{scissor variations}

¾ of the earth’s surface

Living far away from immediate family means we keep in touch by frequent telephone calls. Two of my nephews dabble in the art of the 2 minute conversation. I get as many questions in as I can within this time frame about school, friends, insects and lego.

 

I always, always end our conversations by saying “I love you” and I always, always hear back, “I love you too”. Sadly, I can sense that the 7 year old will soon be at that stage where “I love you too” will not be a part of the goodbye as often happens with age as self consciousness heightens.

 

A few weeks ago I said “I love you as big as the ocean, so do you know what that means?”

His reply, “An ocean is pretty large, and did you know Aunt J that water covers ¾ of the earth’s surface?”

“I guess that means I love you a lot.”

“Yeah, you do.”

 

 

{vintage declarations of love once used on Valentine's Day Cards}

 

So, now we have a new way of saying goodbye.

A goodbye that rolls off the tongue of a 7 year old as easily as if he were telling me about his latest video game.

 “I love you ¾ of the earth’s surface~”

The sweetest of goodbyes, I do declare.

 

rhymes with independent

While attending university I held an odd assortment of jobs throughout the years, one of which was doing the bookwork for an upscale Italian Design Furnishings store. The space was also shared by a fellow named “Sleepy”, who sold high end stereos and equipment.

The “stereo corner” was located across the showroom and Sleepy had a chair strategically placed outside of his little “listening” room where he could sit when customer traffic was slow.

 

The showroom was located away from direct foot traffic and the clientele generally made a special trip to visit the showroom. It was often quiet and lent itself to Sleepy and I having conversations during the mid afternoon lull of the workday.

 

When two people do not know one another well, idle chatter often becomes common place and on this particular day we had advanced beyond the weather to movies.

Sleepy asked if I watched many movies and I told him that I watched a fair number of films, almost exclusively attending the local independent movie houses.

This progressed to genres of movies.

At one point during the discussion I said “In general I preferred 'foreign' films".

 

Sleepy suggested I try the corner store a half block away, where we often went for a mid-day coffee or juice run. I said, “Oh they don’t look like the kind of place that would carry those movies”.

He then proceeded to tell me that he just returned a GARBAGE BAG FULL of movies and that they lent them out for extended periods of time.

 

It started to sound interesting. I asked if he had any recommendations.

“Oh sure”, he said.

He then proceeded to list some recently returned movies.

 

I sat and listened.

 

For fear of embarrassing myself and embarrassing him, I could say nothing.

It was a moment when without him realizing, I knew him a little better.

 

From across the room my “foreign films” sounded to him like “porn films”.

{....go ahead, say "foreign"quickly}

 

I still almost exclusively attend local independent theatre houses.

I’ve rephrased the response to the question as, “I mostly watch independent films”.

 

Independent doesn’t rhyme with anything.

 

 

 

A few independent movies I’ve enjoyed ….

Delicatessen- bed springs, the butcher and “mild” myopia

ANYTHING by Pedro Almodovar

 

My Life as a Dog—A sweet, sweet story--perhaps the first foreign film I watched

Run Lola Run

 

Life is Sweet—so depressing its funny

Leolo – Quebec produces some incredible and amazing films

Bon Cop, Bad Cop- another  Quebec production

Tampopo-noodles, noodles and more noodles

Baraka—this incredible movie has no dialogue and is a breathtaking view of the world, simply beautiful.

Cinema Paradiso

Yarn Thief x 2

“Did you hear what happened to M?” said my mother during our Mother’s Day phone call. M is sister number three.

Friday M picked up a large “box” of yarn from the Post Office that she had ordered on the internet. Box stowed in the back seat of her car, she carried on into town to do a few errands. Stopping at her work place to pick up some papers she returned to her car to find that it had been broken into. The rather large box of yarn had been stolen, as had some loose change from the front seat. She was extremely upset - she hadn’t even opened the box yet and had paid a fair sum for it all. She quickly telephoned the police, but felt that not much could be done at this point. Putting it into “crime solving” perspective--it was just a box of yarn after all.

A few more errands to run and as she is driving she notices the vehicle in front of her has a very large box bobbing around in the back seat. She recognizes the stamped logo of the yarn company on the box.

Determinedly she follows the car. Not sure what she will do, she at least has the license plate number of the vehicle. The car pulls over at a bank. The driver gets out and goes into the bank.

My sister gets out of her vehicle. She walks up to the car… sure enough it is her box in the back seat.

My sister doesn’t know how to break into a vehicle.

No worries-- the yarn thief doesn’t lock his doors.

She swiftly opens the back door, removes her yarn box, carries it back to her vehicle and drives away.

I really think it would have been priceless to see the expression on the thief’s face when he returned to his car to find the box missing!

I am not sure which part of the story I find the most amusing:

1. that a man would steal a box of yarn from someone’s back seat—actually break into the vehicle
2. that my sister happened upon the yarn box bouncing around in the thief’s back seat, while driving through town
3. or that it happened in the Penitentiary parking lot where she works as a nurse!

{Beautiful yarn given to me as a gift from my husband. I do not knit. He has proclaimed he is going to teach himself so that he can knit me a scarf}