"Dad, my lunch box was hacked!"

adam_12_back.jpg
Originally uploaded by dustincropsboy

When I was 10 years old, I had this Adam-12 lunchbox. Well I doubt it was this one, but you get my drift (thanks dustincropsboy).

I recall a steady diet of milk and apple slices, but no notes. I guess that's just not how my mom rolled.

My wife, on the other hand, has been slipping notes in our daughter's lunch boxes since they started taking them to school. When she went back to work full-time earlier this school year, I became the note writer. It all began innocently enough with the requisite "I'm proud of you," "Have fun today," and during FCAT week, "Do well or your school will lose its funding!" but lately, the notes have been all fun.

One morning, with writer's block over a lunch box note, (how incredibly pathetic, I know), I wrote something utterly random. It went:

Dearest Charlie,

I polished the silver crickets in your closet, just like you asked. Yesterday Jake ate all the ferrets before I could get to the bowling alley. I'm sorry. I certainly hope Bob wears that sweater tomorrow, don't you? That's all for now.

Lovingly,

Jerry

Now I assure you my daughter's name is not Charlie and she has no crickets in her closet, silver or otherwise. I simply thought that a totally random note would throw some fun her way. When I picked her up from school that day, she rushed to my car, hoped in and said, "Dad, my lunch box was hacked!"

After feigning ignorance for all of 3 seconds, I coped to the deed. She acted scared at first saying things like "I was freaked out!" and "It was too weird, I showed all my friends!" but the smile she tried to suppress told me she really thought is was freaky and weird, you know, in a good way.

So I did it again a few days later and I am now happy to report that it's a regular segment in the sitcom of our lives. I think my daughter is better off, but those poor ferrets... What a shame.