A Mini Vacation

Marta, 1984

This is my baby. In real life she's grown up and having a baby of her own in a couple of weeks, but she's still our Mini Mart. For the last two weeks she's been staying at our house, and every night she and I have planned to do a double blog. We've giggled hysterically over our clever ideas until 2:am or so, and then realized that we aren't really very funny. However, Min has provided me a lot of laughs over our 27 years together. For Example:

One day when she was about six we were on our way to Mervyn's. She said, "When we're shopping, act like you don't know me. I'm going to pretend I'm a midget."

After painting the playhouse

A few years later we were walking out of a cafe in Salt Lake City and someone held the door open for us. Min said, "Merci." The woman asked where she was from, Marta faked an accent and said, "Paris." Afterwards she explained she wanted to give the people a little thrill thinking they'd met a foreigner.

Chinatown Souvenirs

Another time we were sitting at the kitchen table when we heard Dee come in. Out of the blue Marta whispered, "Mannequin!" and suddenly froze in position. She wouldn't unfreeze and come out of her new character until I explained, "She's being a mannequin." After that it became a routine game, and everyone had to become a statue until the arriving person broke the spell by saying, "Mannequin." One night Marta answered the door and her sister's brilliant and solemn new boyfriend was standing perfectly motionless in a silly pose on the porch. Min squealed, "Mannequin!" and he was embraced wholeheartedly as a brother-in-law on the spot!

Child #1 was disciplined for taking books off the bookshelf when she was only 18 months old. (Sorry, Gabi.) By the time #7 came along we'd been mellowed. When we'd hear Mini whine or cry with the other kids, we'd call out, "Just give her anything she wants!" Luckily our easy-going style was offset by the sternness and high standards of her six older siblings, and in spite of our newly discovered relaxed attitude, she turned out undamaged.

Last night I invited Min to write a guest post on my blog, but then we got distracted by some horrifying reality show (about a family with twins AND sextuplets) and it was just too traumatic to return to mere blogging. I forgot my request, and she packed up and left with her newly bar-examined man, and I figured I was back on my own. However, tonight I noticed she had started a post and saved it as a draft. The ideas here are typically her, in her own mini style, and well worth sharing even though she didn't finish it up. A partial of mwrites is a complete facelift for a saggy TravelinOma!

(welcome to an official mwrites blogpost.)

mwrites a to do list

01. thank the mailman.
02. pay for the next happy meal in line.
03. pick up someone's recycling.
04. leave money in the meter.
05. read something uplifting.
06. rearrange your books by color.
07. hold the elevator.
08. dig up old photos.
09. watch Extra with your mother. because you love it.
10. then watch Law & Order with your mother. because she loves it.
11. and then watch Big because you haven't seen it since you were like 13.

20-Day Countdown
July 31, 2008

I think the movie rubbed off, because she's getting a little bit big. I hope her baby is as much fun for her as mine's been for me. It's been a Mini-Vaca for Oma and Opa, but we won't see Min again until she's produced a tiny little midget!

Lots of