Soapbox

      Last night we went to Costco for our tri-yearly "Let’s see how many things we can find that we don’t need but really want to have" spree. "We" this time was Ted, myself, Katie and her boyfriend Jason, who went with us last time and has since confessed to Katie an affinity for wandering at Costco.
     When we were in the food section, Katie hurried over to a huge, decadent-looking chocolate cake and said "Every time we’re here they have these, and every time, I want one. Can I please have one of these for my 18th birthday?"
      I pointed out that she will need to have a lot of people over to eat through a cake that large and that rich but she didn’t think that would be a problem.
   "You know, exactly 2 months from today, I will be 18."

   I felt like she had hit me in the stomach.

    "Ted!" I called, hurrying to him in distress. "Make her stop!"
    "Stop what?"
    "Katie just said that 2 months from today, she’ll be 18! Then I won’t have any children any more! I’ll just have a couple of quasi-adults! That’s not fair"
    Ted seemed largely unsympathetic to my unhappiness, but Katie threw me a bone.

    "Don’t worry mom, Jason will still be 17 for a while. He can be your kid."
    "Oh Jason" I said, "Will you let me borrow you when I need a kid?" I asked.
    "Uh…sure…?" he said.

    Whew!  Wait- this doesn’t mean I have to pay for his college, does it?