Amy Wu Casler. She's a darlin'.
We had breakfast at House of Pies. It was a very deep conversation. Meaty. Gut-level honest. I like that girl. We don't talk enough.
We talked a nice guy in the parking lot into taking our pic later. Thanks nice guy.
After that, Simona - my fellow sun-worshiping Minnesota native hostess - and Amos and I went for some serious sun at Griffith Park for an hour or two before we left for the airport. This meant I was still in my swimsuit at the airport and the metal in the swimsuit caused me to get a patdown, but it was worth it definitely.
Happy sunshine --
(Amos' face is all serious because he's in trouble here... cute li'l troublemaker...)
Flying over mountains wasn't too terrible. :)
When I arrived in Albuquerque, my cousins Sara & Marie both came up from Santa Fe together to pick me up and drove me out to Kelly's for some sustenance and girls-on-outdoor-patios time. They're older than they were, and married, and more grown up, but for most intents and purposes, they're pretty darn similar to what they looked like when they were younger, and their personalities too. It was nice to see them again! Sara & I were super-close as kids, and Marie and my sister Nicole were also. We wrote super-letters to one another after they moved to TX. We had invented the AASPO (American Association of Spy Prevention Officers) in order to combat Russian and Austrian spies (Russians were in black sedans...which we interpreted as any big dark car) and Austrians were in VW bugs. (Actually, maybe the Austrians were a later addition of my own.) This was the 80s of course. And Sara and I knew it was a game but we'd read our little sisters' letters and they'd write, all big-eyed, "I saw a black sedan today!"
Anyway, I hadn't seen them since I visited in my late teens, except briefly once when I, my mom & sis Nicole were in Albuquerque for a funeral on the other side of my family. While I was visiting, their mom had a stroke, and she died after I flew back to MN. Come to think of it, death seems to play a role in all our reunions now... This time it was Grandpa Bang's death we were discussing - his crazy driving, and stories like...well, I should tell you this because I should really write it all down while it's still fresh in my mind. Prepare yourself. He had a crazy life.
So, Grandpa was in the Merchant Marines and they were in Italy (maybe Sicily) and their ship was docked. They'd been told not to get off the ship and especially not to go to one particular district because it was dangerous. Well, just try telling Grandpa that. Of course he ends up sneaking off the ship and going there out of curiosity (I think with a friend?). He gets in a fight or something, gets shot at, and somehow gets a gun from someone in the fight. Running away from them, he runs into an apt...while still having a gun in his hand. The bad guys come looking for him but Grandpa talks the family into hiding him (maybe not too hard when you have a gun??). After they're gone, he comes out and says, "hey, I'm really sorry about the inconvenience here, but I'm going to have to stay here for awhile until they're not watching this place" and they're cool about it and let him stay for dinner! ! Grandpa, you're so Harrison-Ford-ish! Anyway, I can't remember whether he stayed overnight, remet w/his friend and snuck back onto the ship in the morning or later that night, but wow. His life was pretty intense. You may think I do some off-the-wall things, but considering my genetics, I'm pretty tame.
Well, we gossip about all the important things: my sister's upcoming marriage, their dad moving to MN (yay! he's a performance poet too, so we'll totally have some poetry fun), etc etc. Finally, Sara needs to go home to her hubby & little girl so we say goodbyes. Later I meet Eric, Marie's hubby. He had been preparing to leave on a camping trip w/some guy friends but the Santa Fe Forest is on fire and that area is all closed down. So they are doing a mountain biking trip instead. Marie and Eric are hardcore bikers/snow-boarders, all that. In any case, he's cool, and their dog Chavo (which means boy or something), also cool. I only saw Eric for a little bit that night and forgot to take pix, so Marie will have to email me some so I can post 'em here. Day 41 will have lots of Marie & Chavo pix, promise.
** Here is the promised pic, provided by Marie (such a cute couple!):
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