The Adventures of Q

All of you Star Trek fans will appreciate why I call G's friend "Q." No, he's not god-like, but he sure pops in at odd times suddenly. You'll remember our last adventure with Q and the making of the face at dinner. You knew that wasn't all there would be to the story, didn't you? Yep.

About a month ago, it was dreadfully cold out. Q shows up at our door with no hat and a sweatshirt instead of his jacket, because his dad is at Wal-Mart and told him to come over before church (??!). Nice of him to call and ask before sending his son by. You know that means dinner at our house, because it's 5:20 now and church starts at 6:30. (Do they not feed their child, or do they assume people who live near churches somehow like feeding their picky eater kid? Sigh. D has told me I took the making faces at the table thing way too seriously, and he's probably right. I told him Jesus would be mighty, mighty upset at that sort of thing. Maybe some smiting or something. D says no, it would be just like water off a duck's back... Jesus would care less. I'm not so sure. This sort of thing gets me very bent out of shape.)

Ok, so it's really cold outside. But I have made clear to G and to Q that future visits need to be cleared with me *in advance.* I reiterate this to him again and he says well, maybe he can find a friend to stay with for a couple hours before church. He's hungry, and he's not sure he'll get any dinner at all, but he'll go... Okaaaay. Go see if your friends are home and if they're not, I'll feed you *this once* without prior notice. I don't want you to be out in the cold for hours at a time. So he goes.

You know he's going to be back, don't you? D says. No, I don't know that. He has another friend he thinks is 'always' home, so hopefully he'll take a hint and go there.

"This kid doesn't take hints or he wouldn't be back here without an invitation. You know that's true."

Yeah, I know. And yeah, he was back. I doubt he even went to this mythical friend's house because he wasn't gone long. Dinner that night was peanut butter sandwiches. Oh, he tells me, but I'm not much of a peanut butter person. I resist the urge to ask him if he wanted pork chops or filet mignon or something instead. I resist the urge to tell him I'm not much of an "ungrateful children showing up hungry at my door 45 minutes before church" person. I was good, you guys, but no way I was fixing anything decent just to have him make faces about it or throw it away. So... he behaved himself reasonably well, and I behaved myself reasonably well.

That should have been the end of the story, right??

I THOUGHT that all the children involved (mine and Mr. Q) had a basic understanding of "this lady wants prior notice, and sometimes she'll actually say no." Well, I THOUGHT that. Guess who showed up at my door on Wednesday? What really, really steamed me about it? G was the one bringing him over. It seems Q had met him walking home from school (he's doing track!) and G "happened" to see Q and they just came by to see if it was ok for Q to come over...

Nope, it isn't. I'm not going to tell him my reasoning is that he won't freeze to death outside, or I would see this child every day the thermometer dips below 30 degrees. I told G and Q sorry, I need more notice than that and sent Q on his way.

The story that came out later from G was that Q was hanging out in the street and saw G coming by. The street near Q's house is one of two main streets leading away from their school. Almost any child walking home from said school would have to pass by Q. I would have felt sorry for the poor hungry waif begging for meals from passersby at this point had I not heard the rest of the story.

They walked by Q's house and talked with Q's dad. And Q's dad sent them over without calling me. Yes, he did. I don't know this guy, but I am honestly surprised at G's lack of consideration for my plans. Um, so ... they never bothered calling me from his house to see if it was ok with me if Q came by for dinner? Oh, G tells me, his mom was sleeping. So... what is up with this dad? His wife's sleeping is more important than simple courtesy of a phone call before sending your kid by for a meal? Is it impossible for her to sleep while you make a phone call? Does she sleep by the only phone in a one-bedroom apartment? NO. I know that's not possible because I've seen the outside of the house. PER CAPITA, bet you they earn more money than me and have more per-person square footage in their house. I'm NOT feeling sorry for them.

I'm pretty mad, actually. Just as well I sent Q on his way. His dad needs to feed his own kid.

Turns out, though, Q just went to church and missed dinner. He hung out there and waited for service to start. I went over the rules with G again so that there would be no misunderstandings. This child needs to be able to eat meals in his own home. Incidentally, in all this time, never once was G or Patrick invited over. I guess the parents were too busy sleeping or going to Wal-Mart. Ok, mean of me but that just burns me up.