Whip Cream Everywhere

I opened my eyes to see my daughter, Rebecca, running towards me while laughing maniacally, like some mad women out of an animated cartoon.  As I realized what was happening, I felt my nose being smooshed accompanied by the feeling that my face was now covered by some kind of foreign matter.  As I sputtered at my situation, I felt more foreign matter smashing into my face.  I tried to gain my composure and wipe the stuff out of my eyes, hair and nose.  What happened to me?  How did I get here?  When I woke up this morning, this is not where I had pictured myself!

I woke up like I do most Sunday mornings, not too late, and not too early.  Weekends have become the time that we catch up on our errands and have some family time together.  Debbie and I are the co-chairpersons of the youth groups at our Jewish Center.  On this particular day, there was a carnival for all of our members who bring their children and grandchildren to celebrate the holiday of Purim.  Our role was to run the booth with the teens from the older youth group.  In the past, my job was to talk to the adults and see if I can convince them to help us for a short time and then to announce their names over the PA system to bring people to our booth.  Oh, yeah, we run the “Pie in the Face” booth…

All week long, we all strive to work hard, provide for our families, address issues (business and personal) and are engaged in community activities.  There have been times in my life, where I have returned home late from work (after 9:00) and have found it difficult to leave my work behind in the office.  There are many times where we bring to our homes the issues that can and should be resolved only in the office.  While at home, the goal should be to focus on being at home and spending the time with the people we love and live with.  It is important to have down time, so that we can enjoy other aspects of our lives.  Or to use an old phrase, it is important to “stop and smell the roses”.   Working the carnival was an opportunity to “live in the moment” and enjoy myself.

As my senses returned and remembered where I was, I began to have fun with my situation and heckle anyone that passed in front of the booth, including Rebecca.  The next kid missed my face, but my wife got the assist, as she pushed the extra cream from the board onto my face.  It is a humbling experience to stand behind a board and having children (and some adults) throw a pie in your face.  But, it was a lot of fun!  I definitely smelled like whipped cream for the rest of that day.