The Daily Discoveries of Gustavo Valentine

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Thursday, June 28, 2007

island hoppin





Lots of visiting back and forth from Seattle to Bainbridge. Emmett and his parents came over here for a play date so I got to show them my favorite park with the lake and the ducks and all the quiet and space that you don't find in the city. We gathered flowers and did our usual tickling, grabbing, and tackle hugging. Emmett rolled all the way from top to bottom of the big hill. I just watched all peaceful like from under a shady tree.


And Uncle Nicky came over to our side for some meat pie. That's meat, cooked inside a pie crust. With lard. And Grandpoop still doesn't understand why we say its unhealthy.



And then Mama and Daddy had their play date adult style in Seattle. They visited Spencer's new junk store, the Anne Bonny, (he decided to change the name from Dead People's Crap), where he wowed my dad with a first edition John Fante. Then my parents got to go see the La Vie En Rose movie which made them so happy that they almost didn't notice that they came out of the theater right into Gay Pride night which is too crowded and dance-y for my dad. So they tossed back a couple of cocoa's at the ole Redwood and had the stimulating type of conversation they need to keep everything going.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

happy trails




The trailer, she is gone. Uncle P.I. drove her away up into Canada, her homeland. It is the end of an era. An era of white trash. Many of you spent many a night in there. Dad wrote the first half of his novel in there. She was part of the family.

"Nothing gold can stay", Ponyboy Curtis.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

So long Brooklyn

So the recap, and the bottom line is that Mama and I loved our time in Red Hook Brooklyn. Addie and I had a dance party for all the adults and you better believe I busted out all my best moves. There was some real interpreting going on. We went non-stop while I was there, soaking up every minute of action and friendship, until we just couldn't keep our eyes open any more. It was sad and depressing to leave our friends, especially for my mom and Amy, who tried to keep it together at the airport. By the way, it was another 7 hour airplane adventure home, this time late at night, and guess how much I slept on the plane? Ten minutes! Mama teared up in daddy's arms when she saw him and some of that was for missing him but most of it was for the emotional hardship of dealing with a psycho tweaker for the whole flight. We're back on schedule now of course but we would both trade any amount of sleep and sanity to be with our NY friends this minute.







We love you guys, Amy Lou and Finn and Adeline June. And all your great friends. Thanks for taking care of us. We miss you!

Monday, June 18, 2007

More NYC






Back to our trip...We really ran around. We walked around Manhattan which has about a kajillion more people than Bainbridge. I have to tell you, I was a little uneasy, and kept my arms tight over my body in my stroller when we were whizzing through those crazy crowded sidewalks and I didn't feel all that secure crossing the street either with those cars zooming by because they look like they're just not going to stop and that's because they just don't a lot of the time. I want to be hip and cosmopolitan, maybe someday, but right now this slow island life is my perfect speed. Mama loved to see that big city again, sometimes called the big apple, she loves the monuments and bridges and buildings. Me, I love the two dogs that live with Addie. The big one is Lala, the small one is Lucia, and they are both now my long life friends.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Happy Father's Day!

F is for the funny things you say to me
A is for all the times you've changed my stinky diapers
T is for taking me to live in these healthy peaceful woods
H is for helping me to be a good man
E is for earning all the money for my food and clothes
R is for rocking me on your shoulder one thousand times and counting

Put it all together, it spells FATHER, and that's why I love you.







Happy Father's Day to all the daddies and grandpoopies out there -- enjoy the day!

(more of my NYC trip to come...)

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

NY trip continued...

~
So this is Addie and I becoming friends. We ate together, played together, watched movies together, drove around together, everything, just as if she was my very own sister or something. She shared all her toys with me, which I know is not always the easiest thing for tots like us to do. She even gave me her bed to sleep in. Each day our friendship tightened up more. We spent a lot of time down at the pier where the Red Hook people picnic and where Mama and I both met a lot of cool new New York friends. You all know how I love to picnic!




Tuesday, June 12, 2007

TRIP OUT

So, let's start back at the beginning. We left last Tuesday morning, all very excited about the trips, me very excited about the airplane. Driving to the airport I sort of clammed up and everyone kept asking me how am I doing, what's wrong, why don't you eat your bagel? I stayed pretty weird and quiet all the way there, through the parking loop de loops and into the terminal. We said good-bye to Daddy and got in our long snakey security line. Mama was busy rustling through my diaper bag when she looked at Grandpoop who was speechlessly pointing at my stroller, backing up, pale and frightened. I had puked. All over myself, all over the floor, all into my little stroller cup holders. Here is where things got nutty. Mama went into overdrive, taking off all my clothes and throwing them into the trashcan, sopping up my stuff with diapers, cleaning the floor with babywipes. The line of people just stopped and no one behind us would move except Grandpoop was still moving along in the line, in some sort of coma or daze. We got out of line and the lady took us to an express line where we saw Daddy way back in his line and he shouted, hey where are Gus' clothes? And Mama's shouting back that I got sick and should she get on the plane or go back home? She really didn't know what to do cuz I've only ever thrown up once before in my whole life. She called Amy Lou and said what should I do, and Amy said just go for it. So, we're running now to make our flight, Grandpoop races into a gift shop to get my a new shirt, Mama loses our boarding passes, and I'm still assuring her that I am happy, not sick, and I want to go on the plane. And, obviously, we did go for it. I was still pretty woozy but I didn't tell anyone. No way was I gonna go back home. All was okay for the first hour of our flight and my mom was real grateful that she wasn't on her way back to the island instead of on her way to New York City to see her dear friends when uh-oh it happened again. Mama caught most of it in the barf bag and in her cupped hands but my clothes were pukey wet once again. Back to just my diaper, she wrapped me up in a blanket and I passed out on her lap. They hung all my rinsed out clothes on the back of the airpland seats and Grandpoop said we were just like the Joads and maybe he should take out his teeth. Poor Mama was so nervous and scared to start her trip with a sick kid, but thanks to the miracle of the heavens above, when I woke up I was totally back to my normal fun self. This is the crazy and risky world of travelling with children.


But we got there all right and then the fun could finally begin. Mama and Amy Lou were so very happy in their hearts to sit around with each other and everytime Addie and I would play I would catch them looking at us with smiling eyes of bittersweetness. This was the dream for them. And I saw the world of Red Hook Brooklyn that is about as far away from my world of Bainbridge Island Washington that you can get. The noises outside were so loud! Big trucks zooming by that make the whole house shake and giant dumpsters going boom and neurotic New York women yelling at their boyfriends on the telephone and young brooklyn youths shouting to come out and see what they have in their pockets. We went to the park to meet Katrina and her son Arlo and the playground kind of looked like the ones at home but theirs have black kids fighting and going to jail and ours don't. We had a great first day of vacation though...






Day Two coming up...

Monday, June 11, 2007

We's robbed!







We got back from our vacations, just in time for the big Soprano's finale. My family has been wondering what's going to happen for a long time, how will all the loose ends of this fun show be wrapped up, and they watched last night and the answer to all their questions was this: ___________________________________
No answer. The answer was no answer. Bush league.

But tomorrow I will tell and show you all about my fun trip to the giant Big Apple...

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

BYE BYE MAMOP!!!

I WILL MISS U

I'LL SEE YOU SUNDAY MORNING!!!

DON'T GET LONELY...........

Sunday, June 03, 2007

this ain't no

MISS YOU CORNER



This is a Amy Lou and Finn and their daughter Addie and this is a painless Miss You Corner because Mama and I are going to see them in 2 days!!! Unbelievable. We are flying to New York and we are staying with them in their house for five days. Five days with Addie who was always supposed to be my closest friend but the crappy hands of fate made it so we have lived across the country from each other for our whole lives. So we are getting in an airplane and flying across the country and the cool and strange part is that Grandpoop is flying with us on the way there so he can go see his mama up over there in Fort Erie. Mama says she is glad to have her nanny flying with her like all the other fancy mommies. Daddy is driving to the airport with us all and then he gets on a plane going the other way to Los Angeles so he can have bro down time with his brothers. We are all going in different directions on different vacations except for Mamop who is getting a vacation from us.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

summa summa summa-time




Another great day with my posse, my road dogs, Emmett and Luca. Its summer and its real warm so we went to Alki Beach. Emmett (Em, I sometimes call him) brought all his Thomas trains so we made special sand tracks and buried them in sand blizzards. From the shore we could see our ferry boat going from Bainbridge to Seattle and then back. And there was a playground nearby too where we had picnic #2 and Em and I played ball and once again we did some hugging and in fact this time we did a running hug and hugged so hard that we both fell over and bonked each other's head and both cried and had to hug our moms for some time. But that's no big deal cuz if you're going to live life hard and fun you are maybe going to also get a few bonks on the head.