Nino Qincompoix

After talking about my cousin Cris I thought it was only fitting to talk about Nino next. Now for many of you who have watched the movie Amelie you might be thinking that I am going to be writing about the male lead in the movie but I am not. He is named after him though. My cousin Cris and her sister Connie always give the best presents so for my birthday in 2002 they wanted to take me to Build a Bear workshop. To be honest with you I didn't really want a build a bear. I collect way too many things and I have way too much stuff I had to draw the line at stuffed animals. They said this was different that I would have fun so they insisted. So on September.10,2002 we went to Build a Bear at Downtown Disney. It was crazy. I picked a Read Teddy Bear because it promoted reading and I love books so that was an easy choice. I looked at all their faces to pick just the right one then we moved on to stuffing. I did the little dance and made a wish as I put his heart inside. I don't really remember why I chose a boy. Then I chose an outfit and shoes. I was really stumped on a name for him. I wanted something special. Then at that moment I heard people next to me speaking in French. Nino Qincompoix! The name from one of my all time favorite movies. Perfect. As I took him home I thought he would just sit on my bed and be another fixture in my room but that so wasn't the case. In comes my friend Jinny who knows I am crazy and loves me anyway but can't really understand my need for so much stuff. I explained to her the story and how he got his name. She had already watched Amelie so she understood why I would choose that name. I don't remember who came up with the idea but I remember it was a Thursday afternoon and we were hanging out like we usually do when we decided to take Nino with us as we ran errands. Again you would have to watch the movie to understand but there is a gnome in the story that travels to different countries and is photographed at different monuments so we thought it would be fun to do that with Nino. We started taking him with us everywhere and taking pictures of him. At the grocery store, the library, and the movies. Everywhere we went and at first it was just Nino in the shots then it was Nino, Jinny and I and then as people were more curious we started taking pictures of Nino with strangers. That was so much fun because people actually wanted to play and we had some really nice conversations with people. I think it is so funny that even the people at my job who in the beginning thought I had completely lost my mind have joined in the fun and if I don't take him with me they ask for him. It has been almost ten years now and Nino and I have been on many adventures. He has been to New York twice, North Carolina twice, Chicago, and Hawaii. Now that my cousin is gone he is even more special to me.