I was in the realm of the essence of Tong

As a youngster, I remember my parents were rarely around, they were either at work or out clubbing, and if they were home it was grading or writing papers and or reading the NYT. They were not my social life.
For some reason, our kids seem to want to be around us a lot. Either we are as entertaining as we'd like to believe, or they have limited imaginations. For the most part I think it's not such a bad thing to keep on eye on these young men for the very impressionable years they are all struggling through, but it's at the point that if we are left alone it seems somewhat odd and disorienting.
Last week when we went to Gus' first marching band concert and Eamon fell in the ditch when we were walking back home in the pitch black darkness of no streetlights and blinding headlights, I wished the boys had been there because then I wouldn't have had to stifle my urge to laugh until I was on the ground, in that theirs would have drowned mine out. It was that funny. And why? Because when he fell he was carrying my purse on his shoulder.