Friday night Susan, Mason, Morgan and I met the Martins (my friend Jeff, his wife Heather, and their two youngest children Talon and Madison) for dinner at Mazzio’s Pizza in Yukon. It doesn’t seem like that long ago I was washing dishes and preparing pizzas and Jeff was delivering pizzas at that exact same location, but when I do the math I quickly realize that was over 18 years ago. Kids and young adults often throw around the phrase “time flies,” but it is not until you get a little older that the words hold significant meaning. Seventeen or eighteen years ago it not be uncommon to find Jeff and I (along with our friends) hanging out at Mazzio’s on a Friday night; last night, we did it while watching our kids play together. I never imagined this. I does my soul good to see our kids playing together.

After eating pizza and letting the kids play videogames and eat candy for a while, everybody headed back home. Mason was upset because he wanted to have a sleepover with Talon, but his room is a mess and Susan was feeling under the weather. After several minutes of begging, Susan caved and said Mason could have Talon spend the night, if he cleaned up his room first. I’ve never seen a kid clean his room so quickly. Like a Kansas tornado Mason spun in circles, magically flinging toys on to shelves and clothes into his closet. Whatever works.

Talon arrived and the boys spent some time playing Xbox. Talon’s three years older than Mason so there’s always a bit of posturing as to who’s going to be the alpha-male. Mason thinks “his house, his rules,” while Talon’s a little older and a little wiser and probably puts up with Mason a bit more than a kid Mason’s own age would. Jeff was supposed to drop Talon off but the two of us ended up hanging out in my own arcade for a bit, talking about the good ol’ days and looking at projects that need to be completed. There never seems to be a shortage of those, that’s for sure.

Jeff left a little after midnight and I was sitting in my lounge chair when I heard Mason’s door creak open. When I got up to investigate the door quickly closed. When I went into Mason’s room I found the two boys running around in circles. “Time for bed,” I said in a stern voice. The two reluctantly climbed into bed and pretended to fall asleep.

Around 1am I heard more noises. I went to crack the door open and found the lights on, Mason sitting up in bed, and Talon hiding behind the door. “Go to bed, boys,” I said. “I’m trying daddy,” Mason said, “but Talon keeps playing the guitar.” “No I don’t,” Talon said defending himself, “Mason keeps asking me to play songs.” “Don’t make me come in here again,” I said.

According to Susan, she went and told the two of them to quiet down two more times, once at 2am and once around 4am. And while everybody had a long, tiring day today after a lack of sleep, I can’t help but to smile a little as I remember all the times Jeff’s dad Neil opened Jeff’s door and said, “Ok boys, time for bed,” to a couple of teenage boys trying to stay up as late as we could possibly make ourselves.

Mason took a nap around 3pm today and hasn’t woken up.