Babies and Movies

We took my nephew Gray to see How to Train Your Dragon at the Byrd today. Gray hadn't taken a nap and promptly fell asleep 20 minutes into the movie. At one point Gray sat up and he reached out and started opening and closing his hand, grabbing at the air. I put my hand in his and he guided my hand to his mouth. He was trying to eat popcorn in his sleep. Ha! I kept secretly glancing at C. Every time some little kid would shout out something unintelligible I would see him smile out of the corner of my eye. He was so cute.

That part of our life seems too close and too far away at the same time. I'm torn, because I want to have children as soon as possible, but I also love the life we have right now. I guess it's good that for now our finances have made the decision for us. No children for several more years.

For now I'll curb my baby cravings by playing mommy to Gray. Lord knows he could use one.

Please can I have it?

I'm always begging C to get me more pets. Despite not being a huge animal person I still want them. Especially undomesticated animals. A little pig, or a squirrel, or most of all, a raccoon. C maintains that squirrels and raccoons are not pets and there is no way that they could ever be a pet. Well, I'd like to submit exhibit A:

Now, I can tell that this is the 70's, but things haven't changed that much. Here's another. I bet that little girl had a happier life than all the other kids. Could he really deny me that?

All I'm saying is, it's up for debate. Just think about it, okay?

How to pretend to like someone, when you really don't

Think about moving out of state
Avoid eye contact
Remember that C thinks you're kind of crazy for hating him so much
Attempt to think of ways that it could be worse
Realize that it could be much worse
Don't drink!
Look away when he won't stop touching your mom
Leave the room when he keeps calling her by that ridiculous nickname
Keep your distance
Try to only be around him when there are other people around too
Work on your fake smile before you see him
Make a conscious effort to keep your face calm and smooth
Don't make eye contact with your sister when you think he's not looking
And most importantly: Try to remember how happy he makes your mom.

How I became a grown-up

I was born an adult
That's what my parents always said
responsible and caring
yet vaguely detached,
like a good adult should be
My father moved out
when I was 18
and that’s when I realized
that I could leave, too
I moved into a first floor apartment
in Oregon Hill
with a walk-in closet
and 8 windows
I brought my old, beat up cat
with a cloudy eye
and made my own home
A boy lived there with me
for awhile
everything seemed dark
and uncertain
I moved
to a third floor walk up
in the Museum District
and met someone new
light was everywhere
My old, withered cat died
and we adopted kittens
I pay my own bills
I feed the cats
and water my plants
and wash the sheets
I say I was born this way
and in some ways I was
but everything takes work
I guess the important part
is finding things you don’t mind working through

Graduation

My littlest sister graduated from High School last night. C and I ate and drank at Ipanema before the graduation. We haven't really been drinking much lately and I went a bit overboard, but it sure made the graduation fun.

We jumped and clapped and yelled when her name was called, and when it was over we hugged her and kissed her. She is headed to Northeastern in the fall. She's going to France for three weeks in July, and then it will be time to trudge up to Boston for registration. This is going to be the fastest summer of her life. I couldn't be more proud of her.

My Ideal Day

C is sitting next to me. We're probably watching baseball. Stella is bothering him and Toby is sweetly at my feet. I'm wearing pajamas and we don't have plans for the rest of the day.

Saturdays

I work most Saturdays. It's the trade I make to have Fridays off. I babysit my nephew on Friday so it rarely feels like a day off, but I enjoy it. The only problem I have with working on Saturday is how quickly the weekend seems to go by when it's broken up.

C is taking me out to dinner tonight. We're going to Kuba Kuba. I don't think you can call yourself a true Richmonder until you've been there. He's probably going to make me walk over. I wouldn't mind if it wasn't for my mosquito bites. Walking around makes my legs itch like crazy. I picked raspberries at my moms house two days ago and the nasty little things had their way with me. I counted 23 bites this morning.

It's weird to think about leaving Richmond. I went further than most of my high school classmates by leaving Mechanicsville and branching out to Richmond, but leaving Virginia never crossed my mind. Now it's all I think about. Where will we end up? South Carolina, California, Georgia? All I know is that I've never been more ready.