The 12 Days of Paramore

On the first day of Christmas, Emma wore a Paramore t-shirt. Then she did it again for the next 2 days. I know that doesn't quite add up to 12 days, but I'm an English teacher, so it's pretty close.

Sister love. They are usually fighting.

Below, earrings made in Taos, NM.

***
...and just for the record, Tula and the cat hang like this all the time. Cat falls asleep there. Weird.

My dream room...

...is in a bus. Like this. Just me. Until I miss everyone. Or just for hiding out.

Why I come home

A peek into the corners of my world

My new-to-me sister, Sally.

Above: Me and Sally

Above: Sally with Emma and Tula

Above: Sally

Above: Me and Sally

Above: Sally, a serious shopper

Above: Our cousin Sarah, who is staying with Sally in the city for a while, my mom, Sal's dog, Oscar (yes, he's wearing an elf outfit), and Emma, at Sally's apt.

Above: Tula and Maren

So, this is hard to explain. I have a sister, two of them actually, who I didn't meet until 10 years ago. I was adopted at birth and had no idea they existed. I only knew I was born in Florida and that my birth mother was a teenager when she had me.

Then, to make a long story short, when the internet was still newish, I found a website that connected adoptees with their birth parents. On a whim, I tried it. A few weeks later, my birth mother, Tina, signed in as well. I got the trippiest phone call of my life.

"Hello, we think we've found your birth mother." Knock me over with a feather.

Even weirder, I was in NYC visiting my mom at the time and as it happened, so were my sisters Sally and Erika. We met. We had fun. I fell in love with them, but not without a bit of sadness: they were so bonded.

Erika is my half-sister. After Tina gave me up, she found another guy (my birth father was floating around, following the Grateful Dead or something) and had Erika (my half-sister). A few years later, she hooked back up with my birth father and had Sally (my full sister).

Erika is somewhere, not really in touch with me or Sally, but I hope she'll find her way back to us, or at least to Sally.

Sally and I have a connection. We are alike in so many ways (she's 11 years younger than me, btw). I adore her. I wont go into her life too much, because that's private, but suffice it to say, her life was much harder than mine.

An extra bonus: her daughter, Maren, and my younger daughter, Tula, are the same age. Cousins. They love playing together.

I can't wait to see her again.

Been awhile...I've missed you.

My mom's place on Amsterdam and 97th (above and below)

Below picture, from left to right: my brother, my mom, my daughter, my cousin Steph, my cousin Larry's boyfriend Tony (Larry is in Europe performing for several months)




Emma and Larry's Tony (below)

Me and my Tony (below)

Me mum (below)

So, a little late here, I know. But I thought I'd share some Thanksgiving pics anyway, even though it's already Hanukkah, heading into Christmas.

We went to my mom's in NYC for the holiday. My goal was simply to see the windows at Lord & Taylor's and Macy's. I ended up doing neither. But it's all good. I got to see my sister, Sally (that's a story I'll tell in the next post), went to the circus, did tons of shopping, and spent nice time chillin at my mom's awesome apartment.

We watched the parade on TV, but Emma and my mom went to see the floats being blown up the night before, which they do near the Museum of Natural History.

Oh, and on a side note, today i was leaving the bank machine at the college near my house and one of the campus police was leading a young man out of the building in handcuffs. I ran back to hold the door for them because I was really nosy and wanted to hear their conversation. Instead, I only heard the guy who was getting arrested look at me kindly and thank me for holding the door.

Totally unexpected kindness.