new years

Well, it's 9:31 pm on New Years Eve, you are probably together having fun, I am having fun at my house. That's right folks, New Years at home. We had lobster and champagne and are getting ready for a movie on demand. I love New Years at home -- we get drunk and Jake and I inevitably end up spilling the secrets we hit from our parents in high school, e.g. "Hey, remember that time that we drank from the liquor cabinet and stomped around the house?" x a billion.

San Francisco was a nice trip, albeit not as warm as expected.

For me to explain my favorite moment of the trip, I have to delve a little into my youngest brother, Jonah. Most of you probably know that he is disabled -- but as he gets bigger (he's 12 now, starting to get man hands), it becomes more and more evident to other people, especially in public. Since he could make noise, he cannot help but make an "EEEE" sound but with his mouth closed, while having full body spasms and flapping his hands whenever he is excited. And a bus driving by excites him. He also has the tendency to need to just talk -- even if it's just repeating the same phrase over and over, maybe with one word changed, usually to different kinds of food.

Anyway, so we had been waiting on line to ride the mothaflippin cable car for the second time for an hour and a half, everyone just whining and being passive about leaving because Jonah was SO EXCITED and would throw himself on the ground whenever we suggested leaving. FINALLY my mother took charge and dragged him out to the street to hail a cab.

We got one quickly, and he agreed to take all 6 of us, so my dad sat in the front and the rest of us shoved into the back, with Emily sitting on my mom's lap and Jonah pressed up against the window. Jonah was very upset about not riding the cable car, but was trying to convince himself that this cab was okay. He was just saying "this is a cool cab, huh? it's a PASTA cab! It's a christmas cab! it's a BANANA cab! Yeah? haha? It's a tortellini cab! It's a MEAT cab!" And this goes on for, oh, 10 minutes or so, stuck in traffic, none of us really reacting, we're used to this.

Suddenly I realize: what is the cab driver thinking right now? I start laughing and whisper this to Jake, and he starts laughing. Jonah thinks we're laughing because he's funny so he gets even crazier "this is a SPACE CAB! hahaha! ha? Ha!" No one in the back seat can breathe, and then Jake says: "When we asked the driver if he could fit 6 in his cab, we probably should have added 'including a belligerent multiply disabled 12-year old who just had the highlight of his trip taken away from him"

When the driver kicked us out 2 blocks before we asked, he turned to my father and said "you all are sick."

So, that was a long description of a moment in time. Now I'm going to go watch Knocked Up! (Never seen it!)

Happy New Year! See you in 36 hours or so