The ten people I would most like to have around my table today:
- Smokey, Matthew, and Andrew (they are a gimme, of course).
- Smokey's Uncle Carl and Aunt Olga. There is a particular gene in my husband's family that makes its carrier clever, hilarious, imaginative, mischievous, and a natural mechanic. Grampa Karl (who died before I met Smokey), Uncle Carl (who died about ten years ago), Smokey, and Matthew all exhibit these traits in spades. (I think it takes a certain exemplary kind of woman to love this kind of man; Aunt Olga is exactly that -- lively and peppery and crusty and loving.)
- My parents, who have been gone for ~25 years.
- My paternal grandfather, George, who has been gone for ~45 years. He won a liars' contest sponsored by a local newspaper when he was 81, got a new rod and reel and a week's stay at a local resort for he and my grandmother.
- Barack and Michelle Obama, although my Republican father might have a few words to say to them.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, although my Republican father, etc. Franklin can stay the hell away.
- Albert Einstein.
- Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher. They can be seated next to each other; the rest of us will just watch and listen.
- Stephanie Perl-McPhee. (I had Leonardo da Vinci in this position, but he lost out to the Yarn Harlot for a place at my table.)
- Ozzie and Sharon Osbourne, just for the hell of it.
That's seventeen people. I need to get a bigger table.
