Aynex

That is the video which Aynex (pronounced Eye Necks) made of Maria's thirteenth birthday party in February. Aynex is going to be a famous videographer or a movie director more famous than Christopher Guest or Stanley Kubrick, or Woody Allen or the Coen Brothers or Quentin Tarantino, or Pedro Almodovar or anyone we have ever heard of in the world.

I know this.

If you want to know how much every one loves Aynex, (pronounced Eye Necks, I know, it takes a while to get used to saying it), and if you want to see my Bill cry, go to her blog, AYNEX ,(pronounced Eye Necks, see it's getting easier) and watch her latest video, "Aynex the Musical."

I have to tell you just a little bit about Aynex, (see you can say it now without even thinking about it). She was born in Puerto Rico. Now you can't say that like we do in Kentucky when you are around Aynex. No "Porta Reeko." You have to say, "Phwhereto tonguedrill-icco". Or you try to, wanting to please Her Highness, but then you realise that her English leaves room for improvement and what the hey.

Aynex is tiny. She's not a Little Person, but she is a little person. And when she was in college in Massachusetts she was a passenger in a car which got broadsided. She was lucky to live, though she was in a coma and she was supposed to be a quadriplegic. But Aynex is not so good at doing what she's told, or she is good at doing what she's told she can't do. She was right handed before the accident. Now she sews the most amazing quilts. Award winning quilts. Left handed. And she does gifted graphic design. And she walks with a cane which she threatens you with if you displease her. And she rides a bicycle/tricycle thing around town with alarming speed.

Really, she should not be one of my favorite people. She is a year younger than my son Jake, so there is an age difference thing. She is charming and BEE-YOO-TEE-FULL and she flirts with my husband, who adores her blatantly and is jelly in her hands. And when she came to Paducah, she didn't like dogs!

OK, I could see that if you are 4' 8" tall, and you've had a spinal chord injury, and a large dog would knock you flat just as happy as howdy doo, that maybe dogs wouldn't be your companion of choice. I could see that. But, I would never be close friends with someone who didn't like dogs.

Oh was I ever wrong. I love Aynex. She is the most creative, brilliantly funny, talented, hysterical, adorable people in my world. She likes my dogs. Here's proof. She knows them by name. And she's moving away.

She started to like dogs so much, that she fancied herself a lab or a golden and she got hip dysplasia. She has to get her hips replaced, and she needs to move back closer to her family in Maryland to have it done. Now you would think that the Universe would figure that a thorough squishing in a car wreck might be enough for one small person, but I figure she was maybe just a little naughty in her last life, because she's getting a dose and a half of cosmic no fair this go round.

I've commented on her blog pretty religiously for the last I don't know how long. But she's been writing about the things here she's going to miss, and I can't for the life of me write a word. I'm too sad. I'm too selfish. I can't imagine this magical neighborhood without Aynex, because she'll take all the magic with her.

So I can't get myself around her leaving. And I only have nine days to do it.

Hug your friends and your hounds