my friend, the security guard

today eden and i went to the mall, b/c the weather here is sucky and we needed somewhere for e to run around. as most of you know, eden has the tendency to be a bit timid:) (on a general scale, it takes her about 5 times as long to warm up to something/one as other kids her age) so, when we go to the 'play castle', i have to be prepared to spend about 30 full minutes there (barf). the first 10 minutes, e clings to my leg, then slowly (and i mean SLOWLY) ventures out to climb on something or slide down something. just as she starts to get really into it, some snot-nosed kid (and i don't mean this mean, as my own child can be rather snot-nosed) plows her over and she falls down the stairs backward. no problem, after a minute of recovery time, she's back at it.
normally when we go to the play castle, it's a fend for yourself kind of experience. but today, the security guy who was on duty was really on duty. i have never seen someone take their job so seriously. first, he was adamant that EVERY child who entered the play area take off their shoes, as well as their parent if they might possibly step onto the castle to help their child. i tried to ignore this request as i had forgotten to put socks on eden and had no intention of taking off my own shoes to walk on that nasty rubber mat. but he found us over on the other side and reprimanded me. so off went eden's shoes and play continued.
then, as one might expect in childrens' mall play castle areas, lots of little boys are running around playing tag and chasing each other. and every once in awhile they trip or run into another kid. well, super security guard (henceforth ssg) had a serious problem with 2 little boys chasing eachother around, and he began to chase them to get them to stop. this in fact, scared the 2 little boys so they ran faster and kept trying to hide from ssg. and ssg is not a small man. large and in charge or so he think. he finally catches the 2 boys and yells at them to stop running b/c 'it's very dangerous' and then he finds their mom (i mean nanny) and tells her to make them sit by her for 5 minutes until they have learned their lesson. (all this time eden and i, among others, have completely forgotten playing in the play castle and are watching the escapade). nanny nods politely for a while, but after ssg won't let up, she tells him he needs to relax and find someone else to bother. ssg takes offense to this comment and asks nanny to either be respectful or leave with her kiddos. nanny spews off a few other nice words to ssg and leaves with her bewildered boys in a huff. eden and i have had enough play castle action for the day and as we leave, ssg turns to me, smiles, and says 'have a wonderful and blessed day, ma'am.'
you too, buddy....