Dude, Where’s my Tam?
January 21st, 2006 | Posted by Shannon
After a strange and unsettling week, I am now hanging in my old hometown torturing my nephew by trying to get a photo of him smiling. He smiles when the camera is not in view, but as soon as he sees the camera, he gets all sour and perplexed. He is not a photo whore like his auntie. Not yet, anyway.
Coming back to where I grew up is always weird. There have been so many changes in twenty years that it always makes me sad and sort of horrified when I visit. But today, it didn’t seem so overbuilt and ruined as it has seemed to me before. Maybe because it was so green and lush out there that I didn’t see all the houses. Or maybe it was because Colleen was with me and seeing it through her eyes, it didn’t seem so bad. We went to the new Ritz Carlton which looks like a cheap copy of the Hotel Del Coronado without any of the charm. We had a drink in the “Conservatory.” Wondering where Professor Plum was. The service was crap and the wine was sort of off, and the music was horrible. One wonders what the big deal is.
But it has been that kind of a week. Sometimes I just don’t want to leave OB. Being here with Jay, Carrie and Ryan is great though. It just took a while for me to release my arms from their pharoah-like grasp across my chest. Ryan is movie-star handsome and also, totally brilliant. I would have trudged across eight thousand Ritz lobbies to spend just a few hours with him. Tomorrow, San Francisco, where I will eat way too much food with all my old friends and will also gaze, for the first time, at my Britt Daniel bean and noodle portrait. I’m feeling all nervous and jittery just thinking about it. In a good way, not in an arms tightly crossed way. Throw open those arms, and receive your new bean and noodle, baby. It doesn’t get much better than that.
January 23rd, 2006 at 4:53 am
Hey Shannon…….your nephew is THE CUTEST! What a beautiful baby…I just had to write and tell you…
How cool, you get to hear your brother’s band play and practice….and did you know that Jeff is a really good guitarist? He played out in October, and I got to go hear them play…, but, he thinks he is done with that…now he gives lessons to a gal on Sunday morning, and he just plays at home…I love to sit there and listen to him, he just gets lost in the music…
We had about a 4″ snowfall Friday night…it was really pretty on the trees…we have had a really mild winter so far…hope it continues that way…
Love reading your blog, Shannon…keep writing…you are so good at it, and have so much to share…
Karen
January 28th, 2006 at 4:15 am
Oh great, here we go again. Crazy auntie is back. I could drool to my heart’s content before SHE came but no more. What is it this time, a goofy hat, lipstick, groucho glasses? Or, will she volunteer another motion challenged kid to wrestle me in a vat of jello?
I am not a pop tart.
BTW, can you get the red out? It makes me look Damienesque.