Dear Lila,
When you started taking the bus to school in 6th grade, you and I noticed the same man jogging past our house every morning while you waited for the bus. He is a tall, slim Asian man who always wears the same gray shirt and shorts (pants during the winter) and he does a loop, which brings him past our house three times every morning. He has rarely missed a day and on a whim, I decided to name him Simon. So now whenever we see him through the window, we say, "Simon!" We have never actually spoken to him or even made eye contact as he runs past, but how funny would it be if his name was really Simon!
Over the years, we have bequeathed names onto other regular passers-by: the tall jogger who ties his long, curly brown hair in a ponytail and always wears the same purple tank, black shorts and black knee socks is Gustaf; the older woman who rides by on a bike with a white wicker basket is Janet; Sam and Pam are the couple who have four dogs (Sam always walks three of them while Pam always only walks the one--why we wonder?); the amusing older gentleman who wears black shades, a crisp button-down shirt and Bermuda shorts and literally dances and twirls down the street is who we call Giuseppe. Why does he dance? We don't know. Do we love that he dances? So much!
I love that we have this fun, weird game that only we know about! The only crazy part is that one time MuiMui and I saw Gustaf when we were out walking and MuiMui wanted to follow him to see where he lives. Um, no.
Love,
Mom
