Big Brother - Match Made

I met my little on Monday. His name is Stuart. No, actually it's not, but the innocents name has been changed to protect the, uh, well, innocent. So I shall call him Stuart, or Chuck for short. Here's what I can tell you. He is 10 years old. He lives in Brooklyn. He has slightly less hair on his head than me. He lives with his mom, whom I also met, and spends a lot of time with his aunt. He's into computers and math and photographing celebrities. He would like me to teach him how to play the guitar (very cool) and he enjoys short walks in the park.

He seemed a bit shy, though this should probably be expected in an awkward situation such as this. First his mother showed up and said that Stuart was on his way with his aunt. Mrs. BBBS (director of BBBS) did the introduction thing and then stuck us in a tiny little office together for 10 minutes. The mom asked me why I was there, told me why she brought Chuck there, and we chatted about kids, exercise, South Carolina, and the Gross Domestic Product of Guam (one of these things was not really discussed). She is an intelligent career woman who seems to be doing a great job raising her child. Chuck just lacks a male in his life who can be a consistent caring, teaching presence. Bravo to his mom for reaching out. It takes a big heart (and dare I say an absence of big balls) to admit there are roles that others might fill better than you. I'm privileged to be tapped for such a role.

After Stu's mom and I chatted she left the room and Stuart came in. I basically asked him a whole bunch of questions, most of which he answered with short, shy sentences. I did see his face light up a little at the mention of a couple of things. One of these was riding the bus. Apparently Stuart is a bus pro. This is good, because I know nothing of the bus. I have never ridden it and I'm pretty sure I waste a fair amount of time because of this. Stuart has promised to teach me how to ride the bus. Coincidentally, he does not know how the subway works. I plan on figuring this out and teaching him. I think that there are letters and numbers involved; it's kinda like algebra.

So, we agreed to have our first outing on either Sept 8th or 9th. I think that we will go and hang out in the park in Brooklyn. Chuckie said that he likes the slides there.

I don't have Stu's picture, and if I did I would not put it up here, so here's another wedding photo booth card. This is actually me and 4 cousins.....somehow Tara and I got center stage and Meg, Priya and Suse got screwed.