Right before returning to school for real, following two days after Christmas break and an unexpected snow day, Huck realized late Sunday afternoon that he needed some supplies for a class project the next morning. For reasons no one understands, Troy loves JoAnn Fabrics more than I can adequately express, so he excitedly volunteered to give them a call and see if they had everything we needed.  From the other room I could hear him asking about what kind of craft sticks they had, his voice loud and cheerful, and then I heard him ask how much they would cost, followed by a very exuberant “HOT DOG!”  It felt overdone to me, and I rolled my eyes internally at Troy’s effervescent joy over the little things.  Huck and I drove over to JoAnn Fabrics to pick up the supplies, and at the checkout the clerk got a twinkle in her eye as she asked, “Did you guys call about these craft sticks?” I said, “Yes, my husband did,” and she began hooting and hollering, “HOT DOG!”  She laughed and laughed, saying over and over again how much Troy’s excitement made her day, how she’d never in her life encountered anyone more happy over something like that. Other people standing around began smiling over her account, and once we got back in the car I told Huck, “Oh, if only we could all make people’s day like your dad can.”

A few days after this event, Huck got sick for the first time in years, causing Troy and I to flutter through the house looking for a thermometer as we asked questions like, “Does he take grown-up pills now?” We were just hoping he would get well in time for Saturday morning’s county spelling bee and Grandma Judy’s visit, but we also had our hearts set on him attending a full week of school and us attending a full week of work at some point in 2017. Huck did make it to the spelling bee and lasted until round seven when he misspelled “graffiti” and made me question his New Yorker status. That night in bed Troy and I argued over the correct spelling of “graffiti,” and I was correct.

HOT DOG!