Playing at being grown up

Margie: I love to go out for coffee. It’s so grown up. Only adults can have coffee.

Me: Does it feel exciting to be grown up?

Margie: Oh yeah. My mother treats me like I’m a child all the time. 

Me: Why do you think she does that?

Margie: She thinks I’m too stupid to be responsible for myself. Maybe she’s right. 

Me: You’re her baby.

Margie: Well, yeah. And she treats me like it. But sometimes I can slip out. 

Me: Like now?

Margie: I love it when I can escape and play like a grown-up. You always take pictures of me. May I take one of you? Because you like to slip out too, don’t you?

Me: I do, Margie. Here’s the camera. (See extra.) 

Update on Kendall: I wake every morning with a headache that can be relieved a bit by ibuprofen but often morphs into a migraine. I’ve finally had a consultation with a doctor. She says I’m having cervicogenic headaches resulting from deteriorating spinal vertebrae and arthritis, and those headaches are triggering migraines. As soon as we get the results of the brain MRI I’ll have on Sunday to rule out clots and tumors, we can schedule neck injections which should relieve the pain, at least for a few months, so I can undertake physical therapy for the neck. I’m to limit my time on the computer to no more than an hour at a time and no more than 3 hours a day until I can get the injections. For now, I’ve turned comments back on, but I won’t be able to respond much. I miss our conversations, and I hope we can resume them before long.