Saturday, November 26, 2011

Visitors


Earlier this month we had visitors - all the way from Rome! Meet Pamela and her daughter Eva. Pam and I went to college together in Santa Barbara, and shared an apartment in Astoria together. Pam's bedroom in Astoria had a balcony that we nick-named "The Hamptons" and we sat out there and tried to ignore all the stray cats when we wanted to feel decadent and old money and to be able to tell our coworkers that we too had spent the weekend in the The Hamptons.

Astoria in 2003: boasted the largest concentration of Greek people outside of Athens. It was a fairly safe family neighborhood. But one night we came home and someone had obviously tried to to beat down our door. It was late at night and instead of the fixing the locks, our Greek landlord sent her cousins over to sleep on our couch, so we would feel safe.

And now we have children. Here they are, sharing a meal together, while Pam entertains them with a spirited reading of "Little Puppy."


And tail-gating in Thunder McQueen in a parking garage, the day we went to Chuck E. Cheese. That was our most American activity. We also took Pam and Eva on the R train, the Staten Island Ferry, and to Chipotle.


Here we are in Queens, the four of us, and Fred.


One night Francie drove in from Long Island for a slumber party. It was a lot different from our college slumber parties. We put the kids to sleep around 8 and Pam fell asleep on the couch around 10 (which I guess is pretty rock star if you translate to Italian time), and Francie and I barely made it to midnight. Here we are, the morning after the raging slumber party:



Pam, Francie and Elise are my closest college friends, and by the end of this year, we will all have children. It's so fun to see my friends' personalities and quirks reflected in their little ones. Eva is extremely cautious around strangers. She watched me and Roan very closely, and it took a few days for her to warm up to us. But once you are accepted into her comfort zone she doesn't easily forget you. I think that, to a much less obvious degree, this could describe Pam's way of interacting with the world.

By contrast, Roan has a more easy come easy go approach to people. They don't seem to matter as much to him as they do to Eva.

Alas, I can feel this post taking a philosophical turn. Ladies, is it time for an electronic couch session?

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