moonieandme | adventures with my nude lil' dude | Page 14

Unicorn Heaven

Posted on July 20, 2015 by annierhodeisland

This past spring, unicorns descended on Greater Providence thanks to artist Camomile Hixon and curator Helene Miller. Sparkly pink unicorns appeared in libraries by the dozen, while “missing unicorn” posters adorned telephone poles all over Providence offering a reward if the unicorn was found. It’s been nice having a little magic around our fair city between the life-sized glitter unicorns – which dispersed to various places after their installations at the Providence and Warwick public libraries ended – and the search for the missing unicorn, which included its very own phone booth hotline for anyone spotting one.

Moonie, loving anything glitter and anything magic (not to mention pink and purple), has been over the moon for the “unicorns in residence.” Don’t tell him that the project will end this month, because ever since he and I found each other in April, he’s also had a knack for finding unicorns around town.

This was his favorite, because pink and glitter.

But then this became his favorite, because he loves purple as well. And of course the glitter.

And then he found the special unicorn hotline phone booth, which is completely decked out in sparkles.
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Doctor Moonie

Posted on July 15, 2015 by annierhodeisland

I’ve had some back luck this summer. This time, it was tearing my meniscus, so Moonie came with me to the MRI place and the knee doctor and the pharmacy.

He took my mind off the pain by reading to me from magazines – even if he was looking at them upside-down and not so much reading them as making up stories to go with the pictures.

He also offered to take my blood pressure in the doctor’s office. He hopes mine will be close to his, which apparently fluctuates somewhere between “fifty-eleven over three million and two” and “six billion over seventy-eighty.”

Robert Frost Farm

Posted on July 12, 2015 by annierhodeisland

A couple of months ago, Moonie and I visited the Robert Frost Farm in New Hampshire.

Moonie insisted on buying his very own ticket for a tour of the house.

He then asked the guide, Bill Gleed, whether this was the biggest apple corer in the world.

Birthday Cake

Posted on July 10, 2015 by annierhodeisland

I don’t know when Moonie’s birthday is. But when he found out that people celebrate birthdays with cake, he insisted that EVERY day was his birthday.

We compromised; first, he can celebrate each April 25th as “Gotcha Day,” as it’s the day I found and adopted him from an antique store, with his very own Moonie cake. Second, he can share cake with people when they celebrate their birthdays throughout the year. He readily accepted.

Um, Moonie, I said SHARE the cake. You look a little like you want to do more than that.

Moonie?

“I’m just looking, Mama!”

Oh, OK.

(I hear a soft thud, and the box holding the birthday cake quivers.)

“Moonie? What was that? Did – did you just fall into the cake?”

(slurping noises)

“Moonie?”
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The Wish

Posted on July 8, 2015 by annierhodeisland

A couple of months ago, Moonie and I were enjoying a sunny spring day in Providence when he noticed a dandelion.

“Ooh!” he squealed. “A wish flower!” He toddled over to hug it.

“Aw, are you going to make a wish, buddy?”

“Yeah!” he shouted. He took the biggest breath his little troll lungs could hold and exhaled as hard as he could, blowing just a few of the teeny seeds into the air as he screamed, “COOKIES!”

“Um, Moonie, I bet you could blow even bigger if you weren’t yelling at the same time. Plus, I hear wishes might not come true if you say them out loud.”

“Not come true!” He was horrified at the thought. But he was gung-ho and tried again, taking another big Moonie breath. This time he stage-whispered his wish as loud as he could.

“[COOKIES!]” he very quietly shouted/very loudly whispered. This time he blew a few more seeds into the air, so the dandelion was now about half-blown out. That was as good as we were going to get.

The Big Apple

Posted on July 5, 2015 by annierhodeisland

A couple of weeks ago, Moonie and I headed to NYC as part of a street photography workshop. He was so excited to go to the Big Apple!

Oh, wait, buddy. Not that kind of big apple.

Anyway, he had a great time on the train ride from New Haven.

And an even better time people-watching at Grand Central Station.

Tracie and Matthew

Posted on July 5, 2015 by annierhodeisland

Moonie’s first-ever outing since coming into my life was seeing Cardboard Ox, a wonderful duet consisting of Tracie Potochnik and Steve Allain, and he’s adored both Tracie and Steve ever since. So he was overjoyed to catch Tracie not once but TWICE a couple of Saturdays ago.

First, Tracie joined some friends singing backup for Heather Rose in Clover at Rhode Island PrideFest, where Moonie also got to hang out with Tracie’s partner, Matthew Clowney. Matthew is a talented photographer and videographer and is on the faculty at RISD. He also recently completed a very cool project called the Trans Family Photo Gallery, which is a traveling art exhibit for children, designed to spark conversations, about a family with a transgendered grandparent. Matthew was pretty nice about letting Moonie help him record the live music at Pride, even if the headphones were a little big for Moonie.

Moonie says they fit just fine.

Happy 4th!

Posted on July 4, 2015 by annierhodeisland

Uh oh. Moonie has discovered July 4th – including the fact that people light off fireworks in celebration. Now he’s asking for his very own fireworks.

Let’s all hope he still has his teeny little troll toes and fingers after tonight, ‘k?

Big Nazo

Posted on July 1, 2015 by annierhodeisland

If you’ve spent any time in downtown Providence, chances are your eyes have been drawn to a storefront window packed full of big, weird, and colorful creatures. This is the land of Big Nazo, the brainchild of creature creator Erminio Pinque that has amused, confused, and delighted folks around the city, region and world since the 1980s. Big Nazo even has its own band, which has performed all over, sharing stages with the likes of George Clinton & the Parliament Funkadelic, The Flaming Lips, and Spinal Tap. The Big Nazo Lab is where the creatures are designed, fabricated, and repaired, and it was into this cheerful jumble of foam body parts that Moonie tugged me by the hand, his eyes lighting up at the sight of different shapes and colors. Erminio, who teaches “Creature Creations” at the Rhode Island School of Design and who happily brings his workshops to various schools, colleges and community centers for all ages to enjoy, was there chatting with a new RISD instructor, but not for long. Moonie barged right in, too excited to meet new friends to worry about manners, and Erminio was kind enough to show him around the lab and introduce him to some of the creatures.

He and this creepy little rat thing particularly hit it off.

Right away, he named the rat thing “Cuddles.”

Hula

Posted on June 29, 2015 by annierhodeisland

After meeting his new pal Kelly last weekend, Moonie decided he wanted to try hula hooping.

Here he goes!

Whee!

Well, you kind of have to use your imagination, because he’s just a teeny bit too small to lift and rotate the hoop.

But he claims he’s nearly got the hang of it.

Best of luck, my little friend.