Of Crocheting, Scouts, and Dr. Who

The first time I ever heard of the now ubiquitous Dr. Who was in 2011 at an early Oklahoma rehearsal.  Arlee and Curtis has discovered their mutual fandom and quickly landed themselves in the sort of discussion in which only Whovians can participate.  I wrote the obsession off as one of the many quirky things that make Arlee one of my favorite people on the planet, and also as one of those things that reminded me of the Great Stargate Obsession of Approximately 2004 (in which all my closest friends and husband became obsessed with a show I couldn't stand).

My first attempt at watching Dr. Who came in 2013 when Kirk and I moved into our own basement whilst building our new home.  Because I had insisted that we not wire the boys' bedrooms for television, we found ourselves limited to options that could be watched via the Kindle to HDMI cable to TV system we'd set up.  For awhile, that basically meant Netflix and HBOgo only.  Perhaps I really would like Dr. Who, I thought to myself one evening.  After all, by 2013, everyone was talking about it.  Perhaps it wasn't so quirky after all.  I loaded up Episode 1.  And I fell asleep 15 minutes into some weird plot that had something to do with scary mannequins.

Not for me.

The first time I realized my kids had an interest in Dr. Who happened juts 4 days ago in the gift shop at the Clark Planetarium.  Adam spotted a Tardis and made some comment about it.  "Yeah, that's the Tardis," I said.

"You know what the Tardis is?" he asked, clearly astonished.

"Yeah... pretty sure everyone does."

"Can I watch Dr. Who?"  Even though I'm not interested in it doesn't mean the kids can't watch it.  And so a mini-Who obsession began.  Adam watches it.  Alex watches it.  Dylan tolerates it if his brothers promise to watch Color Crew with him (which is truly a sacrifice).

So what does crocheting and scouts have to do with this story?  
I heard you wondering it...

Important Back Story #1: A few weeks ago for Young Women's, we learned how to crochet, and it turns out I find it incredibly relaxing.  Wanting to pass off a goal toward my Personal Progress medallion (I think it is so cool that leaders can earn it, too), I needed to actually make something recognizable with my new skill.  Ever my champion, Adam asked if I could make him a red washcloth.  That seemed doable to me, and so I began.  I crocheted half of it that evening, and then it sat neglected in a drawer.

Important Back Story #2: This summer, instead of spending money on the Pass of All Passes, I opted to make a list of all the stuff we could do that would also meet a Cub Scout requirement.  I'll be honest, I am a pretty terrible scout mom during the school year, so I decided we could just go crazy during the summer.  I made a card for each item that seemed fun and threw in a bunch of non-scouting adventures as well taken from lists of fun free things to do in Salt Lake.  Each day after the boys and I complete our to-do lists, we choose a card from the stack and have that adventure.  Yesterday's to-do lists were overambitiously long, and it took us well past lunch to complete them.  Tired and out of time, the boys chose "watch a tv show and discuss it" from the required scouting pile.  

And so I was forced to watch an episode of Dr. Who (and by negotiation an episode of Color Crew).  Figuring I could pass the required time a little easier if I had something to keep my hands busy, I pulled out the neglected washcloth.  45ish minutes later, I had a completed washcloth, a fun discussion with my kids, a signature added to Bear requirement 18a, and a renewed hope that perhaps I can be a borderline Who fan.  That, I am fairly certain, is due to the fact that Charles Dickens was a featured character on the chosen episode.

And for the record, Arlee, Adam says his friend Trae is a way bigger Dr. Who fan than you are.  I told him, "No way."