{"id":2629,"date":"2008-02-20T20:32:23","date_gmt":"2008-02-21T03:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2629"},"modified":"2008-02-20T19:36:55","modified_gmt":"2008-02-21T02:36:55","slug":"anastasia-in-the-light-and-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2629\/anastasia-in-the-light-and-shadow\/","title":{"rendered":"Anastasia in the light and shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story<\/i><\/p>\n

The very first thing she said to me was, “I’m Anastasia.”<\/p>\n

She had pronounced the name ‘Anna-stay-juh’ but I took care to be more formal. I nodded gravely and said, “‘Ah-nah-STAH-ziuh’. I’m honored.”<\/p>\n

She giggled delightedly. “Why’d you say it that way?”<\/p>\n

“To lilt, to laugh, to dance, to dream. To fly, to sigh, to sing, to speak. To embroider the air, to perfect it with the perfect sound: ‘Ah-nah-STAH-ziuh’.”<\/p>\n

She giggled again and that was answer enough.<\/p>\n

She was four-and-a-half on the day we met. Not awfully, terribly short, but at no risk of scraping her head on anything. She had a round little face that had borrowed too much mischief to be cherubic but was angelic nevertheless. Her hair was brown and it was almost always almost everywhere; it was obviously brushed and tied and obviously instantly disarrayed by her mischievous wanderings. She was a beautiful child, beautiful inside and out, but her eyes were the crowning glory of her nobility. They were bluer than blue, deep and dark and purple, as purple as the crest of a dynasty. They were clearer than any gemstone, and they seemed not to reap the light but to sow it. For all the days I knew her, I could never see enough of those purple gemstone eyes.<\/p>\n

“What’re you doing there?” she asked. I was sitting in the shade of a little olive grove reading a book. She was standing on something behind the block wall of the property next door, just her head and shoulders above the wall.<\/p>\n

“House-sitting. You know what that means?” She shook her head and her hair flew into a more advanced state of disarray. “It’s like baby-sitting only easier.”<\/p>\n

“Why’re you doing it?”<\/p>\n

I shrugged. “The official answer is, I’m helping out a friend. The unofficial answer is, TV, refrigerator, hot and cold running everything. Does that make any sense to you?”<\/p>\n

It might have or it might not, but we’ll never know, because she changed the subject. “I have a kitten. His name is ‘Sputin.”<\/p>\n

I said, “Ra<\/i>sputin. Somebody likes Russian names. Say it: ‘Ra-spyoo-tin’.”<\/p>\n

“Why?”<\/p>\n

“Just say it. ‘Ra-spyoo-tin’.”<\/p>\n

She said, “‘Ra-spyoo-tin’.” Her voice Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story The very first thing she said to me was, “I’m Anastasia.” She had pronounced the name ‘Anna-stay-juh’ but I took care to be more formal. I nodded gravely and said, “‘Ah-nah-STAH-ziuh’. I’m honored.” She giggled delightedly. “Why’d you say it that way?” “To lilt, to laugh, to dance, to dream. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6781,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6781\/saint-badda-bing\/","url_meta":{"origin":2629,"position":0},"title":"Saint Badda Bing","author":"Geno Petro","date":"February 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I know someone who knows a guy who might know of a 'pocket listing'\u00a0 back in the old neighborhood. That's how everybody refers to a certain kind of good fellow in one particular 'Near West' Chicago block of stoop and brick row homes---guys. They call them guys. Guys from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18001,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18001\/overnight-news-americas-wealthiest-people-are-about-to-discover-just-how-much-poor-undocumented-and-homeless-people-deserve-to-live-in-vacant-office-buildings\/","url_meta":{"origin":2629,"position":1},"title":"Overnight News: America\u2019s wealthiest people are about to discover just how much poor, undocumented and homeless people deserve to live in vacant office\u00a0buildings.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been expecting this news for a while, but I didn't know how it would play out. Given the incipient housing crisis ballooning on the border, I thought China Joe might make mention of it yesterday. Vide: There is a huge surplus of effectively-abandoned housing building up in the rioted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3210,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3210\/cinderellas-memories-of-the-zoo\/","url_meta":{"origin":2629,"position":2},"title":"Cinderella’s memories of the zoo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie story Cinderella was in a snit, and who could blame her? She was an orphan swarmed by a family of strangers, accidental intimates, pushy and intrusive and unwelcome. And the most distant stranger of all was the original Prince Charming, the man she had expected would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9832,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9832\/va-condominium-complex-approvals-navigating-the-maze-of-paperwork\/","url_meta":{"origin":2629,"position":3},"title":"VA Condominium Complex Approvals: Navigating the Maze of Paperwork","author":"Brian Brady","date":"December 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We helped to secure a lot of VA condominium complex approvals in 2009. \u00a0\u00a0 The VA Regional Home Loan Center-Phoenix is one of the best government agencies with whom I've had the pleasure to work.\u00a0 The folks working there are professional and committed.\u00a0 It helps that they know that we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10577,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10577\/christmas-and-natasha-only-in-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":2629,"position":4},"title":"Christmas and Natasha – only in America","author":"Eric Blackwell","date":"December 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"2009 has changed me. It has been a year of struggle, victory, and in the end... of complete thankfulness for all of the good things that I have in life. Living in America is one of those good things. Living with a family that loves me unconditionally is another. One\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10131,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10131\/i-was-joking-honestly-i-was-really-joking\/","url_meta":{"origin":2629,"position":5},"title":"I was joking – honestly, I was really joking!","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"October 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Approximately a month ago, I was getting a client approved for a mortgage with mortgage insurance and while going over the details of what we needed to document the deal, the customer deadpanned to me, \"Where do I go to get the bloodwork done?\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My response, \"Nah, we don't need\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dirty Laundry"","block_context":{"text":"Dirty Laundry","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dirty-laundry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}