Driving nostalgia away

"One day more

another day, another destiny..."

-Les Miz

Another year will soon be over. How did it happen so fast? Nostalgia just hit me like a powerful kick in the gut. I don't need to close my eyes to see flashes of many happy Christmases in Carrascal, and to feel again the loss of something not mine when another year had ended.

An ending or a beginning? The new year is often a mass of conflicting emotions, like a rush of excitement to open a present but reluctant to put the beautiful wrapper away....I'll better contain myself. Who knows what terrible metaphors I would end up writing here if I wont stop being nostalgic right now? Besides, with nostalgia comes melancholia and I refuse to entertain it tonight.

Okay, just a little self- indulgence then. I will allow myself to travel down memory lane of 2007 but will only have four stops for moments or stuff that still crack me up. Happy happy, joy joy. :)

1. That woman who stole a tray of potted tulips along Francouzka here in Prague. As if the choice wasn't hilarious enough, she wore a pair of high heels for the job. Click here for the full story.

2. Hitchcock's movies. In just two months we covered 15 or 16 of his movies. No matter how packed with suspense they are, there are often scenes or lines that would make you howl with laughter. Unsolicited as it is, I do advice one who appreciates droll humor to see his movies. Start with "North by Northwest" and you'll know what I mean.

3. I've never read a book that is a masterpiece of unparalleled humor other than Roald Dahl's "My Uncle Oswald." One time I was reading some pages on the metro and I was trying so hard to stifle a laugh I was red-faced and near tears. I probably looked like someone heading for a mental facility.

4. The Fantomas* Chronicles. I have a kid at school, whom I will hide in the name Fantomas, who used to poop in his pants almost every day for one or two weeks straight. He was three at that time. The funniest thing about it was that he immediately bent like an acrobat with his palms planted flat on the floor everytime I wiped his bum. Regardless of how many times I told him he didn't need to, that I would see the target perfectly, he still bent as if his life depended on it. This never failed to crack my husband up. Usually A's first line when I got home was "So did Fantomas s*+@ in his pants again?" or "Did he bend 360 degrees again?" I probably have a weird sense of humor because for something that other people consider gross, I actually found those pooping episodes hilarious.

There, those four somehow drove nostalgia away. Happy happy, joy joy again. :)

*Fantomas is an old French movie that is dubbed in Czech and has been shown on TV here so many times. The absence of hair on his (Fantomas') head made A give my kid this monicker. And since we are on this topic, here's another funny moment with my little Fantomas at school; I made them listen to Simon Says and they had to touch whatever body part Simon was saying. When Simon said "touch your hair", my Fantomas didn't do anything. I asked why he wasn't touching his hair. He replied " Because Marielle, I have no hair."

I love this kid.