Still Waiting for Captain Oates...

Yesterday when I picked up Narcissus from school, he immediately walked up to me and said, “[Kusems], you can’t tell my mom about the gift I’m making for her for mothers.” Um, okay, I’ll try really hard. Kids are so cute. At least he’s smart enough to recognize that he couldn’t keep the secret to himself, so he should share it with someone other than his mom. When my youngest sister, Amy, was little, you couldn’t tell her anything.

While we’re on the topic of Narcissus stories, the other day he walked out of class with a small piece of paper and handed it to me, saying, “This is for poor kids.” The piece of paper asked for non-perishable food items for the poor. Normally, when the boys get home from school, they have a snack. Narcissus got out the almost empty jar of jam, so I thought he wanted bread and jam for his snack. Nope, apparently he intended to give the almost completely empty jar of jam to the poor. He also tried to get out a bottle of milk. When I told him that we needed to buy a new pot of jam for the poor because ours was almost empty, he responded that they were poor, and didn’t have anything, so they’d appreciate the almost empty jar.

As I mentioned yesterday, Izzi is back in England for good. I saw her for a bit on Friday night, and she gave me a parting gift. I’m a sorry excuse for a friend, so I had no gift for her, but I make myself feel like less of a heel by telling myself that she wouldn’t have had room in her luggage anyway.

Okay, so back in January, Izzi got my sister and I hooked on “The O.C.” One of the main characters on the show has a My Little Pony named Princess Sparkle that occasionally figures into the show. I think Princess Sparkle is purple with pink hair, but she may be pink with purple hair. At any rate, a couple weeks ago, Izzi found a purple, sparkly My Little Pony with shiny pink hair at a second-hand store and couldn’t resist buying it. This is the gift she passed on to me before leaving. I will cherish it always and it will be my encouragement to go to England as soon as possible. Well, England or Southern California, heeheehee.

And finally, a bit of very good news (for me). I’ve been looking for a black cardigan since I came to France. I had one at home, but it started falling to pieces because I wore it so often. In March, I found a really cute black cardy on sale for about $10, and I was ecstatic. I wore it once or twice, then lost it. Nice work, huh? I thought maybe it was in the laundry, still waiting to be washed, but I looked last week and it wasn’t there. The last time I remembered wearing it was at Izzi’s, but she hadn’t seen it anywhere, so I started to think it was lost forever. Then last night, I asked my host mom if she’d seen it (which I probably should have done from the start), and she had been saving it in her closet thinking it belonged to a friend of hers. So now my adorable sweater and I are reunited at last. Yay!!

Okay, that’s all, folks. I hope my sweater talk wasn’t completely boring.

Photos: Princess Sparkle chilling with HIV with the Seattle skyline in the background; my adorable sweater