Full disclosure:  Life got away from me so T-man and I caught up while he was heading to bed.  He would rather have been kicking back in Starbucks.  Apparently I have committed the ultimate RFTM interview foul.

me:  Favorite thing to do if you’re sick.

T-man:  Sleep.

me:  Do you have a favorite basketball team?

T-man:  Um, definitely not Golden State Warriors because I’m not a bandwagon.

me:  O-kay…but that doesn’t tell me if you have a favorite basketball team.

T-man:  College is UVA, definitely.  And I don’t really do NBA.

me:  Neither does your dad.  Do you have a favorite number?

T-man:  Favorite number?

me:  Yeah, some people have a lucky number.

T-man:  21.

me:  If you could make a school rule what would it be?

T-man:  That there were no rules.

me:  Interesting.  If you could teach any subject, what would it be?

T-man:  Skateboarding. (laughs)

me:  You could do that for P.E. credit…you were joking one time about designing a school.  If you designed your own school what would it look like?  What would it be like?

T-man:  It would be a video game school, or…or OR a skateboarding school.

me:  Okay.

T-man:  We’d have the normal classes like math, science…but it would be mostly skateboarding.  Like for recess you’d just take your board out and you’d have a skate park instead of a playground.  I would love that, oh my gosh!  And at lunch they’d have skateboard tables and you’d sit on your board.  We’d use skateboard trays…

me:  What would the skate park out back look like?

T-man:  It would be pretty big.  It would have a fence around it so people wouldn’t try to get in.  Like other skaters that don’t go to the school ’cause graffiti and all that.  It would have at least a half pipe, a couple grind rails, a mini fun box, a kicker, a quarter pipe…like, one of those ramps where you go up and you have the little quarter pipe.  Launch ramps.  Maybe a mini mega.

me:  Pretty big.  Okay.

T-man:  If you know what that is.

me:  I was with you –

T-man:  You’re so old!  (laughs)

me:  – right up to the mini mega, but I can google it.  What is one thing a friend can do that would annoy you?  Or make you angry?

T-man:  I hate it when I tell a joke and they start telling it to other people and claim that it was theirs.  That annoys the crap out of me.

me:  Okay.  Let’s bleep that one out…

T-man:  Mom!  You put cuss words in your writing, why do you have to bleep out crap?!

me:  Sheesh.  What’s the most fun memory you have with a friend?

T-man:  I guess how me and B started hanging out again.  I remember a really fun experience we got in trouble for – busting the cans in the driveway!

me:  Yeah, you did get in trouble for that one.  So you know that your travel is pretty unusual for a kid your age.  What have you learned from the traveling you’ve done so far?

T-man:  It’s nice to get to know new places.  Like Hawaii – I know the resort pretty well, I know how to get to the coffee shop.  I don’t remember exactly how to get to Queen’s Bath ’cause that was a long drive –

me:  But you know it’s there.

T-man:  Yeah.

me:  So you’ve enjoyed getting to know new places…what else?

T-man:  The Spain trip was pretty educational.  Beautiful artwork and stuff, like the cathedral.  That was pretty cool.

me:  Yeah, it was.  Do you have a trip that’s most memorable for any particular reason?

T-man:  Mexico, last year, with K and all them.

me:  You made a lot of great friends.

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me:  Okay!  Flip the interview.  You get one question.

T-man:  I get to ask you a question?

me:  Yep.  One question.  Any question.

T-man:  All right, here’s my question.  Can I ask you ten questions? (laughs)

me:  Ha haha ha – No.  You just get one question.

T-man:  Okay.  Hmm.  What’s your worst experience?  With anything.

me:  Wow, that’s broad.

T-man:  Yeah, it’s very broad, that’s why I did it.

me:  My worst experience…truthfully, I have a couple of bad experiences, but I guess I’m gonna pick recovering from jaw surgery.

T-man:  Ewwwww!  I remember that!

me:  Yeah, that was really bad.

T-man:  You could barely talk!

me:  I could barely talk, I couldn’t eat, I had to drink food for so long.  I couldn’t chew for forever.  I couldn’t eat pizza –

T-man:  Oh!  No pizza?!?!

me:  Yeah, that was horrible.  The crust is surprisingly chewy.  You know, I went into it wanting to do it.  It was something I chose to do.  But had I known how badly it was gonna hurt ahead of time, and how long it was gonna hurt, I might not have done it.  ‘Cause it was pretty bad.  And I felt awful ’cause of you guys.  I did not look good, and when you guys came over to visit and I was all puffy and swollen and bruised and couldn’t talk…that was not a good thing.  So that’s one of my not so great memories.

T-man:  Okay.

me:  Okay!  Yeah.  Good times.