i though this was so amazing and so i'm sharing it here with all of you. my friend ursula's niece, amelia (that's A-M-E-L-I-A) just started pre-k and i have no doubt is learning all sorts of new and useful skills. for instance, writing her name:
my favorite part is how someone, one of amelia's parents, i suspect, took the care to place this against a swatch of marimekko fabric. how lovely! and i'm not one bit surprised. it now occurs to me that i should ask if amelia and co. were affected at all by the recent floods in iowa. as far as i know, iowa city was not affected, but i haven't been following the news very closely over the last week or so. hmm. now i'm concerned.
back to kids for a moment...my two-and-a-half year-old niece, natalie, left me a voicemail at work last week. talk about amazing...the last time i saw her (at xmas) she could barely talk! anyway, here's what she said:
Hewwo, Auntie Jewie.
(rustling phone, some parental coaching in the background)
(long pause)
I wuv you.
(another pause, more rustling)
Pweez call me.
Goodbye.
how crazy is that?!?! so crazy, apparently, that i feel the need to listen to it everyday! and lest you think all i think about these days are babies and nesting...well, you're partially right...though both will be far from my mind over the next couple of weeks while i'm surfing everyday at my favorite surfbreak in santa cruz.
sean and i are headed down to sc on thursday. we'll stop for one night at costanoa, an eco-resort with "safari tents" (a la 'out of africa' - i'm hoping) in pescadero. then it's onward to santa cruz, where we rented a small bungalow on 35th avenue near pleasure point. i am so excited and looking forward to getting lots of strawberries and artichokes at the produce stands along highway 1. but most of all, i'm excited for VACATION.
i've decided not to bring my sewing machine along, even though i'll have lots of time to work on projects. while i love my new hobby, it's still new and doesn't exactly qualify as relaxing. so i'm leaving it at home, and bringing books and a whole load of new yorker back issues. i have that same feeling about books that i do with movies where i love certain ones so much and wish i could re-read them again for the first time. i feel that way about the kite runner, a biography of shakespeare, a john mcphee short story and anything joan didion ever wrote. i also feel that way about the story 'dubliners' by james joyce and though it's not a book, the BBC version of pride and prejudice. alas. i have not been reading much lately, especially since i've taken up sewing, and so i'm looking forward to digging into something new. if anyone has any suggestions, please send them my way. i guess, also, i could finish one of the four half-read books on my nightstand: the omnivore's dilemma, michael pollan book #2, what is the what (by dave eggers) and saturday (by ian mcewan).
actually now that i'm taking inventory, i realize that i've opted not to finish each of these books for very particular reasons related to me not liking something, getting bored or annoyed. on second thought, i think i shall pass them on to sean and start something new.
