OK, so I think I'm a pretty calm mom in general. However, I have the capacity to boil over with seething rage when I feel like someone has mistreated my kids. You parents out there probably know what I mean. It is an extremely rare occurrence for this deep-seated maternal aggression to manifest itself, but it does happen. Take last Saturday, for example!
A week ago, Nicole and I took the train to New York to visit American Girl Place. I had told Nicole that we would do something special for her 10th birthday, and New York was what she wanted. The three of us (me, Nicole and Kit, the American Girl doll) spent Friday night at my parents' house and my dad drove us to Union Station at 5 AM on Saturday. Nicole, Kit and I hopped on the 6:20 Amtrak and arrived at Penn Station three hours later. We walked about 20 blocks to American Girl Place and proceeded to have an awesome time. Kit "got her hair did" at the doll hair salon and then Nicole had a photo session with Kit at the picture studio. After that, we enjoyed a gourmet lunch at the cafe and purchased some items in the store. So far, so good! We left American Girl Place at about 2 PM, which gave us plenty of time to do some sightseeing before our 6:05 train back to Union Station. Since the Empire State Building was on the way back to Penn Station, we decided to go up and check it out. I purchased a package that included an IMAX simulator ride and access to the observation deck on the 86th floor. The simulator ride came first. The setup was similar to a movie theater, with the main difference being the roller-coaster-style safety bar over our laps. I was settling down into my seat when Nicole started whimpering and stifling tears. I asked her what was wrong and she said "HE'S SITTING ON MY FOOT!" I looked in front of us and realized what was happening. Nicole had inadvertently placed her foot in between the two sections of the unused seat in front of her, so when the guy in front of her sat down in the seat, the bottom section of the chair came up, crushing her foot in between the sections. Nicole's moans of distress were getting progressively louder and the guy in front was clueless, so I said, "EXCUSE ME! YOU'RE SITTING ON MY DAUGHTER'S FOOT!" Everyone around us turned to look. The young-ish guy with a buzz cut got up, apologized and sat back down. At least I think he apologized. He mumbled something incoherent that sounded like "Srmmmrmrm." He didn't ask if Nicole was all right and didn't seem to give a crap that he had hurt someone, much less a young child. He just plopped his arse back down in his seat and stared straight ahead. Meanwhile, the young woman next to Nicole was more empathetic than the guy up front, looking over at her with a concerned expression more than once. By this time, I was furious. I wanted to get up and take that kid's Buddy Holly style glasses and cram them up his nostrils, but only after stomping the glass out so he wouldn't be able to see the movie. "I'd like to kick that guy's ASS" I hissed to Nicole through clenched teeth. Yeah, I'm a great role model, I know. Moments later, the show started, which helped to take my mind off of things. The pretend helicopter voyage over Manhattan was pretty rough for a simulator ride, but Nicole said she didn't like it because "there wasn't enough action." Huh? At least she wasn't crying about her foot the whole time. After the ride was over, we lined up for the elevators to the observation deck. I saw Buddy Holly dude several times while waiting in line, and I made sure to give him nasty looks out of the corner of my eye. Nicole said several times that she wanted to leave because she was still upset about what had happened, but I made her go up the elevators anyway. She wasn't too pleased with me, but we got some great pictures and I think she did enjoy the observation deck in retrospect. Her foot wasn't permanently damaged, although there was an indentation and bruise where the back of one of her croc jibbitz had been forced into the skin. Her foot looked much better the next day, and now the whole thing doesn't seem like as much of a big deal to me, in spite of how I livid I was at the time. So, guy with the Buddy Holly glasses... someday when you have kids, I'm sure you'll understand why that lady in the Empire State Building was acting like such a bitch. I'm just sayin'. :)
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