My Latest Excuse for Not Posting Recently

For most of the month of July, I’ve played mother to two teenage boys—my nephew and his friend. It’s a fun game that involves cooking copious amounts of high carbohydrate foods, sifting endless piles of dirty laundry, and planning outings and activities. I’ve adopted an aunt-like liberal view towards independence and self-sufficiency, then coupled it with worrying about them and “having a heart-attack over nothing,” as I was told while riding bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge.

My house has become full of large smelly feet and long hairy legs and the kitchen has a new permanent fixture—the dirty pizza pan. My guest room now has approximately two square feet of visible carpet and my fridge bears a striking resemblance to Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. But for the past few weeks, my house has also been full of laughter. Teenage boys, at least these two, are funny.

We (eventually) laughed at the horrific sunburn my nephew suffered that left him the color of medium-rare roast beef with a horseradish white bow pattern on his stomach, from the string of his shorts. The boys have been elevated from what I suspect is something of a nerdy status in their hometown to movie star repute here. “Oh my God! You’re from England?!” has become the cry of every teenage girl they’ve crossed paths with. “Say something in English!” At which point, the boys pull out their best accents and say things like, “Jumper, rubbish, and tomato (to-mar-to, as opposed to-may-to).”

My favorite entertainment has been the dinner table debate. Jose loves a good discussion and has been known to take a contrary point-of-view just to spark a conversation. His favorite pontification is to claim anything that’s good or successful as American with, “We invented that.” I just roll my eyes and ignore him, but the boys take the bait. I’ve been surprised by how well-read and knowledgeable they are, and on more than one occasion (almost daily in fact), I’ve caught Jose changing the subject (very skillfully I might add) to avoid being proven wrong. It’s been a lot of fun.

I know that as an aunt, I’m not rebelled against as I would be if I were a parent, but I’ve learned a couple of things about 16-year old boys: they have something to say and they want someone to listen; if they’re shown some trust, they’ll act responsibly; if you ask them to help you, they will, even if you have to ask three times; and if there’s something important you really need to communicate to them, send them a message on MySpace.

Before I reach 60, I hope to test out my theories on teenagers. I’ll be certain to blog my findings. And if the Internet is all but obsolete by then, I’ll have my teenagers show me how to set up whatever the latest communication device is then. Assuming I can get them to talk to me.

P.S. I have no photos to post as I haven't had time to take any. As much fun as they are, teenage boys are also very time-consuming. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.