A Day in the Life of Chaos

As a child grows older one of the most rapidly changing places in any house is their bedroom.  It is evolution times one hundred.  Toys that once seemed so appropriate are suddenly as out of place as an Avon Lady in coal mine.  While I understand the parent who went crazy and spent a fortune on the pirate ship bed, I pity them as one year merged into the next.  Suddenly the once magical bed no longer seemed quite appropriate as their child's legs surpassed it's length. After numerous requests, and having safely left his urges to have a room with the walls painted black in the rear view mirror, I recently succumbed to my sixteen year old's prostrations for an update.  It was an exercise in compromise.  Despite his urging I refused to allow him to forsake his bed frame and place his mattress on the floor.  To him it seemed "cool," to me it seemed representative of either homelessness or my college years.  I did however let him choose the paint and overall theme.

  The sun beat down oppressively as I shifted myself into a slightly shaded covered part of the boat.  Sea swells of three feet tossed the craft from side to side in a rocking motion more akin to a once balanced rocker trying to navigate a boulder placed under one side.   Rhythmic motion was replaced by a jostled frenzy.  I pulled a black hood over my head that when stretched to its full extent, left only a small circle of skin exposing my mouth, nose, and eyes.  A little more coverage and I would have appeared as nondescript, as a Muslim woman wearing a full Hijab.  I could feel my skin trying to sweat yet the 5mm thick neoprene that covered my body refused to allow the droplets any space to form.   Nervously I checked and rechecked my air supply. "There was air there right?" I asked myself.  I mean I think I had turned the knob the right way.  I felt somewhat like a contortionist in a freak show as I clumsily reached down and did my best to secure my two fins.  With the f