some old fashioned Coca Cola, in glass bottles! I swear that stuff tastes better than the plastic bottles or cans! It was great.

We headed inside and made some burgers.  He wanted to do everything himself.  I let him for the most part.   We actually used venison burger from last hunting season, mixed it with an egg, some torn up bread pieces and Seasonall. His favorite part was mashing it all up with his hands and letting the burger squeeze through his fingers.   I gave him a towel to drape over his shoulder so he didn’t have to wipe his hands on his shirt… he looked like a mini chef.  We fried up some bacon as the burgers were sizzling! We even got fresh ciabatta roles to bake in the oven before hand. Everything was so fresh and delicious.

'little' and I chowing down on some burgers

Don’t tell his mom, but we sat out on the back stairs with our burgers and cokes and had a belching contest.  I’m pretty sure I won but between the laughter, spilled cokes, and general hysteria it was probably a close call!! He was, of course,  sure to affirm me that it wasn’t polite to do this in mixed company.  We sure had a good laugh though.

Dessert time! We whooped up some Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chippers, real quick, and pretty much ate half of the dough between each other. It was getting kind of late so we baked a pan for Mom and bagged the rest of it, for them to bake later.  He was so excited to give her his present!

I’ve decided I should probably keep this little guy around more often… he comes over, mowes my lawn, makes me burgers, bakes me cookies, and to top it off, makes sure I’m a well mannered young man! He really is the whole package! What a guy!

I quick drove over to ‘little’s’ house after work and was somewhat disappointed that neither he nor mom were there at the appointed time.  I talked to a fellow at the house and he was making an honest effort to get a hold of them to figure out where they were.  After about 10 minutes on their front porch ‘little’ pulled up to the house with his aunt and we took off right away.  He seemed pretty excited.  I’ve never been in charge of someone his age (being the youngest of four in my family) and I instinctually grabbed for his hand as we walked across the street.  I don’t know what brought me to do it, but that physical contact wasn’t alarming at all for ‘little’.  I didn’t even ask him.  He really has no idea who I am except for the half hour we spent a few days ago with mom and match coordinator at their house.  I think that if a stranger had grabbed my hand when I was his age I would have been a bit frusterated.

Because of BBBS rules ‘littlehas to ride in the back seat of the car so he hopped right in, threw on his seat belt without me asking and we were on our way.  He wanted to listen to the radio so I flipped in a Citizen Cope CD (the closest thing I have to rap or R&B, his favorite) and we drove on.  He was kind of diggin the music.

We didn’t stop talking the whole way to the Dome.  It’s incredible how easy going he is.  He’s a very curious boy and doesn’t hold back on any questions or comments.  I’m not sure how normal this is because I’ve never really hung out with a 10 year old kid on an extended basis before.  I have no idea but I absolutely love it.  He seems so incredibly innocent.  For example, while we were driving, ‘little’ looked at me through the rearview mirror and said “Joseph, are you mixed”’.  I was pretty sure I knew what he was asking but I asked him to explain what he meant by ‘mixed, and he replied “you know half black, half… something else??”

“Nope ‘little’, I’m all white. How about you, you mixed??”

“No, I’m black.”

While we were talking he mentioned that most his mates at school were either latino or african american and that there really weren’t that many caucasion people that influenced his life. 

We got to the stadium and had to walk about a half mile, there really isn’t much good parking around there.  little’s wearing a walking cast because he broke his ankle a month ago.  I asked him if he wanted a piggie back ride and he was delighted to take me up on my offer… turns out 80lbs get’s heavy after a quarter mile!! ‘We’ labored on.

I had brought t-shirts and markers so we found a bench outside and went to town on our designs.  We both put the TC symbol on the front, just like the players, then I added ‘Big’ and 1 to the back of mine, and he put ‘little’ and 1/2 on his. I was glad that he was so gung ho about the shirts.  He loved filling in all the letters and making sure everything was centered.  They certainly were no works of art but this really got him excited to head inside.  It was pretty hilarious.

The Artist!

A woman that was sitting near us was commenting on how great of an artist he was, he seemed proud. The woman, it turned out, had cerebral palsy.  She saw that I had my camera and offered to take  pictures of us while we were working away.  When ‘little’ saw that her hand was a little cramped up he asked, without hesitation, “what’s up with your hand?” His question was completely straightforward and curios.  He honestly saw something that set this woman apart and wanted to know what the difference was.

The woman quickly responded, obviously a bit shaken that he was so forward with his question.  She explained that she had CP, and had had it since she was a child, but that she was much higher functioning than many others.  She loosened up pretty quick and said that she was happy to explain to ‘little’ what set her apart from other people.  It was interesting to see how he disarmed her so quickly but at the same time softened her up which allowed her to speak so freely and turn a potentially awkward situation into a learning experience for us all! Simply amazing how ‘little’ surprises me around every turn… and we’re not even into the game yet!

We went into the game and found our seats, 15 rows behind home plate!! ‘Little’ seemed unimpressed, or indifferent I suppose, would be a better word there.  I wonder what he would think about sitting out on the home run porch (way out in the outfield).  We got some cotton candy, and ‘little’ cordially offered everyone around us a handful.  They all declined but gave me a quick passing smile of surprise and delight!

The game went just fine.  He wasn’t super familiar with all the rules so as the game was going on I explained them as best I could, which is harder than one would think, conveying these rules to a 10 year old. 

One thing that he did enjoy about the game was the heckling of the opposing players.  The interesting thing was though, that every time he would say anything out loud, he would look at me out of the corner of his eyes to see if I approved or not.  He certainly has respect for me as an adult, a mentor, and I couldn’t be happier about that.  There was one point where he said something that certainly wasn’t a four letter word but was a bit more crude than what was appropriate and I told him ‘no’.  He sort of hung his head and was quiet… for the next 30 seconds, and than got right back into it, appropriately of course. He’s such a good kid!  I certainly don’t want to be a disciplinarian in his life, because I don’t think that’s what he needs, and I don’t think that’s what I’m called to do, but I do have to take a stance and set my boundaries.  This way I believe our relationship will be so much stronger.  OH MY GOSH I SOUNDS LIKE MY PARENTS HA HA HA!!!

I’ve been going to twins games for dang near 15 years now, and never has a foul ball come with in 2 sections of me, nor have I gotten on the big screen.  In the8th inning a ball landed three rows behind us, and between the top and bottom of the inning ‘little’, along with my torso, got on the big screen.  If this kid ever goes back to a game, I can only imagine he’s going to find it a little lame.  ‘Little’ was pretty excited about all that but nothing beat the end of the game.

Twins Game

The Blue Jays tied it up in the 7th and no offense came of it until the end of the 11th when Joe Crede knocked in Justin Morneau for a walk off double!! It was ear piercingly ecstatic inside the dome!  Everyone went nuts and ‘little’ without really knowing what was going on, got all caught up in the hysteria of it all!  We ran over to get some autographs, and saw Justin interviewing on the field but he ducked right into the dug out before we got a chance to get to him.

I gave ‘little’ a piggy back all the way back to the car and we recapped the game the whole way.  The ride home was pretty uneventful on the way home.  He was playing with my camera and giving me play-by-plays of the video he had shot until we pulled up to his house.  At this point he could barely contain himself. When we got in the house he couldn’t decide which part of the night to tell mom and he was fumbling all over the place. He needed to go to the bathroom but was to excited, made it half way, turned back, and grabbed the cotton candy to give to his mom, than ran off.  Mom was excited to see his reaction.

Overall I couldn’t believe how the day went sooo smoothly. Super exciting, full of new fun events, great communication between the two of us as well as with others… I have so much to build upon, and so much to be excited about!!!

As far as future get together, I think we’re going to take it easy for the next few meetings. Maybe we’ll  read a book, play some video games, throw a ball around etc. etc.  I want to get to know him on more of a personal level.

I’ll keep you guys posted! Thanks for reading, I know that was a long one.  I have so much more…

I asked her if she would like to be involved with BBBS, not with my little but with the program in general.  Without hesitation or a blink of an eye she shot out a’no’.  I was kind of taken a back because I had thought that the orientation, although long, was very intriguing.  Toots being the heart felt caring woman that she is I thought this would be right up her alley.  Before I even had a chance to ask her what brought on that response she carried on with “I have a thirteen year old ‘litte’ myself that I should be spending more time with.” She was referring to her little brother that she sees maybe once or twice a month.  Wow that made a lot of sense.

This got me to thinking.  Why do I need to join up with this large not for profit organization to have them pair me with a ‘little’ that I could potentially not get along with, he could have a family that tries to take advantage of me, it could be a larger time commitment than I initially thought, etc., etc.  The biggest thing is that I don’t want to bite of more than I can chew and leave ‘little’ high and dry, which is probably worse than not doing anything at all.  Of course I wouldn’t abandon him, but am I really cut out to do this? Plus, I already have friends that have children in need of a male presence in their life.  There are so many ifs invovled here.  I needed to get down the real question.  Who am I really basing this decision off of?

I can make the time, there’s no question about that.  I can see my friends and their children whenever I want, they’re very accessible especially if I make the effort. And I really want to base my decision off of my community.  What is going to be the best decision for the whole.  The ultimate reason that I’m doing this is I want to get involved, I want to  meet other people with similar ideas, I want to know the not for profit horizon better than I currently do, and I want people to learn from my experience and hopefully encourage them to be the catalyst for change in anyway that they see themselves fitting in. All in all, I want to learn how to love better, through patience, understanding, and kindness. I think BBBS is going to be the best fit for what I’m looking for.  So I’m basing this decision off of the future little that I will be involved with and I’m basing this decision off of LOVE.  I want to jump into the volunteer world but i need to take it one step at a time, and the first one is going to be this kid.  How can I serve him the best that I can, be the best role model that I know how to be, and affect my community in the way that I know how?  We’ll figure that out along the way I guess, as long as I keep love in my sights.

Toots and I agreed that this would be the best fit.  I haven’t had my interview yet, schedualed for the 2nd of March, so it’s coming up, but I can’t really see why this wouldn’t work (how naive is that going to look in 2-3 months ha ha).  Still I don’t know what to expect but I’m getting more and more excited as the process goes on.

I think that i’ve been lead to this conclusion slowly but surely and that I’ve found the right place where I can kick my initiative off.  BBBS it is.  Here I come… well I guess I have to go through the interview first…

I was initially thinking that why do I need to go through an organization to do this and instead help out a friend in need who has a kid. I do however want to understand more fully from the ground level up how these organizations run. I think this is the best way to go. I guess I’ll know a little bit better after tonight. If anyone has any experience in this realm I’d love to hear your responses.