This Evening from Pacifica

Pacifica, CA
Ameena and Ernie are off to NYC and I get to be kitty sitter.

I arrived a little before 8 pm...laptop as as my guide. The moon is beginning to wax and the drive down highway 1 was just gorgeous...cresting and rolling down, seeing the ocean to my right...I love and miss this drive.

On Cleanliness
Ameena and Ernie are two very grown up folks. Their home is beautiful. Perfect. Neat.
Very unlike my home at the moment. It's not "museum" perfect. I don't feel like I can't curl up on the couch and read (which I just did to finish On Beauty), just a neatness I aim for in my life.

Strange that I have taken to cleaning and purging. I've found that the papers I have been holding on to have no bearing on my existance or success...or at least the one's I've sifted through. That makes for two boxes emptied. That makes for a little corner of my world uncluttered. It's very satisfying, actually.

I found that I missed out on an opportunity to try Netflix for free for a month (that offer expired about 2 weeks ago), but other than that, it was all recycle-bin bound.

I almost wish I had a worm bin. Would be cool to take the orange peels and paper and get some nice compost. I want my plants to be happy and nurtured. I should invest in some pots. My ginger is beginning to grow nicely.

Not bad for just sticking a nub in dirt to see what would happen.

Akkadia
This week I have been recording for the latest digital stories and have been charmed by one group's ad for Akkadia. Their jingle features three cheerful 6th grade girls and they have the whole ad thing down...repeat a key phrase in the jingle...drop just enough information to entice the consumer and you have a hit. I have been singing "A-kad, A-kad, A-kad" all day and loving it.

Mum, Nephew, and Dad
I spoke with mami today who put a little deposit so I could get gas AND food til payday. Gracias, mami!

I also wanted to shower her with love and affection because her award ceremony was last night. She was given a community award by the latino community in Raleigh for her contributions. I wish I could have been there, but I sent my love and asked for the details. She said friends from all over came out to support her and that made me happy. She was surrounded by supporters and that's what counts. Her love of people astounds me and inspires me.

We got to talking about her 60th, which is coming up in January. Since I can't afford both Christmas and her 60th, I figure I (distraction: CUTE kitty cat crawling in a tube of blanket, so it it mysteriously moving. Tootsie is RiDICiculously cute! will go for her 60th. Although I think Christmas in her new house would be pretty rad. We'll see if I win the lottery between now and then so I don't have to make the choice! =)

We got to talking about my dad and my nephew. My dad had his heart attack in June and things have been up and down for him. His recovery seems really sound. He seems really on track with his rehabilitation.

Where I think he feels a little jilted is with work and his grandfatherly duties.
My father is a super-intelligent man with whom I review NPR news, politics, and cinema. He's become a bit of a hermit in the last 5 years...denying his love of music and puttering among his papers.


I used to know my dad as an entertaining character growing up. It's changed a bit and part of me can't help but think about the whole aging thing.

Both of my parents are approaching it very differently.

It seems that since my mother's two strokes, she's turned up the juice on her life and she is involved in the community, with her family, and enhancing herself in a hyper-positive way. The latest triumph? She bought a condo.

Dad's retreated a bit. He's added on to the Raleigh home, but I don't know if he enjoys it or is interested in enjoying it. I know he likes watching DVDs, but I am not sure if he gets any enjoyment from the pool he's built or even walks about the property to notice the pine needles or plot ideas for landscaping.

He used to be all about that.

Then there's my nephew.

I spoke briefly with my nephew who seems to have taken a little bit of each of the roles we children had growing up: part troublemaker, part peacemaker, and part hermit. He's 13 and has a great heart. Sure, he can be a pain in the neck, but that's due to the fact that he has all of that growing energy going on. I can't always keep up with his thought process, but I'm open to it.

He's a big Lemony Snicket fan. He reads a lot. Plays video games, rides bikes.

He wears glasses and his body is broadening. His face is changing. He's in that inbetween stage of boy and man. The voice is betraying the boyhood and yet his mannerisms are still that of an organism trying to grip with hands that were a size smaller not two days before.

He's discovering the razor. He wears saggy jeans and doesn't explain the style so much as defend it. His teeth seem a little too big for his face. His smile is sweet and his embrace is genuine.

I, like my parents and my sister and brother, want the whole world for him. I want his childhood memories to be sweet. I want him to know a good world and to be praised by some adults and know comradery of his peers.

He, like other 13 years olds, is too smart for his own good, doesn't know that yet, and comes packed with wisdom from watching the adults around him.

His recorder is always on.

We adults sometimes forget this. And I know he's seen ridiculous behaviour on our part. I hope it doesn't fully inform how he approaches his adulthood.

I love you, familia. Tylor, let's hope I get that Lemony Snicket autograph for you tomorrow!

Un beso,

Tu Titi Rikki