Narra, after Kai asked her for help: “Why don’t you ask Dad?” Kai: “Dad’s not mom enough.”
Eva, trying frantically to locate her own cell number to respond to a college interviewer: “Oh my gosh - they don’t want me. I mean, I don’t want me.”
Kai, muffled and super-groggy while waking up to Nick’s iPhone alarm: “You should switch that to ‘By the Seaside.’ It’s fire.” [And he’s right!]
Eva: “Do you ever worry that you’re a robot when you get those “are you a robot” things?”
Nick, after using our Indonesian bathroom products: “So where’d you find the half-ply toilet paper?”
Narra: “I know, it’s like cotton candy.”
Eva: “When I’m in college I’m going to buy a huge thing of Chic Fil A sauce and that’s going to be 50 percent of my diet.”
Nick, screen-shotting the just-released UVA hoops schedule: “Saving this in my key docs album with my shot records and passport.”
Narra: “Eva, can you carve out some time to focus on college applications?” Eva: “Speaking of, this weekend I'm helping a friend on a film project, then going straight to play rehearsal, and remember I'm spending the night at Clara's.” Narra: “You did not use ‘speaking of’ correctly.”
Nick, receiving GoFood delivery: “Why is the sausage McMuffin ‘unhealthy?’ The egg’s an egg. The muffin’s a muffin. And people eat sausages every now and then.”
Narra, singing, after Kai didn’t clean his dinner dishes: “It’s me! Kai! I’m the problem, it’s me!”
Narra, dinnertime trivia: “What bean is used to make hummus?” Kai: “Ooh, it’s some sort of mid bean. Like the Chesapeake bean. They’re like little balls, and also like a peanut. And a bean.”
Nick, about Sasha’s a capella auditions: “First, it’s a win no matter what she chooses, and I mean that sincerely. And second, if she picks the Newdos that means I can listen to a cappella with bass.” [She picked the New Dominions!]
Kai, in his new eyepatch and glasses: “Bro…I’m Nick Fury.”
Sasha, 24 hours after leaving Jakarta and all her high school friends: “By the way if you guys see me randomly crying, don’t worry about it.”
Sasha, meeting up with Narra in DC: "This morning was very stressful! I was out on my own, having to make my own decisions. So it was also fun." Narra: "That's college."
Sasha, as Eva stormed off after a heated argument with Narra: “Let’s just ‘family and love’ please!!”
Eva: “My love language is hearing people have thoughts about my songs.”
Eva, after hearing Nick got promoted: “Wow! So what’s his job now?” Narra: “Same job!” Eva, quieter: “…so… what is his job?”
Eva: “Mom, how did you make me AND...(looks at Kai with contempt)... THIS."
Dylan (7yo cousin): “How long have you been playing Subway Surfers?” Kai: “Basically since I’ve been able to comprehend things.”
Kai, about our new TV show: “What if Silo is really just about teeny tiny people who live in a Hydro Flask?”
Nick: “Kai is a budding online influenc-ee.”
Kai, walking around Tokyo: “There’s an international symbol for barber shops?! Couldn’t they have made one for something more useful? Like I don’t know, restaurants?”
Nick, marveling at the amenities in our hotel room: “Japan sure knows how to Japan.”
Eva: “That’s like my worst fear - to be a minor inconvenience to someone.”
Nick, after a massage, one major Jakarta perk: “Ok Indonesia, I accept your apology.”
Eva, entering a restaurant with an active smoking section: “Oh! It smells like Bosnia!”
Narra, to Kai: “Is it weird having a name that starts with K? It seems like it’d be weird.”
Eva, on spring break in Bali: “This is like my dream. I’m just going between a dragon fruit and my guitar.”
Kai: “You guys are cool in the way that you know your time of peak coolness is totally over, so now you are cool by being funny about not being cool. You know, parent cool.”
Narra: “30 percent of UVA is Greek. THIRTY percent. That’s not everyone.” Sasha: “I know. I’m not worried, Eva is worried.” Eva: “I’m always worried.”
Kai: “I like middle school ‘cause teachers don’t talk to you like a little kid. Instead of talking to you like they really care, they talk to you like an adult, like they only kinda care.”
Narra, while walking down Orchard Road in Singapore: “They were probably like, wow, gum is really hard to clean up so why not make it illegal? Like, you only can’t chew gum. You can have anything else you want - except gum.” Kai: “And crack cocaine.”
Nick, at Singapore’s Changi Airport, rated best in the world in 2023: “I can almost guarantee we’ll be back here. Especially since I will plan all travel around it from now on.”
Eva: “I can see myself getting emotional.” Sasha: “What?! Oh, I thought you said getting a mullet.”
Kai, looking at Sasha in her graduation robe & mortarboard hat: “Wow. They really couldn’t have picked a stupider outfit.”
Narra, laughing at Angry Nick, who was frustrated with Jakarta drivers: “You get very angry about things you can’t control.” Nick: “I am a PRINCIPLED MAN.”
Kai, home w/ a cold: “I think I'm sick because of the sudden change of struggling to survive without Valorant.”
Sasha: “Eva, why is your foot on the table?” Eva, without missing a beat: “Why is your foot NOT?”
Narra: “Be ready in half an hour - we’re having lunch at Batavia, in the old Dutch neighborhood area of Jakarta.” Kai: “Why can’t you just not make me do anything ever?”
Narra, trying to plan a hiking trip in Indonesia: “Be prepared for anything, even to turn around and give up.” Sasha: “I'm always prepared to turn around and give up.”
Kai: “I could not tell you what apples have in them, but why does everyone know that bananas have potassium?”
Eva: “I feel like I can learn something interesting in any class. ANY class! Even the boring or terrible ones!”
Kai: “Every now and then I use a semicolon and I feel smart.”
Kai: “Do you know what I just realized? The loudest sound that someone can make, that isn’t from their mouth, is from their butt!”
Nick, after forwarding a meme back to the family that Eva had just sent a few minutes earlier: “Oh my God. Is THAT how I got to it?! We’re all just living in a stew of idiocy.”
Kai, about his new PE unit: “I hate cricket. It’s like baseball and golf, and then so much worse.”
Narra: “Ooh I like this shirt. Do you?” Sasha: “Uh, NO. (Then softer and sweeter) “But I love you.”
Nick, in our dark room, to a whimpering Luna waking us up: “No, Luna. I disagree.”
Nick, at bedtime, tucking Kai in: “Do you know how much I care about you?” Kai: “How much?” Nick: “A whole lot.” Kai: “If you care about me so much can you go get me a glass of water?”
Sasha, sadly: “I have so few quotes this year!” [Then happier:] “That’s ok, I’ve said lots of very funny things at college that you guys don’t even KNOW about.”
Kai, responding to Nick’s frustration that he may have woken napping Narra up after barging into her room: “Mom is not sleeping! She’s watching Bridgerton and crying!”
Eva: “I love thinking about ‘Into the Woods.’ I associate it with the best version of myself.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Here’s to pursuing the best versions of ourselves in 2024! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
2023 Quotes are brilliant, beautiful and very bountiful. I kept thinking, "I could read these all day," and then, "Are these ever going to end?" Also loved the fact they were totally illustrated. The one where I laughed the hardest: Eva: “Mom, how did you make me AND...(looks at Kai with contempt)... THIS." Maybe I'm just mean at heart. You guys are all way to smart, Alec! Especially Narra, for remembering (or recording) all these. 😂