Ocean breathes salty

Round 19: Winter 2009

last update/next update

Maria Moretti is 66, Filippo is 54, Emil Collins is 37 and Anna is 31
(Mina is 59, Zelda is 34 and Nicholas is 6).

Narrated by Anna Collins

To appease my mother-in-law, I'm still job-hunting, even though I've kind of lost interest in the process. There's nothing out there, for one thing, but I also really like being home all day.

I converted the basement (Emil's old bedroom...I still shudder when I think about that) into a gym for myself. Does it count as a gym if all I have down there is a treadmill? That's all we could afford for the meantime. But see? Plenty to keep busy with at home!

Okay. I do get a bit bored sometimes, when there's no one home, nothing on TV and I've exhausted all other entertainment possibilities.

But that's when I call up some friends and head off to Exeter. It's getting harder to get people together though. Tatiana wouldn't come because she's taking it easy for the rest of her pregnancy and Madelyn was at work. Boring. Zelda came though.

The whole trip was pretty much a waste of time anyway, seeing I've been banned from buying any more clothes until I'm gainfully employed. It's a crime that I haven't been able to update my wardrobe. What am I supposed to wear when spring rolls around? Maybe I should work harder at getting a job.

I wonder if you lose the capacity to talk about anything else when you have a baby. All Zelda talked about was Josie and how much she wants another kid. Emil is talking about babies a lot lately too. I'm getting sort of nervous.

Zelda turned out to be useful in that capacity at least. She seems so calm about motherhood and babies and kids, so I started thinking that maybe I could give it a shot. Besides, if I got pregnant right now, the maternity leave would buy me several more months before I'd have to go to work.

So when I got home, I told Emil I was ready.

Amelia came over and we shared some gossip about her mum and her fight with Mina. It's so funny how there was this whole shit storm over just a hug!

Speaking of, Maria is still not sleeping in the bed with Filippo.

They've been sharing some somewhat awkward conversations recently though, so there's hope for them yet.

As for Mina, I think I heard her ring our doorbell the other night.

But when Maria went out to check who it was, there was no one there. I'm sure I saw her out the window though.

Maybe it was her who dropped Nicholas off the same night. He lives all the way in Exeter and he's only 6, so I have no idea how he would have got there on his own.

Anyway, he seems like a pretty cool kid, despite the dubious parenting. I don't think I'd be the best parent in the world or anything but I don't think I'd have my kid wandering the streets at night alone either.

I guess I'll find out eventually. I had an inkling when I couldn't keep anything down and a pregnancy test confirmed it - I'm officially knocked up! Emil is very excited; I'm wondering what I've got myself into.

On the plus side, I did find someone willing to employ me after the baby comes. I'll be working at a record store, which sounds so boring to me. But Emil used to work in a record store and now he's a DJ, which is way more fun so I'm hoping my job leads to something similar.

Random pics:
Anna heads for the microphone any time she's near one. She's maxed out in Outgoing. If you're curious, she sounded like she was singing a lounge version of that "Oogie, oogie, oooh" disco song from TS1.

Notes:

• I was beginning to wonder if these two would ever reproduce! Emil has a secondary aspiration of Family, so I was expecting them to try for a baby straight away but they didn't try once during the last round. Neither of them have ever rolled up baby wants but Emil has been thinking about babies a lot, so I took that as a sign. I was just about to force them to try for a baby when they decided to do it on their own.
• Anna is due in Autumn 2010, so you'll meet baby Collins in the Autumn 2010 birthdays post.