I did what I had to do, except follow the rules. I can’t draw anime characters to save my life but I can most definitely wing it with a little inspiration from Jane Davenport.

And so for twenty minutes or so, Raven and I drew and playfully trolled each other last night. Had a bit of a friendly competition going with an undercurrent of a ferocious desire to win. In between silent bouts of concentration and markers swishing on paper, Kurt Cobain serenades us with an acoustic performance like it’s 1993 all over again and Nirvana was still a band and we’re in New York.

“Mama, how popular was Nirvana?” she asked.

I ruminated over her question. Considering her generation, I kind of had an idea what she was driving at.

“Well, Nirvana was very popular and a lot of people liked their music,” I replied by way of introduction. “But if you’re asking how many subscribers they had, we didn’t have YouTube back then.”

“Who was more popular… Nirvana or Guns N’ Roses?” she continued.

Wow.

At that point, I didn’t know who I was more prouder of — myself, for introducing her to old school alternative music; or my daughter, for absorbing it by osmosis.

I mean, I once rocked out and sang “Sweet Child O’ Mine” for her and in front of her so only time will tell if she will come to genuinely appreciate my coolness or remember me with cringe.

*Raven at 8 years old