Happy Halloween!! I always do this–celebrate so much for a coming holiday that on the actual holiday, I”m too exhausted! We managed to make Halloween cookies, but never got around to frosting and decorating them–they’re in the freezer. We made marshmallow-gumdrop ghosts and forgot to pass them out. And we never made it to George’s offices to pass out treats in costume. C’est la vie. This morning I was making waffles and Henry was being unusually quiet–never a good sign….
My older sister, Maria, called me this morning to let me know how her Halloween trip to Vegas went this weekend. Maria has inherited my Grandma Lupe’s love of gambling. I was lucky to escape this family trait as my parents spent many an evening inside some nasty casino, leaving my little sister and I in the car. It turned me off gambling forever, but Maria loves it. Probably because she always wins ridiculous amounts of money, even taking into…
Annabelle initially planned to be a mermaid-witch-ballerina-princess for Halloween. She ended up narrowing it down to Cinderella, and we have the whole costume complete with glass slippers, sparkling ballgown and crown. Now that it’s two days before the big event, things have changed once again. Scenario from the bathtub tonight: “Mom! I want to be a mermaid for Halloween!” (This said with great gusto.) “I thought you were going to be Cinderella.” (This said with amused weariness.) “I changed my…
Yesterday we went to the zoo with our dear friends, Lacey and Zazie. Zazie is one and wore a pink tutu with wings attached to the back, and Lacey is her mom, a doctoral candidate at NYU in the field of Popular Amusements. I’m not a fan of zoos as a rule, but the Audubon Zoo is not terrible as far as zoos go. The animals are not kept in cages, and even though it makes me sick that they’re…
Oh exhaustion has settled its fuzzy blanket over me. I’m so tired! But I had to write about the latest wonder. We left the house today with the stroller at 10am and returned home at 3:30. We were on an adventure walk, just following our noses. The weather was a perfect 70 degrees–sunny, crisp, gorgeous. We went all the way down to Tchoupitoulas. On the way back, we were walking through the park and Annabelle said, “Mom, there’s a giraffe.”…
I’m reading another wonderful book: The Search for Nefertiti by Dr. Joann Fletcher. It has awakened my lifelong yearning to be an Egyptologist/Archaeologist. (I also yearned to be pirate, a princess, an astronaut, a detective, a nun, a veterinarian, a movie star, and a geisha girl.)The stories of the ancient tombs and statues and mummies ignites my imagination and I long to go outside with an adorable safari hat and kneel down in the sand and brush off dusty rocks…
Today Henry befriended a colorful burro pinata at the store where I was buying bookshelves. He pointed his little arm up at it–it was sitting up high– and made the universal baby sound for “I want that.” I brought it down and gave it to him. He smiled and patted it on the head, and then made the universal baby sound for, “I want to ride this like a pony.” I helped him climb astride it and he made a…
Walking barefoot with flowers in my hair, dancing to New Orleans bump and grind music, running in circles around the ottoman with Henry and Annabelle, laughing my ass off with my best friend, listening to Billie Holiday, drinking red wine, taking hot bubble baths with candles, being fed chocolate-covered strawberries and grapes while sitting in the bath, hot oil massages, bright red toenails, silk nighties, luxurious linens, moments of grace, swimming in the ocean, slow-dancing with my husband to Ella…
I finished another great book today called “Down in New Orleans: Reflections from a Drowned City” by Billy Sothern. I bought it on a whim in the little bookshop on Maple Street. The author was doing a book signing there and I couldn’t very well NOT buy his book. Well, surprise surprise, I loved it. He’s an attorney for people on death row, and and he had such interesting views from the front lines of the poor and disenfranchised. With…