Just Like the Family Cat

Driving in the afternoon down to Big Sur, conversations between mom, dad, yia-yia (my grandmother) and I. Yia-yia gets in the car and starts talking about her umbrella which was blown over the fence because of the wind.

Y: Anyhow, so maybe Alex can--

M: So the wind--did you want to, for us to go get it?

Y: No, then this guy was there, you know the guy that lives in that uh condo there, because I think they're uh.

M: Oh, you mean that way?

Y: Yeah. So I told him if it's, he will close it and hand it over, so he hand it over. You got a haircut honey, looks good.

A: Yeah, you like it?

Y: Huh?

A: You like it?

Y: Yeah, professional or your mother?

A: Professional.

Y: Looks like it [laughs].

A: It was cheap though.

Y: Huh?

A: It was twelve bucks.

M: It looks good, doesn't it yia-yia?

Y: Very nice. In the back especially see that's the problem when you are, not professional I think, the back always gives it off, you know, cause they have, the most difficult part of the haircut is in the back.

...

A: So what's up with you yia-yia?

Y: I don't know what it is, just kind of feeling yucka you know. Alex, I tell you the truth I think it's the old age. It's a cold or a bug, who knows.

A: Well I mean you went out to the movies last night.

Y: Yeah, well, like I said I work in the garden and everything, but I get tired and then I sit down wha-ever.

D: Hot. Heat exhaustion.

M: Well, it hasn't been that hot up here though. At our, our house has been pretty hot, yia-yia. Pretty unbearable.

Y: I know. But it's, over here, you know, it's not as hot as your house, but I was sitting outside little bench that I have, reading and boy I got really hot, cause it's the sun, heat, I got upset, you know. So what's happening with you?

A: Not too much. Trying to find a job.

Y: Are you getting ahead with that at all?

A: I mean I think so. I think by next week I'll have one.

Y: Hey that's good. Enjoy it while you are not doing it. You work the rest of your life.

A: Yeah.

Y: Huh. You know I, you know why I say that I used to work really hard you know and then I get a couple of days off and you feel guilty, I said gosh--

A: Sometimes I feel guilty.

Y: Yeah of course, that's normal. Anyways.

A: I guess.

Y: Sofi called last night. Very sweet of her.

M: Oh that's nice. What'd she say?

Y: She was working and then the girls went then, there, you know, Sophia and uh Kim. They're leaving I think today? I don't know.

M: Oh they're leaving?

Y: Or tomorrow.

A: Where're they going?

Y: They're coming back home, you know.

M: They had a good time, didn't they?

Y: Yeah, she, it was nice of them, and then one night they went and had dinner there. Sofi seems to like her job.

M: Yeah she does. The hours are not very long.

A: It's four hours a day.

Y: That's pretty long, for what she does. She's on her feet all the time.

A: I don't think so. Some people work six hours a--

Y: But Alex, for her the first job is pretty good for her.

M:--figuring out where the people go and everything.

A: I know, but I'd want to work more--

Y: No, not, but you is different, you're going to get a full job. You got to get a full job.