SuperAunt Chronicles: Arrival of The Nephew And His Maalox

I have to say two things right off the bat here: first, he hasn't said the word "bored" once since he arrived more than 24 hours ago; second, his parents both thanked me several times for going to get him. I have to give credit where credit is due.

The train trip to get him was pretty uneventful, if long--the train was 1-1/2 hours late arriving. Having made this trip a few times in the last several years, I was expecting that, so no problem. The Nephew called my cell phone twice in the first 10 minutes to see if I was on the train yet. Twice, because I was busy boarding and signing for my ticket and ignored the first call. I answered the second one and told him, yes, I was indeed on the train and on my way. He only called three more times during the 6 hour trip. He also sent me three text messages, most of them consisting questions like "Where are you now?" and "How about now?"

Once at my brother's house, we all had a nice evening chatting, while universally dreading our 4:30 a.m. wake-up time to get to the train station for the return trip. My sister-in-law busied herself making us fabulous hoagie sandwiches for our trip and packing a small cooler. Twice during the evening she reminded The Nephew that there was a bottle of Maalox for him in his shaving kit. True to his parentage, he likes spicy food but it doesn't like him, and she wanted to make sure he was prepared. That was perfectly reasonable. It got silly later.

The next morning I woke at 4 a.m. when The Nephew's alarm clock started going off upstairs in his room. He hit the snooze five times. I'm not exaggerating. Five. About 4:30 he finally got up, and he, his dad and I stumbled around getting showered, dressed and packed for our trip to the train station. About 20 minutes before we were due to leave, my sister-in-law got up to make sure T.N. had everything, and she told us each twice again that there was a bottle of Maalox in his shaving kit. Right, got it. Then she gave him strict instructions that he was never to be out of my sight, except when he had to go to the bathroom, and then he was only to use the restroom in the same train car we were sitting in. We are talking about a husky 15-year-old boy on a train crossing the farmland of central Missouri. He got a little testy during the second recitation of these instructions. Finally we were out the door, and my brother delivered us to the train station, where the train was already 10 minutes behind schedule. We settled back to eat the cupcakes in our lunch for breakfast and watch some episodes of "Stargate: Atlantis." Less than 30 minutes into our trip, T.N. got two text messages, both from his mother, reminding him that there was a bottle of Maalox....you know the rest. Shortly after that I got a text message. Guess what it said? Once we got to my house, Mr. SmartyPants called his mother to ask her where his bottle of Maalox was.

In other news, during our train trip I finally got the official call from the police department offering me the CSO position! We celebrated by going to the snack car and getting some root beer. While we were there, I sent text messages to our families letting them know I'd gotten the job. My sister-in-law and I had been talking the night before about how if I got this job, one of the department requirements was that I be sprayed with pepper spray, since I would carry the spray on duty. After I sent the message that I'd gotten the job, The Nephew got a text message from his mom that said, "If she gets sprayed while you're there, take pictures!" No, we have no grown-ups in my family!