Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
And now I have to back up and tell you about Father’s Day. Last year it was amazing, but I told my kids, just like Aja told hers for Mother’s Day, that low-key was fine too. This year we went over to Sam’s parents’ house early in the morning, right around eight, which is not an hour my husband or I are normally vertical at on a Sunday morning, and Hannah and I made crepes. We made savory and sweet, and eggs and country ham, since that is Thomas’s favorite. Sam’s father was so surprised, thrilled to see his grandchildren, and then even happier when everyone else showed up.
We invited Sam’s sisters’ husbands, and his sisters, of course, Michael, Michael’s new girlfriend, Joely, and all of Kola and Hannah’s cousins. There were mimosas and Bloody Marys, and it was a big success. Regina got to play hostess without lifting a finger in the kitchen.
Sam got his father a new tablet, since the original one was so old that it didn’t update anymore. Kola got him a set of headphones for the TV that he could put on while Regina went to bed. Inevitably, she conked out around nine thirty or ten at night. Sam’s father, who was in his mid-eighties, was still a night owl. It was adorable. We didn’t need headphones at our house, because I could sleep through a tornado. I was known to nod off in the middle of football games. Now, if I was upstairs and one of my kids sneezed downstairs—that was another situation altogether. When my kids were little, they could whimper in the other room and I was up and hovering over them. Once when Kola was five, I was in his room and watching him and he woke up…scared the crap out of the little bugger. It wasn’t like I did it every night.
Hannah got her grandfather tickets to a ballet that they were going to go to together. I was surprised at how excited he was, but apparently he’d watched a segment on 60 Minutes on Celso Harrington, one of the principals at Chicago Ballet Company, and was interested to see him in person. I knew Hannah could have asked Sam to ask Eli to get her the tickets, but she used her in with the mayor’s wife instead. It was really just frightening.
After spending the morning and half the day with their grandfather, the kids came home with us, and we did something we hadn’t done in a while. We went upstairs to our bedroom and watched movies together. And it was a weird mix. We watched Jaws, which was one of my favorites, and then Finding Nemo, which was Kola’s, and The Fugitive, which Sam both loved and hated, and Enter the Dragon, because that was Hannah’s number one, and she could give you a whole history of how video games like Tekken and Mortal Kombat and every fighting movie from The Karate Kid to Kill Bill could trace their roots back to the Bruce Lee classic. Sam had us watch Rashōmon, because that was one of his favorites, and we finally ended with Field of Dreams, which we all loved.
We ate the whole day. We had Chinese for lunch, because Sam was hungry because crepes were not his jam and he had picked at everything. Kola and Hannah went out for pie, which made him so very happy, and for dinner we had pizza delivered from his favorite place that had disgusting toppings like anchovies and jalapenos. It was always even more gross because Sam always ordered a side of cooked anchovies for Chilly, who would come from wherever he was in the house when he heard the container. It was crazy.
“That’s so disgusting,” Hannah said with a shiver, watching both her father and the cat eat the smelly little fish.
I was given a lovely silver-bead-and-stone bracelet from Hannah that was very heavy and had, like, an alligator clip clasp that I could easily get off and on by myself. Kola got me a wonderful summer cashmere cardigan. It was very lightweight, and I could carry it with me to take into restaurants, movie theaters, museums, my office, all places where I could turn into an ice cube at any moment. I put my bracelet and my sweater on right away and kissed and hugged them both.
Sam got new AirPods Pro 2 from Kola, which was a great gift because his original ones were dead, even though Sam assured us all they were fine. From the number of dropped calls, him saying “what” constantly, and watching him tap them, we all knew they were dead. Sam always liked to be a hundred percent positive. Hannah got her father a GoPro HERO12 Black waterproof action camera. Sam was going on a trip in August to Cancun with friends for his birthday to go fishing and basically have fun for a three- or four-day weekend. I suspected this was why the waterproof and action parts of the camera were important. He was thrilled with both gifts—he would have been thrilled, like me, with anything—and hugged both children tight enough to make them squeak. It was a really good day.