What a week this has been, y'all. Crazy Chechens in Boston! An idiot Senate! Pollen bombs everywhere! Texas fertilizer plant blows (people, this is unfortunate but to me demonstrates just what nasty shit industrially produced fertilizer is; how about some manure? some compost? none of that blows the eff up)! And every night this week proved to be one in which sleep was interrupted, sometimes briefly, sometimes much longer. Last night, I awoke at 2a though I can't remember why. Due to T's snortastic snoring adorned with spasmodic coughing, I quickly realized there was no way I was going to get back to sleep if I stayed in bed with him. To the basement I went and an hour later I was still up. Annoyed, I managed to finally fall back asleep at which point I began having a torrid love affair with Ben Affleck who, as it turned out, was married to my friend, Evi. Sorry Sam. Anyway, Ben and I were away at some prom-type of event which we required we stay at a beach house. There was a random child there too. Where Evi was, I don't know, but Ben and I were dates and it became obvious that we could not ignore the flames of our love. At times we were in the library between stacks (WTF?) while at others we were at Balthazar (yes, in NYC) where we saw my friend, Amy H who asked me about canning. That latter point is actually something that would happen in real life, but why she and I happened into each other at Balthazar while I was with Ben Affleck for christ's sakes is beyond me. And why she needed to know about canning at that point is too.

I'll be honest in telling you that this was not an unpleasant dream but it was weird as all get out and I awoke feeling a bit off. I ran upstairs and made a pie. Then I went to yoga. Ben's face still whispers through my mind. It's a bit odd. But this week was too so I'm giving myself a pass. And yes, I'm wild for my actual husband so worry not.

Last night I was at the table after dinner when I heard our Skype ring. My aunt Andree had Nanny in her wheelchair at the computer and they were making calls. Readers, I could not have been happier to see Nanny's face. She was her same beautiful self, just a bit slower and much more tired. We Skyped for 10 or 15 minutes, and I felt so grateful for it. She didn't talk much but I know she heard everything I said. We told each other how much we loved each other, again and again, and I told her the story of the elderly couple I'm cooking for and I thanked her for always being so much of everything to me. This call was such a gift. Look at these glam old pics of Nanny and Papa (her husband/my grandpa, Pete, who died when I was in high school). Papa owned and ran a restaurant in Lake Charles for years and Nanny made all the cheesecakes for it, thousands during the restaurant's run.

I love looking at these old pictures and am thankful my mom is such a photophile; she has album upon album of old family pics, keeps them well organized and has scanned many into her computer before too much degradation made them unrecognizable. People don't even look like this anymore, you know? I feel transported to another era, really.