the door, the lobby, the park.

Those were the requests I got this morning from Reuben. I figured if I was going to make it through the day I should satisfy Reuben's request early.

The door. The lobby. Shoes on? Okay. The door. The DOOR! The park? The park. THE PARK!

We went over to the park. It was drizzling...enough to get my glasses wet but not enough to bother us on our walk. When we got the park, there was a nice layer of water on everything. I pushed him in the swing for a few minutes. He jumped on the bridge. He went down the tall twisty slide, and the combination of his nylon jacket and the layer of water on the slide he flew off the end. He landed a few feet away from the slide. He went down it again, but I was sure to catch him the second time.

Then the lurking man finally got to me, and we went home. It wasn't the rain that made me decide to cut Reuben's chance for the park all to himself short. There was a man standing on the sidewalk next to a blue 15 passenger van when we got there, and then once we were in the park he stood by the bathroom building. The park attendant was there cleaning the bathroom when we got there, but he left after Reuben's first trip down the slide. I figured I didn't want to find out why the lurker was there, so we left after Reuben's second trip. That is the nice thing about catching a kid on his way down the slide... he's in your arms so you can leave without having to run and catch him.

I've been thinking about it all day. How something as simple as a large van and a man standing in the ran watching us could upset me more than rain. Would the man without the van been just as upsetting? If it was bright and sunny would I think it as strange? Would I have cared about the van if the man weren't there? On the trains they say "This is an important message from the NYPD: Keep your belongings in eye sight at all times, protect yourself." Thats what I was thinking as we walked home, that and, thank goodness he is not following me.