’03 April, May and early June

They are so sweet and kind. They welcome me so warmly: ‘oh yes please, we are so happy to see you whenever you can come’.

Here’s the latest:

“I and my sisters, independently of each other it seems, have started calling her Mommy, as in ‘Oh Mommy, don’t worry, everything is fine, really’. We are calculating she is alert about 10-20% of the time and the rest of the day she is just befuddled – I haven’t found any better word to express her condition. Except when she gets to flirt…

Last week there was an incident that brought a few trucks full of hunky young firefighters to her block. Mom was instantly A!Wake! and made the acquaintance of every one of them. An hour later she was still thinking of them – amazing in itself as she can’t remember Anything for an hour – and she wanted my sister to take her to the firehouse so she could give these guys religious tracts, have her picture taken with them and generally just chat ‘em up. She was in heaven. Yesterday when we were out driving she didn’t know where she was going or where she had been but when she spotted a fire truck from company 63, ‘my boys!’, she giggled and waved like a teenaged groupie.

And then there was the incident with the upstairs neighbor, a really adorable young man, who dropped something off his balcony into Mom’s yard. He came downstairs and asked to retrieve his item. According to my sister Mom couldn’t get up fast enough and wanted to send him home with dinner etc etc and was all smiley face for many hours. Funny how that is.

When I got back from Mexico my little sister left for Texas to get her things and move back here. She has been wanting to for a while anyway as most of her relatives and her only grandchild live here, so it’s win-win.”

Happy Happy birthday dear sweet and entirely wonderful Darryl.

We (we being me, Darryl, Angela, Liz) went to spend the day in Little India, in Artesia, in the 18000 blocks of Pioneer. You’re here, you could be in India, except without the crushing heat, and without the camels and without the cows…

We also enjoyed visiting a couple of temples which were basically far plainer than I expected. One of the priests said it was because of zoning. But that doesn’t really explain why the insides were like high school auditoriums with the only elaborate display of gods being on the stage-like platform. The same priest that mentioned zoning said we should go to the Malibu temple if we wanted to see some Really good stuff.

Cousin Darryl, Cousin Travis and Cousin Cynthia. I don’t think any of us could remember the last time Darryl and Travis saw each other. Travis drove the truck with Windy’s things, hauling her car too, and then unloaded the truck, set up the apartment, hung the pictures, lifted that barge and toted that bale.

I got to have a nice group over for dinner including Mom, Windy, Darryl, Angela, Cynthia, Jason and Travis. Travis has A Plan. He’s four years into his five year plan. OK! It’s too cool and soon enough the cousins will have a better chance to know each other and each other’s families. How fortunate for all of us!

After dinner, here we are, down the street at the pool hall.

My guest room.

The mom and her boys.

Mom was pretty chipper today despite a ruckus that usually leads to her discomfort, the presence of these handsome young men put her on best behavior.

The pictures are gifts from a man she met while staying with Windy in Texas. They were quite enamored of each other. He is ninety now (omg age-appropriate…) and Mom’s comment was ‘oh if only he was a Christian’.

Then there’s the story of the lipstick. But that’s a story for another day.

I had L&H and Mom and Windy over for the nice combo L&H B’Day Brunch. We made some serious merry and then as a final touch L&H entertained us with a composition of their own design. They wrote it, they sang it and we hooted and we clapped wildly. ‘Happy Birthday to US. Thanks for all the fuss…’ For sure, a song for the ages.

Posterized sisters making silly faces.

At this moment Mom was not making ‘the face’ but I think all we girls are trying to come up with our own face…

so we can avoid taking on ‘the face’. Don’t give me the face. Is she giving you the face? Why are you doing the face?

I called up Marsha – is this a good day for you to invite me over for dinner? Why yes.

Then I called up Rosy – is this a good day for you to go to Tom and Marsha’s for dinner, I’ll pick you up? Why yes.

Then I called up Tom, told him the plan and told him not to tell Marsha. Why yes, why not?

Tom had previously invited Kelly and just like that part-ee.

“Nepenthe: 1) A drug mentioned in the Odyssey as a remedy for grief. 2) Something that induces forgetfulness of sorrow or erases pain.”

Carol and Alex. A dream come true!

The christening of their dream to sail the world in amazement and wonder and peace and joy.

Alex got this idea from something he read that christenings, (or is it re-christenings?), must be performed by a female virgin. Now where, he asks himself, can I possibly find such a woman? These three girls, 10, 8 and 3 – perhaps the only female virgins he knows…

Congratulations! I always enjoy their long time and faithful friends who offer such enthusiastic and entertaining company.

Cute, huh.

Their slip is in some fancy schmancy island in Long Beach.

Wednesday nights with Hana. Watashi no sensei desu. Hana-san to nihongo de hanashiatte imasu. Arigatoo Hana-san!

NoNOoo having just seen Winged Migration. Amaaazing amazing work. (I’m going to copy out one of those incisively well-worded reviews by a Professional writer.)

The Grove has finished becoming itself – the CityWalk of the city. The stores are a bit more upscale and the boomboom crowds a bit less overwhelming but still, there it is, the Disnification of street life.

Spring.

Sandy’s iconic Farmer’s Market.

Nancy’s iconic Farmer’s Market.

My office from the parking building at The Grove.

Nancy’s picture and her outing too. And speaking of icons… This was a photo exhibit put together by an old friend of Nancy’s who took pictures of the early rock’n roll legends for legendary album covers, Rolling Stone covers, etc. All that nostalgia. All that (misspent?) youth.

I spent Sunday talking myself out of eating. It took every minute of the day as the moment my mind wandered from this conversation, the refrigerator door was open or I was dialing the phone, trolling for food. One thing I did to distract myself was I read through some PhotoShop info-sheets I had collected and tried a few of their ‘tips and tricks’ and now I want to redo every single picture I ever took. Why? I’ve stumbled into the densely layered and complex world of Layers! What a thrill!!

Mother’s Day! First Darryl and Angela brought gifts, then they took the moms out for the perfectly textbook version of Mother’s Day brunch…

…here we are at the best table in the perfect restaurant right on the boardwalk in Santa Monica where, once seated, we could sit as long as we liked and enjoy the yummy ala carte food, the entertaining views of the characters and their dogs as they pass by our window, and of course the company.

Here’s Angela’s mom, Liz.

Then back to my place where we ordered up a Persian feast. D&A brought giant sprays of orchids for all the moms. Now how darn cool is that. Lucas brought flowers too, for his mom, his mom’s mom and the hostess. For half an hour he went around like this ‘grrrr’. ‘grrrr. Why didn’t EYE think to bring flowers for all the moms…’. Cynthia had to work of course, from dawn to dark during the busiest restaurant day of the year.

From the top and around: Hartley, me, D, Angela, Windy, Lucas, Liz, Lona, Mom (the Matriarch, she likes to remind us).

Anne Marie took the previous picture. Thanks! No, no she’s not that tall. She’s standing on the first step of a small ladder. Looks like I really n.e.e.d(?) a tripod…

MarshaMarsha Birthday Girl… Shall I say how old Marsha has become? Oh, ok, if you must know forty-nine. And we all know what That means…

D and xo, in motion.

Is this not the most amazing dog park in all the land? Get ready for Pages of this stuff. Too bad, I couldn’t choose.

Having discovered ‘unsharp mask’ I have now, in this sequence, gone nuts and wow is this overdone but what a bright-ness and clarity-ness improvement. Of course I can’t ever generate the energy to redo anything, so I’ll just have to live and learn…

At the moment the frisbee hit the air, all these dogs appeared to join xo in the chase. Notice how the two labs, the tan one and the black one are bringing it back Together. First there was the requisite tug-of-war and then some sort of cooperative agreement to move along together.

You wouldn’t be able to resist this either.

xo, being the perfectly behaved gentleman. This is a fact. I saw it myself. Whenever there was a ruckus with barking and tumbling and dust-ups, xo would run over to the group in question and, really, I saw it, try and break up the scene – ‘hey, why can’t we all just get along?’.

And then if Any of the participants, even the smallest-mini-yapper, would yap at him, he was outta’ there like a shot. You could see his mind work. ‘Ok, fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you…’

A room of their own.

Angela adores the little guys.

Lovely!

more. Go ahead, go to the next page. There’s only a few more…

A holster shot.

The owner told me this was an American Eskimo dog, and he is a male. Then, for the next fifteen minutes I was saying expressions like ‘hey you pretty girl’ and ‘what a lady’. Stereotyping for sure.

This dog (from Hungary I think?) is sleek and fast and sweet and smart and I was crazy for her until the owner said she sheds so much he doesn’t remember the color of the carpet.

TaTa.

Takin’ my mom out on the town.

Knut and Brigitte in their fabulous new home.