Pfunksfoolosophy

Anwar Sadat’s funeral services were held in Cairo. I was in high school. The Pretenders were just becoming a part of my consciousness.

My sister gave birth to my niece.  That one event changed my life forever. My niece became my track team’s mascot for a time. She was the darling of my school. The principal and many of the teachers remembered my sister and I showed my niece Koya off every chance I could get.
My sister thought she had made up the name. It’s actually a mountain in Japan and loosely translated, according to a Japanese friend, ‘Koya’ means ’spiritual place’.  Hmm…

You know, I remember when my sister went into labor with Koya. I was joking around with her. Her pregnancy had been miserable. She couldn’t stand to have her own saliva in her mouth so she was sorta like an old man with a slop jar. She was also…’touchy’, shall we say? I remember one time during her pregnancy when a friend of mine and I were going out to a party and she asked that we bring home some pudding. We forgot. She wept. She screamed at me, telling me how inconsiderate I was. My response? “Who made you the pudding sheriff?” She was not charmed.

Still, I was nervous for her. She was the first one to have a kid among the siblings and since I still in high school it was scary. Pam was in labor for oh, three full days and part of the fourth. My Mom had to remind me of that today. They finally performed an emergency C-section and Koya came out of it with a seizure disorder that she outgrew by the time she was two.
Oh, how I adored that baby. I would wake up in the middle of the night and creep in to watch her sleep. She was so precious to us all. Her clothes were all so tiny and sweet. Polly Flinders hand smocked dresses, Petit Bateau, handmade garments–you would have sworn that a princess had been born, such was the flurry to dress her. My favorite outfit actually made her look like the Cheshire Cat from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. I still have that picture around here somewhere.
I remember her sleeping with me in my canopy bed and me not getting a wink. We took her absolutely everywhere in her pram. Yep, she had a pram. We were insane.

Now, the kid is gonna be twenty and six. She reminded me that I was getting old as she’s close to thirty. The hell kinda thing is that to say to the woman who raised ya? Ingrate.

Nooo, my kid is my heart. She’s funny and thoughtful…she’s a bitch like her biological mom, she’s devoted to her child, she’s got a great singing voice (NOT inherited from her biological mother, I can tell ya that), she is crafty…I feel blessed to have her in my life.

When she was about 2 or so, I was in the bathroom and I had locked the door. For some reason she had a little Italian accent, or so it seemed. She said, ‘Unlock-a da do, Auntie! Why you no open-a da do?’ I never  let her forget that when she comments about Pooper calling his shovel his ‘bubble’.
She has been a joy in my life and today is her birthday.

May she find her happiness, her silliness and her joy today.

Koya Marie, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (but at 8:45pm)

I love you more than space.