Hallie's Happy Anniversary

HALLIE EPHRON: My husband Jerry (here's the two of us in our first apartment on New York's Upper West Side... rent $160/month) has many annoying habits.

He can spend hours... make that days working on a crossword puzzle. He never loses at Scrabble. He's in charge of bills but has more of a piling system than a filing system.

And, as I've written many times, he loves yard sales. Most of his yard sale prizes find their way to our basement or garage or attic. A fair number never make it out of the trunk of his car, and end up riding around like Charlie on the MTA.

Fortunately, over the years he's raised the bar so that these days he comes home with nothing more than the thrill of the chase.  Or a pile of vinyl records to add to his teetering stacks. Or a bucket of dinosaurs for our grandson.

Who knew that in lockdown, it would turn out that the stuff that I've been complaining about all these years comes in mighty handy. When we needed hats for a silly song Facetime party with our kids and grands, Jerry found them in the basement. When we were running out of wine, you guessed it. Down in the basement where he found three... no it turned out there were five bottles of red wine that we'd forgotten all about. Nicely aged. When we were beset with cabin fever, in dire need of distraction, he dug up five excellent 500-piece puzzles for which he'd paid 15 cents apiece. We're finishing #4. The one remaining is a nude Ursula Andress, two-sided (her front, her back.) It remains to be seen(!) whether that one will get done. Seems pretty challenging. Think about it.

Monday was our wedding anniversary. Usually we go out to dinner, but of course not this year. But I did get my annual hand-drawn card.

Pretty sweet, yes? I completely love it, and laughed for about ten minutes. (Did I mention that he makes me laugh? See redeeming features.) I'm saving it, along with every other card he's ever drawn for me.

Don't tell him, but these days, I'm actually missing his yard sales.

And, on another topic, First Chapter Fun is an exciting new venture for Hank with Hannah Mary McKinnon. They're reading the first chapters of a new book every Tuesday and Thursday. Hank will be broadacasting live, reading Chapter 1 of CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, tomorrow (Thursday 5/14/2020 at 11:30 am ET) on First Chapter Fun's Facebook Group (www.facebook.com/groups/firstchapterfun). 

I'm so thrilled to have my work featured and I hope you'll tune in.