If Loren was an animal he would likely be a large, high energy black or yellow lab. His big tail would thwap things over, similar to his currently large feet, and he would jump around making a general mess of just about anything in his path. It is a sort of annoying state of existence but his demeanor is usually so darn happy that it is hard to remain irked for any length of time. One of his more obnoxious traits is his need to share just about anything with me. In great detail. This encompasses just about everything from the features of his video camera to the reason his sneakers are environmentally sensitive. But by far his most bothersome fascination is YouTube. The kid rarely turns on the television and is content enough to leave his XBox alone, but he parks himself at his computer and sifts through video after video after video.

I find YouTube to be fairly useless unless I am searching for something specific. But my son can, and does, spend hours looking at videos. Mostly he researches other budding videographers who specialize in making skateboarding movies, but he also finds trinkets of footage in many other categories. However, being the sharing minded young fellow he is, he routinely calls me up to his room wanting me to sit and admire exactly what his 15 year-old mind appreciates. This is fine. For about 90 seconds. Don't get me wrong. I love to be included in my kids' lives. But 90 seconds is never enough for Loren and as I try to rise and get on with my day he pleas with me, "Oh, wait! Just one more. This one is way better than the last one." Not true. One skateboarding film is far too much like the next, at least to my aging eyes, and so I get trapped by Loren as he does a free association binge on what's on YouTube on that particular day. In the past the only saving grace to this immense of waste of time is the fact that Loren's room is up three flights of stairs at the very top of the house, it made for an easy escape route. But not now. This week Loren's grandfather, Papa Tom, sent his long awaited birthday present of the new 3G iPhone. It's a fabulously sassy bit of technology and Loren is over the hill thrilled with it. Only now? Now he has YouTube on the the go. In the kitchen. In the car. At the table. On the patio. Everywhere there is cell service there is now YouTube. Lucky Loren and lucky me.