F is for Fox

Being so far away while my 7 nephews and nieces grow up can be (obviously) difficult. My fear of course is that they won't remember me. That each of my visits will require one of those horrible warm-up periods that ends the day I leave.

Somehow, we've avoided that for the most part. I'm not sure if it's been my increased visits this year, or pretty consistent phone relationships or just that their parents do a good job of keeping me on their minds. Whatever it is, it's working and I appreciate it.

Which brings me to this story. I talk to my younger sister Melody every day, every other day. We've been pretty consistent communicators since I left St Louis 5 and a half years ago (!). Even when I lived in Paris, we were constantly on Skype. To the point that Hunter (shown here) - even at 2 yrs old - knew what the computer alert was for my online status, and would call my name at the computer.

So yesterday Melody calls me because when they got in the car Hunter (now 4.5) asked "Are we going to see Aunt Mary Anne?" Melody answered no but then called me and passed him the phone. The following is a remembered transcription of our convo.

Me: Hey! How was trick or treating? Did you get lots of candy?
H: I dumped it all on the ground!
Me: OMG! Your mom and I used to do the same thing! What's your favorite?
H: Swedish Fish!
Me: Swedish Fish? Really? That's a funny candy for a kid to have be his favorite. (I wasn't being as unsupportive or condescending as this sounds.)
H: It has numbers on it. (He means letters.) Are you going to be at Grandma and Grandpa's when we get there?
Me: No sweetheart I'm sorry.
H: Are you coming to my house for Chicken Day? (Melody in the background yells "Turkey Day!")
Me: (laughing) No, I'm going to Ireland.
H: WHAAAAT? (This wasn't whiney. It was hilarious. Like WTF?)
Me: I'll be there at Christmastime tho.
H: Ok I love you and miss you.

Of course then I go to Walgreens and all I see is a ginormous bag of Swedish Fish Halloween candy. Had he not just been bragging about his loot I would have stuck an address label on it then and there.

My wkend was pretty chill. It was fally and rainy here and I heard precisely third claps of thunder on Saturday. To say thunder is a rarity in the city of Los Angeles is a gross understatement. It was glorious.

I lounged on my couch Friday night and watched Paranoid Park and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Believe it or not, I had never seen the latter. I loved it. Paul, Robert, the music, the comedy, the bike riding...SO fun. Saturday I saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I found it entertaining and I laughed more than I thought I was going to. Saturday night we ventured to a nearby bowling alley that was neither completely ghetto nor shi-shi. I was reminded how bad I am at bowling. I mean bad. During the second game it took me like 5 frames to get my score past 6. I wish I were lying.

Yesterday it was off to try out the swap meet in my new-ish neighborhood. Walking around we discovered that we would be better off if we knew some Spanish for haggling purposes. Or at the very least, to ask "How much?"

The wkend was capped off with the hanging of the curtains. After 4 visits to Bed Bath and Beyond, I finally got everything right - the length of the curtain rod, the projection of said rod, the length of the curtains, the number of panels...who knew it was such a project to try to block out 99% of the light??

Of course laying in bed in the now pitch black room I realized how "dark" dark is. And it still took me 2 hours to fall asleep.

But I was here at work by 6h30a...woo hoo? I'm on mornings again this week. I also had a satellite intv with Anne Hathaway about her new movie Rachel Getting Married. I would have liked it (the movie, not the intv) MORE had it not made me nauseous, but I liked it. Anne was nice to me and I got her to laugh, so I feel good about it. I have another SMT (sat intv) with Paul Rudd later this week. I'm glad he won't be able to see me dazed in his attention.