bumblebee

A long time ago, I explained to Elias that he need not be scared of bumblebees because they do not sting unless provoked. Bumblebees do not sting unless they really really mean it, because they only get to sting once and then they die. I didn't think that Elias paid much attention to this explanation because he continued to shriek and runaway any time a bumblebee was within 100 feet of him but about ten months ago I learned that he had indeed paid attention. Some of you may remember a trip that Elias and I took to ny. We were flying from Indy to Pittsburg to NYC to attend Emily's wedding in upstate ny. Cybele was a few weeks old and we were flying out on the last flight of the day and getting into ny late the day before the wedding. Or so we thought. When we got to Pittsburg we learned that we were less than ten minutes too late to board the plane. The airlines, being the airlines, said oops and smiled so I turned to Elias and said "do you think we should drive through the night?". Elias being Elias said yes and off we went. After collecting our bags and collecting a rental car, Elias and I headed off into the night at about 11pm to drive from Pittsburg to NYC. Unfortunately we were interrupted by the rumbling in our tummies as we had forgotten to eat dinner. At 11pm there are not very many options so we did something we had never done before, we went to McDonalds. I apologized to Elias about the food, which I had spent five years telling him we would never eat, and that it was bad and that only people like George Bush ate it, and then I made him promise never to tell Papa. I continued to explain that we would only go this one time. That his first time at McDonalds would be his last time at McDonalds and then Elias said to me "just like the bumblebees". At first I thought Elias was just starved, tired and delusional, but I asked him to explain what he meant and he said, "our first time at McDonalds is our last time at McDonalds, just like the first time a bumblebee stings is the last time a bumblebee stings" Yeah, it was kinda like that.