Sheena, remain.

Yesterday I had to go to the bank on my way home from work.  I was taking care of a flub-up that involved stopping payment on a check.  (I actually stopped the wrong one and had to reverse it.  Total charges = $54.  My feeling about that = yuck.)  The point is that the service clerk was named Sheena.  (To my kids, yes, this was real.)  I asked her, just to make sure, and yes, it was the same name that Ray used to speak to an imaginary creature - which I always assumed to be a large feline, like a tiger.  He would appear very serious, and he'd tell this something-or-other to "remain."  The entire phrase was, "Sheena, remain."  Then he'd turn away and try to ignore the "creature" but he'd have to say it several times, making it "Stay."  The kids soon caught on to his pretending, and we'd all go along with getting rid of monsters in the house or whatever it was that brought on the play.

It all reminds me of the fun, silly dad that Ray's always been for the kids.  Just yesterday Sara came into the shop where I work (she works down the hallway in an office, and we both work in a hospital).  She was asking, "Is that song that goes like....'I got a knee, this knee is mine.  I will sell it for a dime.  If you buy it, buy it PLEASE, I'll throw in two nice new knees!'...Is that a real song, or did Dad make it up?"  I laughed and had to tell her, that yes, her dad made that up.  It was how he would tickle them on the knee and get them giggling, then laughing and begging for mercy. 

Oh, and there were others that we still sing.  What a fun thing to have a dad who makes up songs - that last, extending now into the next generation.  :) 

But the "Sheena" thing - pretty funny as well.  And just as I was going to write it on facebook a few minutes ago, I got a call from the facility where Dad is.  The nurse on the other end of the phone started out with, "Hi, this is Sheen, and I need to talk to Carol."  It was a medical report, which was routine but that I needed to know.  But, really, from a SHEEN?    I have no idea how she spells it, but two in two days?  Sheen and Sheena?  I wanted to say, "Remain," as I created that same old giant tiger - or liger or something, and think of the family laughing in the old house, making the creature do something that kept scariness away.