Weekend with Bella

Saturday afternoon I drove to the suburbs just outside Philadelphia and picked up my soon-to-be sixteen year old niece Isabella. I don't get to see her as often as Nicole, Ashlee, Kay, Jaeden, or Teo, and so whenever I drop Bella back home, I leave feeling somewhat incomplete. Like something is missing and I needed more time with her.

On our way to my place I discovered that she watches The Walking Dead at her father's place and that led to an hour plus convo about the show and our favourite characters. We both love Daryl and Carol, are shocked that Lauren Cohan (who plays Maggie) is really British, and totally can't believe that Rick is the cutie-pie with the Bob Dylan cards outside of Keira Knightley's place in Love, Actually. We miss Hershel and think Michonne is a bad ass (of course - cuz she totally is!) and are both really impressed with Carl. He started out as a regular kid and we've been fortunate enough to watch as he becomes a man and a leader.

Over the course of the next 36 hours we discussed Donna's death and how unfair it is, her coming-out story, and then Bishop and Pax and how they met, as well as Bishop's coming-out story to his mother. We talked about how Ashlee and Sean got together and what a sweet love story they have. We also talked about the perfect dad. How we wished that we each had a father that wanted to be a part of our life. Someone who sent text messages to say hi, who knew about our respective school life and work life, that wanted to hang out and get a slice of pizza together for no reason. A dad that genuinely liked us and wanted to be around us and was hungry to learn more about how we saw things and what we thought and felt. It was nice to put that out there and have someone know exactly what each of us were talking about. I still don't understand why so many fathers seem disinterested in having a real friendship with their kids. It's shameful and sad because those men are missing out on what could be the greatest and strongest relationship of their lives.

In between TV talk and deep discussions, we watched two of my fave Christmas shows - Die Hard and Ziggy's Gift. Bella had never seen either and loved them both. She especially liked that Bruce Willis' character, John McClane, was such a real kind of guy and that he was constantly talking to himself. After Die Hard we went for a late night drive to check out Christmas lights on houses and found one near Bishop's place that was the definition of illuminating. Such a cute little house and completely covered in lights. I took a photo with my phone without using flash and it's crazy how bright it is. We also jammed out like a couple of dorks to my Christmas mixes then headed home for a late night showing of Horrible Bosses. (Bella hadn't seen it and she agreed with me that Charlie Day is perfect in every possible way.)

Sunday morning we were up and off to the Colonial Theatre for the 2pm showing of Scrooged!!! I was busting out laughing. I hadn't seen it in years and when Mary Lou Retton appeared in the promo advert as Tiny Tim and did that back flip, I freakin' lost it. There are so many hysterical scenes and we sat in the balcony and just howled from start to finish.

On our way home we stopped for a couple slices of 'za at a pizza joint called Mr. P's. The slices were giwombous! I'm hoping to kidnap Bella again later this month. She's seriously one of my favourite people and I miss her already.