One of my very favorite things about hanging with Mr. W is that I like who I am when I’m with him. I feel pretty and happy and giddy and silly. And I feel smart. Not because I’m smarter than the company, but because he makes me feel like my opinion and knowledge count for something. This morning upon waking I did impressions (and made him guess) of a dog laying in bed, a penguin laying in bed, a jellyfish laying in bed, a paperweight laying in bed. The only one he was able to guess correctly was my impression of him laying in bed. It’s wonderful to wake up and laugh.

Yesterday we went over to my parents’ house and my mom made dinner (which really impressed Mr. W’s palate — I’d been telling him my mom’s a brilliant cook), then we showed my parents a PG version of our cruise photos, and as my dad served tea in the traditional Chinese serving style (strong loose leaf tea served in tiny little cups on tiny little coasters from an authentic wooden tree-trunk looking serving station), Mr. W walked my mom thru how to burn a DVD on the laptop I bought her for xmas and my mom took notes. It was so cute. And Mr. W invited my parents to come with us when Huntington Library opens up its Chinese Garden in late summer this year. That guy knows how to stack up brownie points. And then afterwards, we went to my house where he fixed my garage door. More brownie points. Oh, and I finally got to yell at my stupid neighbors who ignore all the signs posted as well as the note I’d left on their car and parks smack in the middle of the community driveway and block my ingress and egress. They moved the car. 1 point for me! And then we came back to his house and sat in the jacuzzi. Or maybe that last part was the night before. But we did it again this morning.

Oh, last nite while Mr. W stepped away for a moment, my mom said to me in Chinese that I looked pretty in my cruise photos. She noted I looked better in those photos than I did in prior vacation photos. I said that Mr. W photographs me well. She asked if my mood had anything to do with it. I thought a bit and said maybe. She asked about a vacation I took over a year ago, asked whether I was happy then. I said I wasn’t. It’s nice that my parents can observe my general emotional well-being thru just an image. I remember one of x-gf‘s entries in which she wrote that she photographs well when she’s happy.