Oh, The Catching Up I Must Do...

I know. I've been slacking terribly in the blog department, largely due to the sad fact that my poor laptop decided to commit suicide, rendering itself useless by frying its own motherboard. An act of desperation! To be fair, my sleek HP laptop was three years old and while (in people years) that's still a hair younger than John McCain, it served me proudly for the duration. Most importantly, I haven't lost a shred of data and, as someone who was stripped of numerous irreplaceable written works in an earlier computer crash, I am very grateful to have all my work intact.

I've been shopping around and will be buying a new laptop in the coming weeks, at which time I hope to return to writing with more regularity (which, when you think about it, is a relative term, especially in the summer months, when the humidity drains every last drop of energy from my body, leaving me listless as a wet string bean by day's end).

For now, I'd like to regale you with a little anecdote about a conversation I overheard on the street in my neighborhood months ago but am only now getting around to sharing:

I was walking home when I spotted a small group of children playing ball on the sidewalk. One of the more outspoken kids was a cute, smiley-faced black boy about 10 years old, sporting braids past his shoulders and shouting happily to his playmates as they bounced the ball between them:

"Yo, I started wearin' boxers when I was 7 years old, but I stopped 'cause my mama tol' me that wearin' boxers makes your nuts sag. My brothers tol' me the same thing--boxers make your nuts sag! So I started wearing tighty-whities 'cause, man, I don't want my nuts to be saggin' by the time I'm in high school, yo!"

It took everything in my power not to burst out laughing as I passed this adorably precocious kid and his friends, who (remarkably) did not laugh at their buddy's revelation, but instead asked him if he thinks they should stop wearing boxers, too!

I see this kid in the neighborhood often, riding his bike or playing ball--always with a big smile on his face and plenty of friends around him. And he always makes me smile in return, knowing there's at least one young male out there who won't suffer the indignity of saggy nuts!

Posted by ayelet at August 7, 2008 05:34 PM