Friday, July 11, 2008

Grady And Pablo: The Update

Standing in Groundwork Coffee on the corner of Sunset and Cahuenga yesterday morning, I noticed that the digital news ticker was working on the CNN building across the street. They've been turning that spot into a Times Sqaure-type joing for months. And yesterday was the maiden voyage. Quite a face lift for that dumpy area.

While I was checking out the news crawl on CNN, my Blackberry vibrated in my hand. It was a text message from Grady, direct from his summer school classes at St. Francis, the high school where he'll become a freshman in September. His message was 'We had a pop quiz in vocab today. I got an 89! And I think I aced my math test too.'

I was with Adam Harrison. Showed it to him. Gave him a hug I was so happy! Happy to see Grady kcocking back the tests and pulling sweet marks. Second, happy to see Grady excited about his traction in school. We are proud as hell of Grady!

When I got home from the office yesterday, Jo Ann and Pablo excitedly told Grady and I about their day.

Using a jogging stroller that Phil and Dorrie lent us (ours is buried in the garage with flat tires and I've been too lazy to dig it out and deal), they made their way down the Silverlake Reservoir. Huge, because this is Pablo's first outing since returning home from the hospital on Saturday. And he'd been in CHLA from early Wednesday morning.

As Jo Ann and Pablo made their way down the wide path that circles the rez, they decided to go to the Coffee Table, a great restuarant / coffee house on Rowena, to grab some food. When they made it there, they ran into Tony Hoffer and had lunch with him. (At least I think they did–everyone's still asleep, so we'll have to go with that.)

Pablo walked half of the 1.5 miles home–a huuuuuuge feat for this little boy! Three months ago, Pablo would have run all the way there, continued jumping around while eating, and run all the way home. For real. That's how much energy he normally has! After a gnarly abdominal surgery and a giant vial of Red Devil on Tuesday, Pablo's every move has been more considered this week.

The upside of this (and I am reaching here, to find a positive in any of this) is that when he gets better, we'll appreciate his active lifestyle soooooo much more than I had ever imagined. Seeing him lay on the couch all day watching Scoob and Shaggy is so strange. But he'll be back to normal in no time, and will have a full SD vocab: 'rooby racks' (scooby snacks), 'zoinks,' 'jeepers,' 'mystery machine' and so on. Maybe I'll even play him the Fun Lovin' Criminals song 'Scooby Snacks'!

Awwwright, I'm off to ride La Tuna Canyon with my friend Piero.

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