Hello friends!
This week, I want to shout out to a special person for their act of kindness, but before I get to that, I just want to tell you about our Parenting is a Joke episode this week with Andy Richter! You know Andy from all of his years as Conan O’Brien’s sidekick, and he has voiced so many characters, including Mort in Madagascar and Wayne in Bob’s Burgers!
Now to my shout-out!
Last week, my family and I ventured upstate for some hiking and a change of scenery. Right before we endured the slow march home of highway traffic back to Brooklyn, we met some friends at a diner for a late lunch. My son brought his backpack into the diner, full of books, toys, and activities (because god forbid we have a meal that doesn’t also involve 17 entertainment choices) and unpacked it under the table. You can probably see where this is going. We had a lovely meal and then hopped in the car for the 2-hour drive that always takes 3 ½. We made it back just shy of 9 pm, and I rushed my son to get ready for bed, which is when he discovered that he couldn’t find his most loved stuffie. It’s a stuffed toy he has had since he was a baby – a stuffed pancake.
It’s a weird one, right? It was a gift from a dear cousin, and my son fell in love with it immediately. It was first referred to him as “Pan-pa” and then “Pan-pay” and eventually just straight ahead “Pancake”. And now Pancake was gone.
I gotta hand it to my kid – when I asked him if he remembered leaving it anywhere, he said, “It probably tumbled out of my bag at the diner.” If only I could be like that with my keys, phone, laptop chargers… I said I’d call the diner in the morning and he fell asleep crying with me beside him saying, “We’ll get him back, I promise.” My next step would be to see if I could just order a new one from Amazon.
The next morning, promptly at 9am, I called the diner. “Hi! Sorry to bother you, but we were having a late lunch there yesterday, and my son thinks he left a stuffed pancake there, probably under the table we were sitting at.” The woman said, “A stuffed… WHAT?” And I laughed, “Yes, it’s a pancake. It’s a stuffed pancake.” She seemed dubious about this whole conversation, like perhaps I was pranking her, and put me on hold. Minutes later she came back and dryly said, “Does it have big eyes and a butter pat for a nose?”
I liked her. I said yes, and that I had a bit of an issue because I lived hours away, so I needed to figure out a plan on how I’d get it. But she interrupted my logistic ramblings and said, “You know what? It’s my day off tomorrow so I’ll just pop over to the post office and mail it back to you.”
What? Who? Why? Who would do this? Who was this amazing person? And what’s in it for her?
And I just thought, you know in this dark, landscape of the world where you can feel that no one cares, everyone is too busy, out for themselves, there might be this little tear in that fabric where people understand the importance of a little kid’s stuffie and will go out of their way to reunite that toy with its small owner.
Not to say it’s arrived yet., so I guess I’ll keep you posted there…
But I did want to thank Lisa, a person I’ve never met at a diner upstate who is willing to do this errand out of the kindest of her heart.
I didn’t want to come back from upstate NY back to Brooklyn, back to my… life. I don’t think my kid wanted to either. I wonder what Pancake thinks? Maybe he was happy to be left there!
Dear Lucas,
Listen, I like you, kid, even though once you almost threw up on my face, however, please don’t make me come back to Brooklyn. I love it out here – the people are sooooo NICE. The fact that ANYONE would take time on their ONE day off to go to the 2nd circle of hell known as the POST OFFICE - I mean, are they trying to pay a debt back to the gods? We couldn’t even get a neighbor to drag our Fresh Direct bags in front of our door when we were running late!
And there are trees everywhere here, not just that one sad tree they planted on our block last year that looks like it’s only half coming back —-probably because it gets watered with mostly Chiweeneie pee. Sure there are ticks and bears up here, but I’ll take that over the rat and tech bro infestation that’s happening on our street. Plus, the floor of the diner that you tossed me on here, the food remnants are to die for! Have you tried this place’s stuffed hashbrown? I know you’re still afraid of food touching each other, but GET OVER IT, MAN, because this is potato heaven! Leaks, cheese, and bacon delicately enveloped in a sheet of potato paper and fried!! Are you kidding me?!!! And this is coming from a stuffed pancake, so you know I know something about stuffed food.
Anyhow – I do miss being squished up against your face in those early hours of the morning before you toss me on the ground and use me as a mini trampoline on your way to wake up your mom (hey have you noticed that she neeeevvvver responds to that well? Because all of the rest of us have) but I would be very cool with moving that whole situation up here and seeing if Lisa wants to live with us, she seems like the kind of person a kid and a kid’s stuffed pancake needs around. A true role model.
-Love PanPay
I hope someone unexpectedly helps you out in some small but meaningful way this week.
Until then enjoy this week’s episode of Parenting is a Joke with Andy Richter, and look forward to next week’s that is LIVE from the Moontower Festival in Austin, Texas with Rosebud Baker and Andy Haynes, and coming up I’ll be talking with actor and director Laura Prepon! So many great things coming for you.
Until then, enjoy a stuffed pancake in any form.