Natalie @ MindSay 
god
Carrie's parents and my parents are longtime friends, and I've known her and her sisters all my life. I've been to the weddings of her 3 older sisters and I am certain I will go to the wedding of her younger sister, Natalie. (Mostly because I was always closest to Natalie...not in age, but we always had a special bond).
At any rate, my family went as well, including my nephew. This was the first time the other family got to really "meet" Simon. They had seen him before, but the last time he was only 6 months old. They were super happy to finally meet him and see how adorable he really is.
Here's the strange part: their family has this weird habit of producing only girls. My parents friends have 5 daughters. 4 of the daughters are married (now) and 3 of them have kids. Total grandchildren= 7, 6 girls and 1 boy. And the lone boy is all of 16 now, so for them, getting to play with a little boy was a big change. So, going to a female dominated wedding, it astounded me that my brother would choose to dress his son in pink. P.I.N.K.
I know that guys are allowed to wear pink and purple, blah, blah, blah. But for my money, that's grown men, not little boys. So, lo and behold, we take Simon, in his pink shirt, to a wedding where there are tons of little girls his age and.....he matches them. How sweet. NOT.
I would NEVER have dressed him in pink, I'd have put him in the most boyish outfit I could find and lived up the fact that we can produce boys just fine in our family.
Here's a couple pictures of the night:
Sitting at our table, (between Da-Da and Gam) wearing his "new" shades. In his pink shirt.
Sitting on Gam's lap. Just thought this was cute.
Simon is behind the only other little boy there, (in GREEN!) and he is turning away from Natalie (bridesmaid and sister of bride)...she asked him to dance about 5 times and kept shooting her down. Eventually, I conned him into dancing with her by promising him that she'd do lots of spins and dips (his favorite parts of dancing). She was pleased she finally got her dance. No girl likes to be turned down.
Here he is with 3-year-old, Ella. He really liked her and followed her around for much of the evening. She wasn't quite as fond of him. But they did have this moment.
Dancing with Auntie Em. They're pretty cute together. I missed the picture of him dancing with Uncle Chaj. That was even cuter.
I decided that no 2-year-old should go to a wedding and not eat cake, so I got him a piece and he went to town. Ate most of that giant piece....seemed to enjoy it, too.
And though I have no picture of this, I must tell you this cute story. They were going to do the bouquet toss. Being single, I was sent out to the floor. But knowing I would be the oldest single gal by far, I brought Simon with me for cover. He kept saying "dance?" because we were standing on the dance floor. I told him we were there to play catch (his favorite game). I told him we were going to catch flowers. (He LOVES flowers). That really excited him....so he's intently watching Carrie because I said she would throw the flowers, and then she did and she has a good arm, too. So she tosses the bouquet and Simon and I both tilt our heads back to watch it sail over our head many feet behind us. And, okay, we're done.
But, Simon didn't catch anything...nor did he get to throw anything (his favorite part of the game) and he was disappointed. Obviously, I didn't think this through. He kept asking, "catch?" in this sad little voice, because he couldn't believe it was over, as I said. I tried to explain that Carrie threw the flowers, but someone else caught them and they were only playing catch one time. He wasn't buying it. I passed him off to Gam because I figured if he wasn't with me he might become distracted and forget....no such luck.
Eventually, they stumbled upon Natalie who heard Simon saying "catch? flowers." over and over again. So she went to one of the arrangements at the head table and broke off a pink carnation and gave it to Simon. He then came and found me to tell me we were going to play catch. I said okay and held out my hand. Oh, no, that wasn't the game at all.
He wanted to repeat the experience that we missed out on. He ran out onto the dance floor (where people were actually dancing) held the flower in his hand, between his legs, and flung it backwards, over his head, with all his might. Watching him, it was immediately clear that he was mimicking Carrie as she tossed the bouquet (it's amazing what kids pick up on). He would throw it, I would either chase it down (he's not very controlled...the flower was flying every which way) or send him after it. Then, he'd scream "CATCH!" in this super-excited voice and rush to do it all over again. Then when he grew bored with me, he'd find someone else to catch his flower. Natalie did it. Ella did it. Two other little girls did it. Carrie's aunts, Sharon and Mary Jo, each did it. Grandma did it. Carrie's sister Kelly did it. It was hysterical. He played for like 20 minutes on the dance floor, imitating the bouquet toss over and over again. People were cracking up. I thought it was so funny. He was never still long enough for me to get a decent picture of this, but I had to share the story. He made an excellent mini-bride.
And we didn't get him home until 11pm and he only fell asleep about 10 minutes before we were home. Then he slept until 2pm the next day. Wow. Weird. Like he has his dad's sleep patterns.
So, the evening was fun, Simon was a hit, and Congratulations to Carrie and Matt.
9:45 am
Waiting for the bus, trying to hurry through the last half of my current book (one I've read numerous times, but there's comments from Laura and Natalie throughout, so I want to finish it, damnit!) I really want to start American Gods so that I can leave my own commentary and start something fresh. Really self-conscious of being here at the bus stop, around other travelers, and fighting my natural anxiety of leaving home for the big, scary city. I'm such a homebody, but I love my home. There's no escaping it; Nevada County for all its problems and its nauseating boredom, is home. I miss it already. I miss comfort and familiarity and recognizing-even if I don't particularly like-everyone. But getting away for a few days will be good...I keep telling myself.
Oh-and I hate carrying two [heavy] bags. Not looking forward to cartinga round 50+ lbs all over the city this afternoon.
<Roseville to Sacramento: Linkin Park>
10:54 am
Texts
To: Juan Pablo! (Natalie)
Dude. The guy i was
sitting next to smelled like
weed and crap. Shitty
weed.
a.r. (me)
From: Juan Pablo!
Ew! Nasty!
To: Juan Pablo!
Yeah. I thought i was leaving the open,
unabashed drug
possession at home. And
please. Hygeine is
important.
a.r.
To: Juan Pablo!
Awesome. I have to
transfer buses. I'm going
to be like 15 minutes late.
Eff.
a.r.
From: Juan Pablo!
Why do u need 2
transfer?
To: Juan Pablo!
I don't know. Soemthing
about a bus being too full.
I wasn't supposed to have
to transfer.
a.r.
5:26 pm
At Laura and Natalie's apartment
Finally here. Didn't finish that stupid book. I've learned that I don't like Greyhound buses, and I've been reminded why I won't live in a big city. But I'm looking forward to the rest of the week. I've decided that no matter what Laura and Natalie have going on, I'm not going to get stressed about details. I'm going to just...go with the flow. No schedules, no rules. Just...when they go to class, either I'll go or I'll hang out and explore on my own. They've got their lives to carry on, despite my visit, and I didn't come here to trail after them at school. This is my break, and, while I intend to spend a great deal of time with them, while they're busy, I'll find my own way. :) In the mean time, Natalie's at work, Laura is supposedly on her way home, and I'm chillin' at their apartment. I'll probably snag a shower and head down to Natalie's work in a bit if Laura doesn't show soon.
Dictionary.com's word of the day is "renascent: rising again into being; showing renewed vigor." (Yeah, I'm a nerd...I know what the word of the day is.) What's renascent in my own life? Let's see...
-My income is renascent. Or will be very shortly. With graduation and then the sudden onslaught of hours at work, in the past two weeks, I've made almost $1000. This is after months struggling to earn enough for two tanks of gas in a two-week period. And thankfully, it's only going to get hotter, so the hours are only going to continue.
-My social life. Immediately after graduation, my social life went down the toilet. But in the past couple days, I've gotten back out there. I went to breakfast this morning with Aubrey and Laura Braden. We're hoping to hit the river on Monday. Laura Pontious and Natalie are coming home on Sunday, so we'll be doing something to celebrate their return. Dany's coming home from France on Monday after nearly a year. I can't wait to see him! All in all, I'm emerging from social Siberia. Lemme tell you, it was pretty depressing. (And here we see Autumn go off on a tangent) I think it's largely to do with the fact that I don't know what I'm doing after this summer. I haven't made any hard plans, and that's driving me crazy. All my friends who have made concrete plans are working on scheduling/signing up for classes and getting ready to move. Me? I'm working almost full-time. I haven't moved out yet, even though I had a very real opportunity. I even got half of my stuff up there before changing my mind. Granted, that's because I'm waiting until I don't have to share a room with Natalie's demonic cat. I will be moving in another couple weeks. BUT. I don't have anything long-term set up, and that's depressing me.
...yeah. I'm out of renascent things. But I do love this word. I'm a word-freak. Laura (okay, for future reference, if I say "Laura" without a last name letter, I'm referring to Laura Pontious) and I have word-wars, where we shoot words we like out at each other. Nothing ever comes of these wars, but I do think they have the potential to be fodder for good writing eventually.
but, not by myself this time.
again, they read outloud, the list of
those who cancer had taken.
and, once again, i found myself
in shock to hear her name ..
"in memory of.."
she was one of the last ones to
be named. and the whole time,
i was biting my lip wishing that
they would just call her name.
that they would finally just confirm
the past year for me. and then, they
did. and one tear. one single tear
swept across my eyelashes and
down my cheek.
he grabbed my hand, and said
"it's okay.." and i cried. he held
me in his arms, and i cried like
i should have; so long ago.
i can say that i'm okay.
and, i can say that i'm not hurt.
but i do hurt. still, the hurt is
just as present as it was one
year ago.
but, for the first time, i realized
how nice it is to have someone
to wipe the tears off my face.
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