I'm back! Yay!

If Trav could hear the yay, he would no doubt stop whatever he was doing, look around, and start clapping his hands uncertainly. That's his new thing. He just started clapping on his own, and we've noticed that anyone saying "yay!" about anything will get him going.

I should probably wait to post until my head isn't so fuzzy, but it turns out the blog is a terrible workaholic, and even though it was supposed to be on vacation, it kept nagging me to write. It was a real pain in the arse. I said no, no, no. It tried to pressure me with lines like, "Come on, you know you want to. One little post won't hurt." It got so bad that I just had to avoid the computer all together for a few days. Now that I'm home, exhausted or not, it's back to business.

I took a red eye flight last night, and even though I was lucky enough to have a whole row to myself and slept most of the way, it wasn't restful sleep. You know how it is. No matter which way you turn, your neck gets a cramp, or your back is pressed up painfully against the armrest, or there is a metal piece from the seat digging in to your ass. I think I woke up every 15 minutes or so to change my position. During my groggy shuttle ride home this morning (who can you ask to pick you up at the airport at 6am?), a chipper passenger ignored my sleepy state and informed me of all 11 or 12 different climate zones on the Big Island. I was so grateful to finally arrive at my freezing cold apartment, I bundled up and fell into bed for a few hours. Then, I picked up my newly fixed car (sayonara, hole in the bumper! She's all pretty and shiny again), and headed in to work for a few hours. Good times.

So yeah. It's chilly here. Yesterday, I was lounging on the sand in my bikini and swimming in the warm ocean with my sisters. Today, I'm wearing so many layers I look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man with a bit of a tan. Gawd.

Oktoberfest this weekend! Yay! (clap, clap) Even though I don't even really like beer, I always have fun, and I need a reason to feel happy about the appearance of fall at the moment. I want summer baaaaaaack.

I'll probably write more about my trip later, although it was pretty mellow. For now I must say that Travis is my little love bug. I adore my nephew. He's curious and fun and chatty. He's quick to smile and has the sweetest toothy grin I've ever seen. Most nights I slept on an air mattress in his room, and he'd wake me up in the morning (6:30am!) by staring at me from his crib and babbling. He loves to play and dance. He doesn't walk yet, so he does his own version of chair dancing. Whenever he hears a little tune, he will immediately put his hand up in the air and bounce it around, usually offbeat which makes it even more charming. The two of us also danced around the kitchen to Goldfrapp's "Boys Will be Boys" almost every day. He took to that song after hearing it during breakfast one morning, so it became our thing. I don't know if he will appreciate the lyrics as much when he's older, but at age one he smiles, kicks and bops around when he hears the opening notes.

Another great thing about Trav is that he is now also known, by me and my sisters, as Zozo. The name comes from a description in Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Intro that I found so hilarious.

For the most part, genetically speaking, or muttering, we sing, dance, and (can you doubt it?) tell Funny Jokes. But I think it peculiarly important to keep in mind - and so did Seymour, even as a child - that there is also among us a wide miscellany of performing circus people and performing, so to say, circus-fringe people. One of my great-grandfathers (and Seymour's), for an admittedly juicy example, was a quite famous Polish-Jewish carnival clown named Zozo, who had a penchant - up to the very end, one necessarily gathers - for diving from immense heights into small containers of water.

When I came across this part my second time through the book, I was curled up reading before bed one night, and I don't know if I was just punchy or what, but it struck me as so funny I couldn't stop laughing. I had trouble settling down to fall asleep, because I kept giggling to myself in the dark. I had to explain all this to Molly, and we agree that, given the chance, Trav would willingly and gladly take his opportunity to dive from the couch (an immense height for him at this point) into a glass of water. Zozo! It fits.