Keep Yer Distance

Tonight was the Fall Festival -- what we used to just call a Halloween party -- at Grant Elementary School. Carter's last one!

This morning, in our daily call, we talked about whether or not he was planning to dress up. No, not really, he said. He has a costume in mind for Saturday but hasn't gotten anything together yet. He told me he wants to be a gangster. In my mind, I am seeing Al Capone in a pin-stripe suit or, better yet, Johnny Depp as John Dillinger.

No, Mom, not a gangster, a gangsta! A rapper dude. He needs a flat-billed baseball cap and low-riding sweats. Whatever. I'm not buying anything toward that cause. He'll have to use what he's got! And, trust me, it will take until Saturday to get that together!

So he said he'd just go as Carter and then said, "OK, I don't want to sound mean or anything, but when we go, can you just stand by the neighbors like last year and talk to them?"

I knew where he was going with this. "Carter, don't worry, I'm not gonna embarrass you and hold your hand while you're waiting in line," I said.

"Mom, it's not that I'd be embarrassed. I just want you in one place so I can find you... So I don't get lost."

Really? I wonder how many 6th-graders are getting lost at that little Fall Festival?

At least he was trying to politely dismiss me. In the end, I got out of it anyway. Daddy volunteered to go so he could stand around B.S.ing with the neighbor dads -- and I could stay home, lay on the couch and catch up on Mad Men. That was nice. I'm all caught up now. And I guess the only thing I really missed at the party was some cute girl picking on Carter.

I wonder if she'll still like him when she finds out he's a gangsta...