Crazy-ass family

You just can't make this stuff up

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Tree Loves Jenn

Friday morning, I sat in the hotel room as Liam slept, gazing out the window at the nearby park. Jim had taken Caleb and Aidan out to play while the baby napped, and I was quickly becoming...bored. Bored! People, I was wishing the child would wake up!
And that's just craziness.
He won't sleep at home, but we were closing in on two hours and I was anxious to see Jenn. I wrote her too many emails and played Destruct-o-Match, repeatedly peeking into the other room to see if the wee one was waking up yet. He was not.
At least I had some peace and quiet, and I could languish in my non-showered state (we couldn't figure out how to get the shower to work, haha. We're smart.) with no fear of having to impress anyone!
About two hours after they had left for the park, Jim and the boys returned. I didn't look up from the computer as they entered. I was in a rather pathetic funk by that time. "Hello" I said listlessly.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Caleb and Aidan rush in, their usual frenzied energy in full force. Then I saw a small, dark haired child. I don't have one of those. That was not my child.
Shocked out of my stupefied, half-comatose state, I whipped my head over to the door, where there stood an angel in cleaning pants and flip-flops. Gasping, I buried my head in my hands, fogging up my glasses with my hurried breath.
Jenn was here! In my hotel room! With Sophie! And she was just as I pictured she would be...wonderful.
We spent a loud, often-interrupted time here in my room, talking and exclaiming over the surreal-ness of it all. Caleb, Aidan and Sophie settled down on the bed to watch Robots. Caleb's clumsy overtures of love (ie: placing various articles of clothing on poor Soph's head and declaring her name to be jacket-head or sock-head or other well-meaning terms of endearment) were met with patient sighs from Sophie. Sophie played with Liam and asked politely for tissues and charmed all of us.
Jenn fixed our shower and did an admirable job addressing Jim's machine-gun firing of questions. She snuggled with Aidan and tolerated his demands for help with his Gameboy game ("I don't know how to do that! Should I put it on my head?" Jenn takes the Gameboy and fashions it into a futuristic hat). She called me tiny and said I was just as she thought I'd be, too. We talked about ghosts and kids and opening night and - well - I rapidly fell in love.
When Jenn and Sophie left, we all sort of stood in the doorway, feeling the absence of them. Liam zoomed past us in an effort to catch up with them:
And Caleb was definitely despondent over the absence of the sweet Sophie: Last night we had the pleasure of attending the opening of Like Home. I'm going to write my own review of it later, but I'll say now that it was as expected - excellent!
This morning, we are going to visit poor Jenn (who, realistically, should be resting and lounging all day after such a WICKED opening night and instead is entertaining US and dear David is even going to cook for us oh my goodness these people are amazing) and her lovely family and I'm praying that the boys won't wreak too much havoc (hahahaha wishful thinking) and I am just too excited. Jenn is one of those people you feel absolutely comfortable with. If I lived closer to her, I would visit her way too often and make her way too many baked goods and I would be her unofficial personal assistant and read everything she wrote and proclaim it's excellence for all to hear.
I love Jenn Mattern!

8 Comments:

At 9:30 AM, Blogger The Mater said...

And the Mater loves you both! A freakin' mutual admiration society :>)

The pictures of Liam and Caleb are so wistful and adorable. More piccies please of Saturday's luncheon! Psst, I knew in my momma's heart that Caleb would be infatuated with Sophie. Your boy has excellent taste.

So, so happy that you two have finally met in person. It was meant to be. I predict great things in your friendship future.

Can't wait to hear about opening night from your point of view! And, for what it's worth, I was sure rooting for you and your eBay bid! It just seemed so right for that painting to be going home with you. Alas, not to be :>(

 
At 5:42 PM, Blogger Eve said...

Holy Hell! That is so cool that you two got to meet in real LIFE! That is almost too much excellent womanliness in one spot at one time- I should have been there to balance things out a bit with my dorky blogfan stalker vibe.

xo

 
At 7:24 PM, Blogger mamatulip said...

So. Unbelieveably. Cool.

 
At 11:09 AM, Blogger sc@vp said...

I have suspicions that this would happen to me as well. Were I to meet her in person.

 
At 8:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Tree - It's Sam from highschool... Sue and mum sent me to your blog, so I'm going to catch up on it and you & Jim and the babies! I'm living in Miami, PhD'ing still, but became a crazy nut about costuming... Wish I could quit science and just make costumes... My current obsession to end all obsessions is Firefly (I saw you have that on your amazon wishlist - MUST GET, my favourite thing ever... I've made lots of costumes from Firefly and Serenity.... (I'm a wackjob)... Anyway, I have a blog also, mostly about costumes, PhD complaints, and randomly ridiculous adventures... Mine is www.livejournal.com/users/scotia_sammyjo

Anyway, I'm glad you're all grown up and writing a great blog about your fam, I'll be reading! Take care
-Sam

 
At 10:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope you can't actually feel the jealousy emanating from me. And I'm not just talkin about being jealous that you got to meet Jenn.

I'm also jealous that Jenn got to meet you.

I'm so glad y'all got to bond in real life, as it's obvious you've bonded online.

 
At 9:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

See, now I'm jealous. Jenn doesn't know me at all, but I've told ALL my friends about her blog (Shannon and my sister first and it's skyrocketed from there - suffice it to say she has many readers in Southern Ontario, esp. in the Hamilton-Halton-Niagara region). I love Jenn from afar, but I suspect I'm not in the cool club since I haven't reproduced yet. If I ever came into her vincinity, I would stalk her the way she stalks Meryl Streep.

I got onto YOUR blog through Shannon and now I want to meet everyone (except for Shannon, whom I already know quite, quite well).

Okay, gushing through, although I must say that I'm riveted and fascinated by your ghost stories Tree. I am a very little part native, and my grandmother had a touch of what you have.

 
At 2:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey guys, I just saw all Jimmy's comments... Hee hee - I passed on the geology idea to the friend of mine who's planning a trip to NS this summer... I became a rabid Firefly flan when they were doing the advance screenings last spring of Serenity - a bunch of people on my LJ were talking about it, so I bought the dvd's AND FELL SO TOTALLY IN LOVE!!!!! And now I'm a freak. I got into the costuming when I met a girl who makes Star Wars costumes, but since I got all Firefly I've pretty much only done those... Here's a link to a scrapbook of galleries with all the stuff I make... http://pics.livejournal.com/scotia_sammyjo/
I made sure "strangers" can see everything now... Used to get "unauthorized". Anyway,this is the sort of thing that happens to you in the last 6 months of PhD... WHAT A BAD IDEA. I wish I worked at Tim Hortons... hmmmm, I think I bookmarked a particular entry of tree's blog, I need to make sure it's going to update for me....
More soon,
-Sam

 

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