Family

This is my nephew D. He's 5. He's the only son from the first marriage of my stepsister C to the guy she eloped with after knowing him for 2 weeks. The managed to stay together for 2 years and produce this wonderful little munchkin. Now C is married to a good friend of my brother's, who she met at my brother and sister-in-law's wedding, and they have a second son, J, who's 2-1/2. They live in St. Louis and I never get to see them, except on the occasional Christmas.


My parents picked D up this past weekend in my Mom's new Prius in Hannibal, MO so he could stay with them and have a weekend in the "big city."

I loaned my camera to them because they forgot theirs. Here are a couple examples of my mother's handiwork behind the lens:




I saw D on Thursday night after my Elvis 5K and then also came over after my minitri on Saturday morning, too. I ended up spending the whole day with them Saturday and slept over with Lois that night.

We went to the beach on Saturday with my brother and sister in law (above - can you tell?), and they went to the zoo while I went to the bike shop and took a shower. We went out to dinner and D got really tired.



The next morning, at 6am, Lois started barking and I woke up to see that D. had woken up. I dragged myself out of bed and took him and Lois to the beach again, where, before like 9am, when it officially opens, they allow dogs.



On the way to the beach he showed me some of his tricks. It was nice to spend time alone with him. He's a pretty neat kid! Plus, he and Lois got along great, which was a relief, because she's not fond of many kids. But she loved D.



Although it was dog swim time, and the waves were crazy, and it was 6:30am, and only about 65° out, and we weren't wearing swimming suits and I hadn't brought towels or a change of clothes, the first one in the water was not the dog, but (of course) D. He went in and got his shorts wet and I said, "Just don't get your head wet!" for fear that he'd catch some horrendous cold and have to walk all the way home all purple-lipped and freezing... well, his head was under the water within about 10 seconds. He loves the water. He was like - "it's not even salty!" (which I know, means he was tasting it, ugh) and just kept flinging himself into the waves and playing. It was fun to watch.



On the way back I got a taste of what my parents had alluded to when they said he'd been difficult. He stopped and sulked. He wouldn't move. I talked, I poked I joked I promised and I threatened, and he would not budge. He did this twice on the way back, but luckily I got him going. He just would get in these foul, obstinate states that were insanely hard to figure out or to 'crack.'

Then, we all went to one of my favorite breakfast restaurants and he ordered Swedish meatballs. He loved them!



He did the stubborn thing a few more times and my parents got furious. He had also spent most of the weekend not saying please, or thank you, which made them very upset. By the time they were ready to go, I tried to get a picture of all three of them, but D refused to look up, and that was it - they just got him into the car and pulled away. I felt bad that I couldn't say goodbye to him before he left Chicago, but he wasn't even looking at me, and I couldn't force him. Sort of a big bummer.

They were packing up I guess, because about an hour later, I got a phone call. To my surprise, it was D. Here's the conversation:

(Very quiet, high 5-year-old voice): "Sorry."

"Hi D! What are you sorry for?"

(Still quiet) "Sorry."

"But why are you saying you're sorry?"

"Because I'm sorry!!"

"No, but I mean, what are you sorry about?"

"Because I wouldn't smile when you wanted to take our picture and I was..."

"Sulking?"

"Yeah..."

"OK, I accept your apology - I'm glad you called!"

"OK. Bye." (fumbling with the phone in background) muffled voice: "Poppy? Where's the off button?"Click.



It's funny how family reacts to different personalities. I almost feel that the way I had giant screaming fits as a kid was easier for my mom to handle because a) it'd be obvious what it was about (usually something very appropriate, I am sure..!), b) I'd be really done afterward, quickly going back to being the perfect little girl, plus, c) then she could react with yelling and somewhat chaotic behavior, too, which was sorta all she was capable of at the time. But with the way D behaves, we all were just like, "What the hell do we do??" ...and I think he liked that.

I am also sure that spending more time with him will be a really good thing. I get to see all of C's family in less than a month for my mom's surprise 60th b-day party. THAT will be fun!

Weekend...

Lois and friends in Lake Michigan; first dip of 2008.

So I didn't do tons of the organizing I promised myself on my day off, but I did do laundry, work on the yard, and take Lois to the dog beach. That is a lot. I also bought my porch flowers, and they are sort of "in process" now. Til tonight, it's been so lovely, weatherwise, here!

Today I went running with the 8am group (plus M and Lois), and then had my 2nd-to-last swim in the pool before they shut it down. It was unpleasantly hot—about 85°—but I got a half-mile in. Then my friend T and I walked, with Lois, to Shelley's Freeze, one of Chicago's excellent hot dog stands, and I got a dog with everything and a small soft-serve chocolate cone; it was perfect!

THEN, my extremely talented friend E had a play (wrote/directed) in a group/multimedia/short play show at the Steppenwolf garage, and he invited me, so I rode down for that, enjoyed it immensely, and rode home in the rain. They were shooting a film near the old Biograph theatre and it was fun to ride my bike through there with all the film crew and big cranes and stuff. I still wish I could do that for a job someday. Maybe work for Fatih Akin...ah, to dream!

Now I'm home early, missing a big concert to benefit the anti-death penalty crusade in Illinois, and starring many people I'm friends with and fans of, but it's still raining (and the venue's not super close), and I have season 5 disc 2 of MI-5, and a cuddly dog, and a bunch of kids to teach art to tomorrow. So I'm staying home and dry.

Neeeeext!

Ok, so we did it. I helped put on/put together this crazy event last night in the park and we broke our Guinness World Record and had a fabulous, excellent time. Everything worked, worked out, and people thanked me and smiled a lot and there was much hugging, even from my executive director.

But now I don't have anything on the horizon for a while - I mean, of course I have the usual stuff, like teaching my classes, taking my classes, and work, and the upcoming things on my calendar (yea! a gynecologist appointment, molar filling, volunteering for another festival in Sept., etc.) - but nothing really special.

And, mainly, no one really special. No prospects, even. That fact is deeply depressing. I had one of those cathartic late-night, hour-long, dog-walk cries about it on Monday night, and I do feel much better since then, but the fact remains: I am not meeting people here and I've now been here for 10 years, and maybe I'll have to move somewhere else to make that happen for myself. It's weird to have something so dependent on luck be a major factor in my happiness, but that's the way it goes.

So, I'm gonna start really getting rid of stuff in an effort to be move-ready if I can find a place and a job to go to.

The sad thing is, I love it here in Chicago. It's just that Chicago, clearly, doesn't love me. And I guess I should go where I have a better chance at finding someone.