Thoughts of Thalia (on her 25th birthday)

Thalia
Not much other then Failure
rhymes with your name
But that doesn't fit
No, not a bit

But wait, let's try
Thalia
Pretty as a Dahlia
Say hallelu-jiah!
It's the birthday of Thalia

Thalia
Native South African
Now in Australia

Thalia is smart
Thalia is lovely
And even when she's in a mood
She tries hard to never be rude

Thalia served her mission on Temple Square
she loved it although the weather and dress code were a bear
And of course she was exceedingly successful
She did it all even when things got stressful

Thalia speaks French
Zut Alors!
And Afrikaans too
Goeie More!

Now Thalia has turned 25
Her life will really come alive
Yep,there's a buzz about Thalia
louder then a well populated hive


Thalia
consumer of paper
and other paraphenalia
Why she eats note-books
Nobody knows. It's tres weird
But happily it has not ruined her looks

Lover of horses

and University courses
Perpetual student
Intelligent and prudent

Former ballet dancer
She's a leaper and a prancer
Maybe that is why her joints are shot
On the other hand maybe not

Perhaps it is arthritis
Because you are so old
But don't worry you still have
a heart and hair of gold

Thalia you are clever and funny
Witty and dry
Generally sunny

It is fun having you as a sis
And I really do miss
Sprinkling talcum powder on your head
When it was time for you to go to bed

Being Mr. Sandman for me was a thrill
Even though for you it was probably a pill
But you dealt with it well
And lived to tell
The tale
With narey a whine or a wail

I miss you too
So remember what I told you to do
Steal Shona's credit card
and book us some tickets
it's for the greater good
and that type of fraud is not wicked

It would be so much fun to live together
Enjoying the sunny weather
Being your unsolicited adviser
Because I am so much older and wiser
"When I was your age I had 2 kids, one on the way
So this is why you must listen to everything I say"

And to you this is what I say
On this your birthday:
Make this year great
Don't put on any weight
(not to say you can't afford an extra el-be or two)
It's just that weight rhymed well there, so what was I to do?

Have yourself lots of fun
Protect yourself well from all that sun
You are now a quarter of a century after all
From here on in, things will sag and fall
But hey, Happy Birthday! Hope you had a ball!

Lots and lots of love
Kirst.

My Incredible Journey Part 2: Johannesburg, coming home,my new nephews and how my baby sister tried to kill me.

 
Have I mentioned how much I love watching the little map as we fly. I mean really. It’s pretty much my favourite thing !
Before I know it we were landing in Johannesburg, I was off the plane and my luggage had arrived and was not even the last one out of the carousel (!!) It was a festivas miracle!

Then I was met with this welcome sight!
                                    
                                                    Yay!!!!!! Mom and Dad!
I was driven to my parent’s beautiful house which they built since I was last there (so I had not seen before). It was gorgeous and new but with plenty of familiar touches which made it feel exactly like home.

Even though it was pretty late, I got to meet this little angel,

Who I wasted no time in tucking under my ample arm (and begged to keep him there for the night-I think I was a chicken in my former life, I love nothing more than a baby tucked under my arm at night). I also love that you can see my 5 little peas in the pod right next to him in this picture he was such a comfort to my suddenly empty mom arms.

I also got to schmooze with this adorable fellow. He really liked me on the first night and gave me tons of cuddles and flirty giggles that night but kept a polite distance thereafter. I feel that he may have been using me to delay bedtime. A cheap trick with which I am familiar. I do feel a bit dirty now, but it was totally worth it. I mean, look at him! (Can you tell he has a penchant for things on his head?)

This is his handsome dad (ie my little brother Seth-he just hangs around the house in a tux. Just kidding, he had just arrived home from some sort of fancy ceremony where he got some sort of fancy award.

It was so fun to watch him be a daddy in person.  He’s really good at it.

I also got to see the happy (very tired couple)

I spent the next few days on a eating tour of South Africa, (PS: the food in South Africa is so much infinitely better than that in America it’s hard to even call what we have in America food in comparison. That is all. Carry on.) hanging out with my nephews and helping my mom with wedding stuff here and there.  Here I am having my first long awaited grapetiser (demented gleam in my eye explained?)

My mom made up the cutest little room for me in her office. It was so sweet and cozy. She even left a note from and photo of my kids which I read every night. So sweet.

So here’s the story you tuned in for: One night I went out with my sweet baby sister Thalia. We were both beyond exhausted having about 3 hours of sleep between the two of us, but we were determined to make good use of the time available. We arrived at our destination and Thalia realized that she’d left her bag with the money for parking in the boot (trunk) of the car. She asked me to jump out and get it since we were hemmed in on all sides by other cars waiting to get into the parking garage. I dutifully jumped out and teetered to the back of the car in my heels. I tried unsuccessfully to open the boot and when I could not I gestured frantically to Thalia who gestured frantically back. When the frantic gestures back and forth did accomplish anything, she jumped out to assist me…ran to the back, opened the boot and peered inside saying, “oh no, my bag is not here”.  I said, “what, it isn’t? And peered further into the boot to see. And then suddenly I felt a tremendous crack to my head,  and I saw stars.  Seriously the blow to my head was not like anything I have ever experienced before and at first I was sure I was dead. Quite frankly, I was finding heaven disappointing. Then I looked behind me and saw a guy, sitting in his car, staring at me, agog. Then I saw the the car beside me filled with people who were apoplectic with laughter, and I realized that I was not dead, or if I was, I was in hell. Then I heard myself screaming, so I realized I was alive.  Thalia, had it turns out, not seen that my giant noggin was firmly placed in range of the boot of the car, before she slammed it upon me, with all the force of her surprisingly strong little self.  
After I ceased screaming and making her check me for concussion and assuring myself that she felt sufficient guilt for her actions, we parked and stumbled to our restaurant. I chose a sufficiently nostalgic meal and settled in to enjoy it when suddenly we heard the sounds of drumming and a shouting crowd. Thalia turned to me and said with a slightly panicked look in her eye, “oh no! It’s a riot!”.  Thalia is not usually an alarmist, in fact she is pretty chill,  so I was vaguely concerned until I realized that it was not in fact a riot, just the South Africa Monte Casino Spur’s version of singing “Happy Birthday” to a guest. (Thalia has recently made a career switch to journalism which makes her a bit twitchy I guess).  After our meal, we made our way over the movie theatre. How often do I get to go see a movie with my little sister?  Never! That’s how often. So we were excited. What awesome, memorable, slap your knee funny, tear jerkingly tender, life changing chick flick would we see? Ummm…our choices were:  Total Recall and something starring Tyler Perry’s Medea. Due to my Near Deadly Head Injury and our collective fatigue and my general hatred of movies like Total Recall, I was not feeling up to Total Recall, and so we unenthusiastically settled on the Medea show. About 1/2 way into it with the people around us leaving in droves, we could not even to be enjoying it ironically anymore. It was that bad.
And so we left that train smash, we made our way out to the food court, where I thought I would have a midnight waffle from the Milky Lane, complete with allll the syrups on it for old time’s sake.

That procured, I sat at a table alone tucking in, in the nearly deserted mall while Thalia went to the loo. It really was midnight so it was not unsurprising when what to my wandering eye did appear, but a party of 5 well dressed toddlers marching jauntily and purposefully by. Not an adult chaperone in sight. The oldest was maybe 4, and she looked like a solid little character but was still a surprising choice to supervise five toddlers, alone, at midnight. I watched this with some amazement, and went on to chomp on my waffle, thinking to myself, “wow, I really have forgotten what South Africa is like. Apparently toddlers hang out in malls by themselves at midnight..” When Thalia returned, I casually commented on this to her, whereupon she looked at me with horror and said, “well did you follow them? Where did they go? No parents?! Really!!!?”  We then shuttled around looking for the toddlers, who were by now, nowhere in sight. Maybe I imagined the whole thing? Due to the head injury? I am haunted still.  I am hopeful that they too were on a guided trip to the loo and had since reunited with the parents. Still…not something you see every day.
Somewhat sobered by this experience, we staggered to the parking garage to find the car and soon realized that due to the drama surrounding our arrival (my massive head trauma) we didn’t have a clue where we’d left it. We wandered around fruitlessly for some time until we got the attention of some sharp security guards who asked us if we’d lost our car. I wonder what gave it away? They asked us some questions,  told us to stay put and went off to find it.  As we sat for a while Thalia said calmly, “I’m pretty sure it’s been stolen”. To which I replied, “of course it hasn’t, we just lost it”. To which she reminded me that we were in South Africa and she was pretty sure it had been stolen. We continued to chat about other matters when after some more time,  I noticed her staring into the distance. I asked her what was wrong to which she said, “I’m just a bit sad..because I think my iPad was in there, and it’s not insured, and I really liked it….” and then we went back to chatting about other matters and nodding at drunken strangers who were bidding us a variety of greetings….
Eventually (about an hour had elapsed since we’d first attempted to leave) the security guards came back triumphant and led us to our car, which against all odds (apparently) had not been stolen and was in fact just a few yards away! Hooray!
So that was a night to remember. Or not. It did however, make me realize that I was not really familiar with South Africa anymore, and that I feel  slightly more like an outsider every time I visit…sad…(but I feel like even more of an outsider here…so….) Anyway…
At the end of the week, my sister Shona and her husband got back from their quick trip to Swaziland (by way of Australia and South Africa) to run a half marathon (no big deal) to join us just in time for Thalia’s bacholorette party.

That’s up next…

My kids. They make me laugh.

(My kids “snailing” in unison when it was time for family prayer)
Some of my best memories from childhood consist of sitting at the table for hours after Sunday lunch, talking and laughing with my family. I come from a funny family. Humour is our life-line.  It is who we are.  So many times when I was growing up, I would be doubled over, with tears running down my cheeks and I would gasp, “we should be a sit-com!” I just found my family, and the ridiculous situations we often found ourselves in, endlessly hilarious (when I wasn’t finding it utterly exasperating).  While my dad was never at a loss for clever, dry wit, my family was presided over in the humour department by my wickedly irreverent, spontaneous, endlessly energetic mom.  Life surrounding my mom is one big colourful party. Born of a Greek father and an Italian mother she was made to entertain. 
My funny family in South Africa-2009 (laughing )  Shona across from me, Thalia beside me, Luke, Dad, Mom and Marc, my brother in law.

with my hilarious brother Seth to my right (who was missing in above photo), Luke and Thalia

Goofing in a public restroom at 1am with my hysterically funny sisters-2009

Shopping with Thalia. 2009  (I was the baby who wanted the beautiful pink polyester nighty. She was the mommy who said I could not have it)
When I created my own family, things were, by design, a lot more staid than they were in the home of my birth. I am not a natural entertainer. I need my space and I crave solitude more than I crave social interaction. Let’s call a spade a spade,  I am a heck of a lot more boring and less social than my mom. But I do love to laugh.  Life in my home is more predictable, and in some ways less chaotic (although let me be clear- my mom is much better at house-keeping than I).
And it works for me.  I value the predictability, the slower pace, the regular pockets of quiet time.  But I have long feared that it would mean that I was also going to lose the colour…and most importantly, the laughter.
Deep in my heart, I feared that my kids would not be funny. That we would not enjoy the same hilarity as we had when I was growing up. Although I find my husband quite hilarious, and I pride myself that I have brought out the funny in him, my husband’s family, Idahoan, salt of the earth types, have a vastly different sense of humour to mine, one I don’t really relate to, and frankly, I worried that my children would inherit it.  I worried that we would not find each other funny. What would we do on Sunday afternoons? How would we deal with family crises? Would I even be able to tolerate the teenage version of my children if I could not laugh with them? The more I thought about it, the more concerned I became.  I communicate through humour and irony. I really don’t know how to interact without it.  If I had one sense of humour and they had another…or heaven forbid, no sense of humour at all…it would be like living in an international exchange program. IN MY OWN HOME. 
But as they grew, my fears died down a little. You know how I love and adore a baby, but I have to say, for all their squishy adorability, their humour doesn’t go much beyond slapstick.  Babies have their limits.
Older kids though…they start to get it. And when they do…it is magic.  Benjamin seems to have inherited my brother Luke’s ability to tease me mercilessly while I laugh hysterically at him. He is dry and wry. He is a master of irony. He can mock me without insulting me. Which is something of a gift.  (I am fairly easily insulted).
Gabe has inherited my brother Seth’s gift of imitation…accents and impersonations…he nails them effortlessly and frequently has me rolling. Gabe also has the cutest, most contagious laugh. It is impossible not to smile when you hear Gabe laughing. 
Gracie has the slow, deliberate delivery that I find so intensely hilarious in my sister Thalia.  But her sarcastic and quick wit is also reminiscent of my sister Shona who has made me breathlessly beg for mercy on countless occasions.
Finny is still funny without meaning to be. He is so wide eyed with wonder and amazement at everything. He also finds pretty much everything funny and laughs all the time. It is most endearing.  On the way to the dentist today he told me with much righteous indignation, “Mommy! Did you know!  At Dairy Queen they have this POSTER. And it says, ‘It’s not heaven-It’s Dairy Queen’. Pause for effect. WELL…..DUH!!!! Heaven is MUCH CLEANER than Dairy Queen!”
Last night, we were trying to squeeze in the Family Home Evening that we’d missed on Monday. It was late. We were tired. I was beyond burned out from Ella’s antics all day.  Finny conducted the meeting. He welcomed everyone, I mouthed to him to especially welcome Ella. Just because she was being so extremely shall we say…challenging at that moment. A small joke.  He burst out laughing and could barely complete his sentence, “welcome everyone to family home evening….esp…especi….especially ELLA”.  Ella sat staring at him, unblinking, teething, chubby and irritable. This obviously struck him as even funnier. His blue eyes flashed and twinkled, he chortled, practically doubled over but managed to invite Benjamin to choose the opening song.  
“How about we sing along to my new piano piece”.  This too was a little self-deprecating humour, since he has been playing Pachebel’s Canon pretty much non-stop lately.  “Sure, let’s do that” I said and then went on to ad-lib church lingo as he played. You could tell he wanted to laugh but that’s part of what makes Benj so funny. You can see a hint of a laugh around his lips and eyes but he plays along….stoically pounding out the  canon while I trilled along slowly to the funeral cadence, with Chooooooooose Thhhhhhheeeeee Riiiiii-ghhhhhhhhht, Endureeee it We-ell…..Chooose the Riiiighhhhht…..sooooo youuuuu don’t goooo to he…….(and things of that nature.)
My other kids chuckled appreciatively at some of the more irreverent moments in my lyrical stylings, and suddenly I had a flash of joy in the realization that it was just as I had always hoped and dreamed.  I will never be the life of the party that my mom is, but I will do almost anything to make my family laugh. They appreciate my whacky humour and I appreciate theirs.  We will, without a doubt have our problems, our conflicts, our worries and our stressors. But we will also have laughter. And laughter makes just about anything doable.

I love the expression on Benj and Gabe’s face here. They were not expecting this development.
In my mind I echoed a sentiment my mom once expressed. It was during a very trying period for our family, one that might have destroyed a family with less humour.
One night some of us were  literally rolling on the floor crying with laughter.  I can’t remember about what. When we were all spent in that cleansing wonderful cathartic way that only a good cry or a great laugh can bring, She sat up, wiped her tears and half exclaimed, half sighed…..seemingly at random (but I knew exactly what she meant)
“Ohhhhh……..we are going to be OK”.
Yup. So long as we have laughter. Everything is always going to be OK.

PS: I forgot. Ella totally made me laugh yesterday. She was so enchanted by the fact that she had managed to balance this travel bottle of lotion on the end of her finger by sticking it into the neck of the bottle. She waved it around frantically and got my attention by doing her “baboon call”  “uh-uh-uh-uh”. I’m pretty sure she wanted me to take this photo to acknowledge her great accomplishment, because once I did she went back to the very serious business of destroying the bathroom.

Where was I? Ah...Cape Town!

Back to white people enjoying themselves...

So the next day my sister and I being the kugels that we are, flew to Cape Town and left the others to find there way there via un-conditioned car. I took this picture of Table Mountain from the plane. It's the mountain I had on my countdown ticker.

This is the story of South Africa. Nice big houses, plenty of pools..

A moment or two I snapped this shot...

Aaron informs me this is a stripped mine. I just like the countours.

Sweet note awaiting us at the lovely house we stayed in. Why the blur? I don't know.

Gorgeous little pool in the backyard

Very comfy beds. I slept SO well here.

That night Shona and I went out to the V&A Waterfront. These guys were performing. They got the biggest tip of their career and sold a copy of their CD. This is what it is like when you busk anywhere near my sister. We had a lovely seafood dinner together and saw a movie which Shona slept through very peacefully.

The next day..we walked to the beach

As you can tell, it was late when we finally got there. (The car people had only arrived at 5am or so)

Watched this seal body surfing for a while. He was so cute and funny (once more bemoan the bad timing of my new camera, once again comfort myself that I would have smashed it instead of the old one if I'd had it.)

Seth running into the surf. I'm not sure why this picture turned out like a bad black and white photocopy, but I think it's pretty cool.

Thalia, mom and me flaunting our gorgeous pedicures. Today as I wiggled my toes clad in tights I decided there was nothing more tragic then a gorgeous French pedicure in the Ohio winter. Totally wasted.

Me and my little sibs. Thalia, Seth and Luke. Luke returned from his mission for our church to Zimbabwe a couple of days before Shona and I arrived in South Africa.

Seth with the waterfront in the background.

My parents are cute. And don't you think my mom is pretty?

The next day..was started in this trying manner by pool

When everyone was finally ready, we went to Fish Hoek beach. This is the beach which our house overlooked when we lived in Cape Town. Seth and I would come here every day and swim way way wayyy out (aged 3 and 7) and were happily, not eaten by sharks. I used to think my mom was neurotic but now I think not so much. Click here if you want to see Fish Hoek via live-cam. The weather does not look as though it was great today. Which is good because as I type this I watch sub zero winds blowing the snow around in a frenzy.

We watched the fishing boats coming in and out..

Seth and I reliving the glory days. Is there anything more soothing then digging in the sand?

Jellies!

More fish tales...

Whoever is on the beach and inclined to get involved brings in the catch.

Po Fishies. These are yellow tails for obvious reason.

They are strong and feisty :(

The view of our old house from the beach. I think my bedroom was the 3rd window over, except it didn't have balcony then. Even at age 7, I appreciated the view.

Thalia and I went for a walk along the catwalk and stopped at Skellies Pool. Where we struck balletic and yoga poses much to the amusement of the teenage boys passing by.

It was sooooo cold in those pools!

This seemed to invigorate Thalia.

Shona and Marc, blending nicely with the blues.

Dusk

And we had dinner at the cafe at the beach.

Where this photo was taken...

By my sister's best friend and our neighbour when we lived in Fish Hoe), Judy. Shona spotted her on while we were on the catwalk but wasn't 100% sure even after I yelled "Judy" randomly and she looked up and smiled. When we saw her again at the cafe, we knew she was the one! This would not be such a great coincidence if we had not bumped into her on the beach the last time we were all in Fish Hoek, when I was pregnant with Benjamin 10 years ago. So much changes every time I go back home, so this sort of thing makes me happy. I found Fish Hoek in general, remarkably and comfortably unchanged. Just as I remembered and loved it. I would love to live there again.

Tomorrow...Happy Feet!!!