May 13, 2006

Home with the boys

Yes, it's true. My husband and daughter are still, sadly, Chicago Cub fans. In fact, this weekend they traveled to the Big Midwestern City to watch their favorite team lose a game. This is a peculiarly torturous thing that Chicago Cub fans do periodically. They make pilgrimages to Wrigley Field to watch other teams hit balls out of the park. Then they take solace in the fact that Cub fans will retrieve the homerun balls and toss them scornfully back onto the field, refusing to keep a ball hit by the opposing team.

Since we don’t have cable television, going all the way to the midwest is the only way the two fans in this household ever see a game, so these pilgrimages are especially important to them. Myself, I don't see the value in traveling a long distance to watch men hit balls around a field while thousands of disappointed fans teeter between dejection and hope. But my husband and daughter think that the anguish of the loss will be a father/daughter bonding experience that will make them both stronger people.

And of course, their weekend away means I get a weekend home with the Pseudonymous Boy Band, a weekend filled with music and testosterone. Last night, they were all up late, playing until the early hours of the morning. Boy in Black and Older Neighbor Boy had many earnest discussions about what songs they were going to learn next. Our newest extra, NextHendrix, demonstrated for all of us his ability to play the guitar behind his back. This morning, the boys all rolled out of bed, or actually, stood up from the floor, since that is where they all sleep, and began playing again.

Boy in Black, when asked by a reporter last week what his goal in life was, said, "I want to be the next Bob Dylan." To help achieve that goal, he acquired a set of harmonicas for his birthday. With his usual determination, he has spent every spare minute learning to play them. When he drove with me to the garage so that we could pick up my car, for instance, he brought the harmonicas and the book and practiced as we drove along. Of course, it’s possible that he was just trying to drown out the sarcastic remarks I was making about paying seventy bucks to find out that my transmission is shot, but mostly that sort of intensity is typical of Boy in Black. Nothing stands in his way when he wants to do something.

This afternoon, I drove the gang to the Cool Music Store so that Older Neighbor Boy could get his own set of harmonicas, and so that we could spend hours wandering around a store that actually encourages teenagers to just hang out and test the guitars and amps, a store so filled with noise that it actually makes my house seem quiet.

In return for my patience, I made them pose for the blog.

pseudonymousboyband

The Pseudonymous Boy Band: Boy in Black, Shaggy Hair Boy, Philosophical Boy, With-a-Why, Skater Boy, and Older Neighbor Boy.

24 comments:

Pilgrim/Heretic said...

Awesome! That can be their band poster when they tour. :)

timna said...

the colors are great! love that long hair.

and cubs fans will be cubs fans. it runs in our family, too.

CB said...

okay so do I see a pic for a first album cover? I do I do :) awesome picture

nancy said...

That is such a fun photo!!

Sarah Sometimes said...

Very sweet. I like how they all have their arms around each other.

Ianqui said...

A bunch of people beat me to it, but yeah, I agree with P/H and Mouse.

Kate said...

Aww! They'd probably hate to hear it, but I think the picture is adorable.

SuzanH said...

What a great photo!

I think your house is so cool.

Happy Mother's Day.

Margaret said...

I adore that picture. And also, can you adopt me? (I agree with suzanh that your house sounds so cool.)

J.K.F. said...

Your children and friends are so talented! (I am basing this on what you write, but I can't help but trust your sincerity).

I deeply empathize with the cubfan despair. Things looked so good this year, until that fateful Derrek Lee accident. Sigh. It's gonna be a long season. But I had some of my finest father-daughter moments watching the cubbies lose at Wrigley, so trust their judgement. :)

Liz Miller said...

That is definitely teen-girl-fan wall-poster material.

lil'rumpus said...

Excellent photo!! Please tell me that they love it, too.

zelda1 said...

Cool picture.

Danny Bradfield said...

When life gets busy, I fall behind on my blog reading. Today I caught up with yours, and realize I definitely need to check in more regularly! I love the pictures (esp. the dandelions, of course!), and the stories & pics of the kids. It's nice to read the stories of another home with lots of "extras."

Liz Miller said...

Also, I love the pattern of shorts/long pants/shorts/long pants and that they're all wearing black sneakers. And the framing of the two black t-shirts on the outside. Truly a great picture.

Leslee said...

That's got to be one of the coolest pictures ever! I didn't notice the cool pattern until liz pointed it out, but when I looked at the picture I decided that it makes the picture just amazing!

Happy Mother's Day to one of the best moms I sorta-kinda-only-online-through-a-blog know!

BeachMama said...

My only hope is that one day my house is filled with kids playing their music and crashing on the floor.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mona Buonanotte said...

Incredible picture! The movement, the colour, fantastic!

Coffee-Drinking Woman said...

The weather's crummy in the midwest - what I time to pick to go sit outside and watch your team lose...

A belated Happy Mother's Day to you!

Anonymous said...

Excellent photo!

OTRgirl said...

How did you get them to do it? Stay in one place at one time doing your bidding? Were there grumbles? I want one of those BBC commentators to give us the 'behind the scenes/how-to' account, "And for this photo Ms. jo(e) indicated that on pain of death the boys must face the wall..." or are they happy to pose?

All that aside, I love the picture, and colors as mentioned above.

jo(e) said...

OTRgirl: Oh, it's the wall outside the music store so I just said, "Quick, everyone stand against the wall and pose for a photo." It only took a minute of their time. Since they were facing the wall, I didn't even have to ask them to smile.

ScienceWoman said...

I love the colors!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Fun photo and colorful, fun story to go with it. LOL!!!

Persoanlly, I'd love to sit in your kitchen and sip tea and liste to the boys practice--and I'd love that 1000 times mroe than a trip to Wrigley field!