Uh. Ya.

It is too a word.

I looked it up.

As in, ‘I longed for the comfortableness of my comfy socks’.

It sounds like it might be used a lot in England, doesn’t it?

‘I longed for the comfortableness of my comfy socks. And some tea. Spit spot!’

But maybe I would say ‘comfortable’, instead of comfy, if I was in England.  Because I rarely hear the word ‘comfy’ in a British accent.

And also, I think it may have been only Mary Poppins who said ‘spit spot’.

Oh my Gawd, people.

Do you realize that I digressed before I even started? Can you do that?

Yep.

I guess you can.

Comfy socks are big in our house.

Especially for me and Number One Son Sam.

It’s kind of our thing.

When Sam is home, it is not at all unusual for him to look up from whatever it is he is doing  and inquire, “Comfy socks?”  and my response, of course, is “duh!” and he will scurry away and show back up with the perfect comfy socks (because he is a comfy sock sommelier (the ‘expert’ part, not the ‘wine’ part)).

We even have a whole basket of comfy socks up in Maine. So if you forget to bring yours, you can just go get some. Because an evening in Maine, even in the middle of summer, just cries out for comfy socks.

And, plus, it is very cute with everyone walking around in their shorts and big, giant (and often, very colorful) comfy socks at night.

Well, that’s about it. It’s all I’ve got for you. Comfy socks. Important.

Oh! Except this:

In the movie, City of Angels, Nicholas Cage plays an angel who is willing to fall to earth for his true love.

The movie is beautifully shot, but caused most of my family (the ones not bawling their eyes out) to scream things like, “seriously?!” and “you have got to be kidding me!” at the end.

Ya. It’s a total chic flick tragedy.

But anyway, it is indeed beautifully shot and there’s a lot to take in.

But my favorite part is the end of the opening scene.

Nicholas Cage plays the angel, Seth. And there is a little girl who is dying.

Her name is Susan, and she is probably about five years old.

You can see the doctors working on her, and there is just no hope.

And when she dies, Seth is there to take her to Heaven.

He is gentle and she is not afraid of him.

She sees her Mom, sobbing in her early grief, and asks Seth if her Mom will be okay. And Seth says she will be.

And Susan asks if they are going to Heaven and Seth says that, yes, they are.

And as they are walking down the hall of the hospital, toward the light, Seth asks Susan what she liked best about being here. And Susan says, ‘pajamas’.

Pajamas.

🙂

I love that scene.

Sam too.

We have talked about that scene so many times. I think Sam actually referenced it in one of his college essays.

When someone poses a profound question like, ‘What did you like best about being on Earth?’, one tends to feel the crushing responsibility of getting the answer ‘right’. Or, c’mon, at least you want to sound somewhat profound.

Okay, you just don’t want to sound like a moron.

So, finally, when it came right down to it, Sam and I landed on comfy socks.

Everything is just better with them.

Love

Music

Wonder

Children

Laughing

Snow

Christmas

Movies

Magic

Coloring

Dancing

Singing

Living.

Everything is better with a pair of comfy socks.

They even help, if only just a little bit, with the tough bits of life.

Tears

Disappointment

Sadness

Frustration

Grief.

Sam comes home in just a couple of weeks, and we won’t have seen each other since we put Monty on the train a week ago Monday.

It’s not like we’ll live it all over again, but we just haven’t had the chance to hug and chill together, in person, since Monty’s been gone.

Yesterday we were talking on the phone about him and his friends potentially living off-campus next semester, and him maybe wanting to get a minor in marketing or business, and the logistics of getting back and forth to New Orleans this summer, and renting a bass for his time at home and a bunch of other silly things. And he asked about the other dogs and how they were doing. And I realized that he would come home, and we would sit down to hang out, and I knew exactly what he would do before we ever even talk about Monty.

He’ll get us comfy socks.

And we’ll hug and talk about the big, old goof of a dog and relive all his antics – from the great ones to those that annoyed the frack out of us.

And we’ll talk about how much we loved him.

And we’ll be wearing our comfy socks.

And, somehow, that will make it just a little bit better.

Thanks for readin’.

As always, you can come on over to Just Ponderin’s facebook page to comment or just hang out.