L:AUGHING SO HARD

A woman should pick a color that really suits her and wear it all the time.  Like your perfume.  It should be your signature –Alice Munro, OPEN SECRETS, Short Stories 

March 7th - Paloma wrote a nice letter and I loved the MAGGI postcard she sent.  The image was done by an anonymous artist.  For some reason, as I looked at the postcard, I wondered what Paloma’s perfume smelled like.  She wrote the following: 

Dear Michael, 

Thank you for the tape.  That was a nice surprise.  I don’t have the tape with me right now but I can tell you about the tunes I remember.  First of all, of course, one of my favorite songs—you already know I’m sure which one I’m talking about---AGAINST ALL ODDS.    And with RED RED WINE by UB40 I guess I can say those songs are somehow “OUR SONGS”.  They bring back good memories.  I also remember “THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING”.  This song brings me back to when I was little.  Nancy Sinatra used to sing it.  I really liked it.  That’s funny to hear LIZA MINELLI sing in French (with THE DAY AFTER THAT song), she has a weird accent.  I like DORIS DAY songs.  That’s also a very famous song I remember it in Spanish:   QUIZAS QUIZAS QUIZAS.  I think lots of people sang it.  

We also hear that song YOU’RE SO PRETTY here in France.  I find it kind of weird but I like it.  And of course, Madonna is really famous over here.  Do you know that she started her career in France?  She was a Chorist for Patrick Hernandez.  Do you remember him?  He only made one very famous song (world famous) called BORN TO BE ALIVE in 1979, I think.  I’m not sure I like your Spanish songs but maybe I need to hear them some more.  The kind of Spanish songs I love are the flamenco type—kind of gypsy. 

Do you hear about the American Cup that’s happening in San Diego right now?  Well, the French team is doing so well (just kidding).  They train all year long in front of my window in fact.  When the weather is nice, I watch them while I’m tanning!   

My brother, Edouard, is flying from Albuquerque to Paris on March 8th and then he will come to Balaruc-Les-Bains on the 14th or 15th with my dad, Monique and maybe Luis and Golda (his girlfriend).  After that they’re going to Madrid.  And Edouard will go to Benidorm to see my mom, then back to Albuquerque.  

Talking about my family here are a few pictures.  The last one my dad sent me.  I’m sure you recognize Monique, my dad, Alexandre, Jonathan and maybe you don’t know who the last person is!   And Jonathan wasn’t having an ugly soup, in fact that was an excellent dessert—he had just made a mess out of it.  Alexandre had shaved that day, too.   That’s just the picture.  On the picture of Jonathan with my dad that was Jonathan’s first trip alone on a place.  Last summer I sent him to Paris for a few days. 

Jonathan’s going to be ‘8’ years old on June 4th—nine days after your Birthday in fact.  I would love him to have your nieces as pen pals but he can’t speak in English yet.  Maybe next year he will start learning at school (because of Europe).  He just knows a bunch of words that I try to teach him and from his games.  He’s got a GAME BOY, a GAME GEAR and a SEGA MASTER SYSTEM II.   And we have just bought a computer, a multimedia, where he can do all kinds of things, showings, watch 3D dinosaur movies and stuff like that.  It speaks almost only in English, so he always asks me to translate and I can tell he is trying to learn because of that.  He is more interested in Spanish.  I also try to teach him Spanish.  My mistake was not to speak to him in Spanish all of the time when he was a baby—but Alexandre wouldn’t have understood anything!  And I really wanted him to go to an English school but there isn’t one around.  I guess he will just have to go visit you when he’ll be older.  

I can’t remember if one of your brothers ended up having a baby boy.  You’ve had so many nieces that I lost track!  Maybe someday Holly or Leigh will come spend some vacations with us and then we will send Jonathan over there in a few years.  But time flies, can you imagine we pretty soon are going to be 40!  Maybe someday I’ll write you a letter saying can you imagine...pretty soon we are going to be 70!  Who knows?  

 

I’ll never forget Santa Cruz and how mean you were on that Ferris wheel, especially when I think that I almost got in a fight to save you a parking space once.  Do you remember that evening?  Where was that disco?  The one we went with Carmela once, too, I think.   

The night we came back from Santa Cruz was when I found the AIR FRANCE letter, remember?  That was just 10 years ago. 

That island you are telling me about near Africa is I guess the Mauritius Island and it’s a 3-hour flight from South Africa.  It’s in the Indian Ocean.  It’s a mixture of India, China and Africa.  I loved it.  Everything is so cheap over there.  Lots of stars spend their holidays over there but at the same time it’s still pretty “real” (not too touristic).  The beaches are gorgeous.  The water is turquoise.  I am thinking of going back in fact, especially now that the family who rented us a bungalow is coming to visit us this summer.  I’d like to make a trade.  The cheapest flight to Paris is I guess now about $2500 for the 3 of us (it’s a 14-hour flight).  It would be cheaper to go to the States.  last year I found a flight from Paris to LA for about $1500 for the 3 of us and I really would like to go to the States, too. 

Of course, I know who Doris Day is...she was a famous actress and I know old actresses quite well:  Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Gene Tierney, Rita Hayworth, my mom was a fan.  And so, so am I.  I love lots of old Hollywood movies. 

It really isn’t worth it for you to go to EuroDisney (called Disneyland PARIS now by the way) since you live close to Disneyland.  I have been to EuroDisney twice and to Disneyland LA once.  The one in LA is way better.  The weather is nicer.  Some of the things are still missing in Paris—like they’re just building the SPACE MOUNTAIN.  I don’t know if its’s my memory or what but I remember the PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN as something way bigger in LA.  Also, the lines are long in Paris, especially as soon as the weather is not too bad.  Every time I’ve been there it was awful--in February and December—didn’t I send you some pictures?  At Winter time they only open from 10am to 6pm.  Everything is really expensive and the food is terrible.  But we had a great time.  That's what counts.  In December we made a movie there.  Too bad you can’t see it on your VCR.  If you don’t go, don’t throw your coupon away.  Just send it to me. Ha!    I have to go now. 

Thanks again for the music on tape. 

Love,  

Paloma 

March 8th - Lauren (Alan’s daughter is now age 15, Wow!)   

We had a nice Birthday Party for her at the Pacific Palisades house.   I liked the few pics I took.  Gloria and Jack were there (and sister, Carrie, too, of course).   Lauren liked her cake.  

 

Alan and I escaped for a couple of nights to Las Vegas.  There’s a saying in French when people stay over at your house that they stink like fish if they stay longer than 3-nights.  Alan and I have concluded that Las Vegas is no more than a 3-night stay---even at a hotel—because the vibe suddenly smells like fish.  It’s an adult playground, but people from all walks of life are walking the strip and some are NOT VERY PRETTY I must say!  They’re scary—but that’s part of America.  Yikes!   

The fun part of our Vegas adventure was at the LUXOR HOTEL.  They have this photo machine where you can go inside with your partner and take a photo of the two of you and it can surmise what your child would look like.   We were laughing so hard---and I’m telling you---when you are laughing so hard it is so good for your abdominal muscles.  I need to do more of that laughing so hard—but it has to happen unexpectedly.  

Well, first I tried the photo booth with me and I chose a random guy (or girl) that you can choose from to see what the child would look like.  It was cute little boy.  It was amusing to say the least. 

When Alan and I entered the photo booth we took two versions to see what our little boy offspring and our little girl offspring would look like.  The girl was just so-so (reminded me of my niece, Ally---but not as cute as Ally), but our boy was a total terror and that’s where we began laughing so hard.  We’ll never forget that.   It was hilarious.  That was so ultra-funny! 

No music compared with the excitement I felt when I contacted someone with my eyes. --Christopher Bram, SURPRISING MYSELF, a novel