for hearing c. talking to her people over the baby monitor at naptime. before the end of last week, i hadn't used her monitor for months, but a series of incidents (dry erase marker on the window frames, a bottle of hand sanitizer mysteriously empty) prompted me to want to keep a closer ear on her. "hello, little guy!" she said over and over today, jaunty as any chauffeur. "do you need a ride to the airport? to this airport? or this airport? or this airport?"

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for this picture of my grampa and me, taken in 1981. until my mother gave it to me yesterday, i'd never seen it. 

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for my friend a., hairstylist extraordinaire, who came to the house tonight to tutor me in the application of various hair products.