Cotter’s Corner

We had a very good vacation all-in-all. Chattanooga doesn’t sound like much, but we saved a little money and still managed to have a really, really good time on our mini-trip. Chattanooga has changed a lot over the 7-8 years since we were there last. Everything was very clean, nice and well maintained. The downtown area is a dream to get around in. Traffic wasn’t bad, plenty of things to do, see and eat. We ate at a REALLY good place called Sticky Fingers which I highly recommend and went to the Tennessee Aquarium and two (count em!), TWO IMAX movies which were both excellent and well received by the Cotter family. Oh… and the Sticky fingers blog is worth a read as one of the owners waxes poetic about some of his favorite (and not so favorite) celebrity visits to their chain. Good stuff to eat AND read.

The last day we even got a chance to sneak up to the very tip-top of Missionary Ridge and took a few pictures of the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in the entire state of Tennessee. It’s called the Seymour Shavin house and you can follow this link to view all of the pictures. It’s one of the very few FLW homes left that are still lived in by the original owner, and as such – there is no way to view the home from the inside. He doesn’t allow tours or anything.

So this year we are taking a somewhat shorter vacation than normal. Typically at this point in the year we go off to Gatlinburg for about 4-5 days and just hang out and be touristy asses. This year however, we are trying to save a little money and step it back just a little since there is a chance we will be traveling to China in October(ish) to pick up our new baby girl. I kinda made it sound like we had an order in at a factory there, didn’t I? Anyways….

So we’re heading to Chattanooga. Going to stay downtown and do the downtown-y kind of stuff there. We’re also hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious Frank Lloyd Wright house that is in Chatt. It’s the only FLW house in the state of Tennessee and is still occupied by the original owner! So, I’ll post the pics and the story if there is one…

So you see…

A teenage boy.

Chores.

Notice that they are NOT in the same sentence? There is a reason for that. It’s because they don’t belong together. Oh sure, you may WANT them to go together, but they don’t. You may really get ANGRY that they aren’t together. But again, they aren’t. And there isn’t a damned thing you can do about it. As I sit and type this my wife is angry at me, I am angry at my son and he, well… he’s just angry. But he’s probably forgotten why. I’m willing to bet he’ll blame me – but then what teenage boy doesn’t?

Ah yes, the teenage years. I’d always heard they could be fun, but I never knew. I always just thought people were bullshitting with me. Surely I wasn’t a completely and totally forgetful sack of goo that likes to only computer and watch TV? Right? I did more, right?!?!? Sadly, it doesn’t matter what I did because now I’m in the role of the person who has to try and motivate his over-stimulated and over hormoned boy into getting off of his lazy ass and doing work. I’ve become my Dad. Except my Dad wasn’t really as committed to it as I seem to be. Not sure why I am that way either. I really find myself pushing my son. Not in a completely over-the-top asshole kind of way. But in a PLEASE DON’T GROW UP TO BE A COMPLETE FUCKING LOSER kind of way. I’m trying to instill a work ethic. And let me tell you… I’d have more luck convincing the academy to give an oscar to Scorsese.

Anyways, back to my wife being angry. So, she tells me that I’m being too hard on him. And you know, I sit and wonder if I am sometimes. I don’t know – I think that is the “default” parent in her talking. You know, the objective parent who isn’t caught up in the current parental dilemma at the moment and is taking a look at the situation from outside. I sit in that spot occasionally with her and I poke and prod her to ease up too sometimes. But there is always another element in the story of my life, since nothing can ever be THAT fucking easy, can it? No. So, the other thing that I wonder about is how I would treat a son who wasn’t adopted. There. I said it. It’s a shitty thing to have to say, but it’s always something that I think about. Does that make me a bad person? Less of a real father to my adopted son? I don’t know. But I can tell you that having to always try and second guess yourself really, REALLY sucks.