I'm the Funcle

When my sister learned she was expecting her first child, my siblings and I all decided on monikers for the coming child's three Rorem uncles. I was deemed the Funcle, short for fun uncle, because I'll be the one to take Isaak to the zoo and the museum and the aquarium and the children's theatre and so on and so forth. Well, now that Mallory and I are in Wheaton, Illinois, I've had the chance to be a Funcle in person!

We arrived Sunday afternoon and found our home for the week, Brighton Gardens Assisted Living. For some reason, the Parks department can get free housing for us at the old folks home. It hasn't been the best stay, not because of who lives there, but because of some other small problems. Problems such as missing shower curtains and a missing shower head in Mallory's bathroom; doors that lock at 8pm and require us to call an attendant to let us in; a key that does not work in my door forcing me to either have an attendant lock and unlock it or keep it unlocked all day; and the latest, a leaky ceiling in Mallory's room. After the difficulties last week, we're able to take all of these in stride, but it's not ideal.

However, we're not really spending any time there. As soon as we got settled, we headed into Chicago to have pizza and nephew-time with Sarah and Rolf. First time having Chicago pizza (good) and first time seeing my nephew (good). He's quite the kid, very low key with the funniest little furrowed brow. Very serious expression at times. I also went into the city on Monday to play some pinochle with old friends Matt and Elsa Johnson and just last night I went in to catch a play at Steppenwolf theatre, one of the premier theatre companies in the country. Good show.

This is our last week of the summer before a good break. We're both very happy about that fact. It's been a tremendous summer, but some time to recuperate before hitting the road again in the fall will be good. It's almost like it's our accumulated weekends taken all at once. I've got to go get ready for the kids of Wheaton, yahoo!