So it's official. We are car owners! Our cute little car is sitting in my sister's driveway, and unless we get that baby insured soon, I think my sister is gonna confiscate it! It's so adorable! It's a '90 Toyota Camry. It has a V6 engine, and I don't know what that is, but the car has some power!! I actually want to learn to drive and do it now!

The baby is kicking and moving now. She seems to come around at night. That's an omen, isn't it? Heh heh! We'll have no sleep once Maggie is born. I just know it. That's okay. I forgive her in advance. We've been talking about middle names. Originally, I wanted Grace. Magdalena Grace - but people are telling me it isn't great, and I think they may be right. My husband wants to give her his mother's name as her middle name, and I don't really think that's all that fair. Even though my mother didn't love me and didn't really want me around, I still think she'd dig having a granddaughter. So why name her after one grandmother, but not the other? I mean this kid can't walk around being named Magdalena Giavanna Theresa....That's terrible! My sister suggested Isabella today, and I really really like it. It sounds very very Italian, but that's okay with me. It was also nearly the name of someone who I truly love, and who I lost in 1997.

I worked at an ad agency in NYC after leaving a major record label. It was hard for me to walk away from the music business, but things at that company were unbearable for me. I wanted out for awhile. But I was truly sad. I was in a bad marriage. I didn't have any support through a bad time in my life. And here I was, leaving the industry I'd loved and working at a place where I didn't believe in anything. But there was someone who worked there that made all the difference in the world to me. Her name was Bela, and she was the receptionist on the floor that I worked on. She was in her early 60s and she was the funniest fucking person I'd ever met. She'd had a life that was beyond interesting. She was friends with people that I'd only read about in the past. She was from Argentina, and had been raised by an Italian nanny, so she spoke fluent Italian. She smoked pot, but hadn't had a drink in about 15 years. If she thought you were low on cash, she'd slip a $20 in your pocket without you knowing it. If she didn't like you, she made you miserable, even if it was only for an hour. I spent some of the greatest times of my life in her tiny apartment on E. 55th Street with her Yorkie. She was a dog sitter as well as a receptionist. Bela was a chain smoker and she ended up getting cancer in her throat. I went with her to the hospital for each of her surgeries. She had no children, but she had me. She held a motely crew of formerly self involved people together as a strange but connected family. I loved her with my whole heart, and I still do.

I lost her in 1997. It's a long story about what I had to go through to make sure that she didn't end up in Potter's Field. But the bottom line is that I did not allow that to happen, and I was able to help her fulfull her final wishes. I had help. It was probably the best thing I'd ever done in my life, as well as the most difficult. I want to honor her memory and I want Maggie to have the strength and humor that Bela was so well endowed with. I want that to be her middle name. I hope Marcellino agrees.

Whew.

Let me get off this topic. It really breaks my heart. I miss her so much.

Okay. So have you ever seen Waiting For Guffman? The first time I saw this, I truly hated it. Now I don't know what the hell was wrong with me - it's hysterical!! I remember thinking the only funny part of the movie was the scene where Christopher Guest dances wearing those backwards jeans. Jeez, I must have been so grumpy!

Last night we rented Zathura and Waiting. Zathura was a little too much of a little boy movie, but I guess it was fun. Marcellino loved it I think. Then we saw Waiting, which Ryan Reynolds is in. I like him. I LOVED Just Friends. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Its very funny. But Waiting was just a little too disgusting for me...couldn't handle things they do to customer's food in a restaurant. Blech!

I guess that's enough for tonight. Hope I didn't bore you!