Oh, the places you’ll go

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m never going to like myself in a bathing suit all that much. You can laugh. Go ahead. I realize this is something most women have known since the age of 12 and I’m just now coming to terms with the fact that in public, clothes are much easier. Well, and in dressing rooms too – with florescent lights. Excuse my abuse of the English language here.

I tried on a couple pairs of black bottoms in target yesterday. Ha! That sentence gave me a completely different picture than I was going for, but I’ll roll with it. I have this cute, long black and white polka-dot top –  with which I’ve worn green bottoms – that I will be taking to Hawaii in June. My time in front of the mirror made me think of Henry’s gorgeous cousins who, at Shuff’s 100th birthday party last weekend, all called me over to their corner of the table because they wanted to talk to me. Mind you, two of them had breezed in while we were at breakfast, fresh from their 4.5 mile morning run and looking like the picture of health and their first comment to my crusty self was: “she’s so pretty!” Sarah is/was a pilates instructor and runner and one look at her calves confirms this. Megan is a dancer in NYC and Mary Ellen runs, is a mom of a two year and 10 month old. When I told her she didn’t look like she’d had a baby 10 months ago, Sarah quipped: “she has a tape-worm.”

Anyway, I can’t get over how lovely and completely un-self-involved these women are. I felt more like family almost than I’ve ever felt anywhere. Meanwhile, Elliott plied me with tales of life planning parties in L.A.. Well, that’s sort of what he does. It has to do with lighting, but also sound, but then if you really ask him he’ll say that he’s just managing teams of people doing those things. While also traveling from the suburbs of San Fran twice a month and working at a country club. Elliott knows a lot of things about a lot of things for only being 24. Right? Or is it 25?

We got to see Molly and Shaun, who may come to visit us here some time this summer. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. And of course Shuff and Jan, whose house is still the same timeless haven. I took some pictures of the basement and the garden, now that it’s in bloom. We also went up to the attic: a place Henry had never even been. I was simply delighted by these people: Sarah’s husband, Alley, and her kids Avery (13, tweeting hilarious things the whole time), Spencer (11, hanging on Henry the whole time) and Bella (5, who used the word “p0wned” liberally and needed a piggyback every hour just to keep her going); Henry’s Uncle Pete and Aunt Carolyn (the girls’ parents); his Uncle Beirne and Aunt Cynthia (Elliott’s parents) and a host of others. Alley, Elliott, Megan, Henry and I hung out in our room watching The Office and showing each other funny videos on Sunday night after the party. I wish I could go live with each of these people for, like, 6 weeks at a time just to soak in all the funny and niceness.