September Saturday Together

Hi Boys,

It's your favorite aunt again reporting on a nice day we had with you yesterday. You guys arrived about 10:30 am with spinach and corn to contribute to a lunch i made and then you all went in two cars to take the dogs for a walk at Moseley since I was a bit knackered from chemo the day before. It was chemo D2. D for my fourth time going through treatment, 2 for 2nd of the series of infusions that are scheduled every three weeks. I rested on the deck in the sun while you were gone. Uncle Joe sent me pictures of you both on your grandmother's memorial bench that is in the park. We hung out on the deck when you got back and we chatted about lots of things. I felt well enough to teach you guys the 4 corner game that I learned from a Spanish book about children's games in Burgos, Spain where i spent a summer in 1987 completing my Masters Degree in Spanish for California State University at Sacramento. You both are studying Spanish now that you are in middle school so I told you all about the dinner I was cooking in Spanish because one of you asked me to say something. Noah hasn't picked a Spanish nickname for his class but Dylan chose Hector.
   After playing 4 Square, ending when i stepped in a dog poop in my socks, we played some backgammon on the porch, me vs Noah. Close game! And then we pulled out some of Grandpa Kudym's memorabilia, articles about his time as a selectman in Rowley, including the article about your Dad's accident when he was four years old and cut his neck badly falling through a glass door.
We had some good chats about divorce statistics, how divorce affects us young and old, about how your mom is doing recovering from divorce with Adam and dealing with shared custody on Wednesdays for Emily, working around the restraining order. You told me how Adam's 2nd wife from Germany already divorced him and went back to Germany. And how Adam spent a night in jail for violating his restraining order. You guys have had to live through some pretty scary stuff but seem happy now that your mom is more relaxed, enjoying good friends in  her life and not interested in meeting men for the time being. I'm glad there is peace at Forrest St!
    It was nice to spend so much time talking. You were both pretty chatty. Dylan kept wanting me to tell stories about the past like about the bus accident in Costa Rica. We had a few chuckles over all that, and the 10% discount my mom wanted to get on buying me a gift certificate for a pedicure since i was now missing one toenail after the bus crash.
   You are off playing flag football today. I'm glad Dylan is keeping up with the saxophone but Noah lost interest in instrument lessons.  It's good he recognized that he really wasn't enjoying it enough to want to keep practicing because it can be pretty tedious. I took piano lessons for about 11 years but it was actually pretty torturous. I hated practicing! We got talking about the Rolling Stones concert I went to with my roommate Chris that I lived with for four years in Salem, NH. I showed you a couple of music videos so you could get a sense of who they are. For me, Mick Jagger puts the "oo" in COOL.
xo