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Thursday August 10, 2000 "There is scarely any less bother in the running of a family than in that of an entire state. And domestic business is no less importunate for being less important." Montaigne
Meta: I may be a little erratic in updating for the next few weeks. |
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seeing the family I wake up cold. Get up and turn off the A.C. but then I think, "It's more than the air conditioning." I slip my hand outside the curtain and put it flat against the window. It's cool outside! This is beyond imagination after Austin August. Ahh... Before I can finish getting ready (which I'll do well before the appointed hour my dad has set), he's banging on the door. We breakfast at the same restaurant. With all the souvenirs. It's a little more satisfying than the dinner. Breakfast is just right in places like this. An egg, bacon, hash browns. Ketchup and Tabasco. Dad always remarks on how he and I packed our bottles of Tabasco along on the trip to Russia. (This after I read that Tabasco would kill various bacterias. In the test tube anyway. Well...it spiced up our meals in any case.) The drive from Raton to Denver (actually Littleton) is a dawdle. We arrive before noon. My sister is glad to see us. The nieces have been calling. My sister is doing better than I'd hoped at one time but has reached a plateau beyond which she doesn't seem to want to reach. There is something about family. They get on your nerves, they never cease to amaze you. And you keep going back. You can't believe the continuum, the generations crawling on. It must be amazing for my parents to see their granddaughter holding her own baby. And to think of their daughter as a baby herself.
I'm a great aunt. This is my first time to hold and cuddle young Jack. I take a lot of pictures of him. He probably thinks I'm a flash of light. We all eat together at my sister's house. Nine of us. And Jack. My nieces and their SOs. My parents and my sister and brother-in-law. The gang watches 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.' At least they aren't fans of one of those reality TV things. When we were young, my sister and I, visiting family was the most fun we ever had. The only 'get aways' were either camp-outs (usually with cousins and aunts and uncles) or going to visit some relative. It seems when we get together now that we are hopeful of recapturing that fun. Of playing games and laughing and havng fun together. And it works to some degree. But mostly it ends up being sleeping on someone's rock hard hide-a-bed and being exceedingly bored waiting for Mom to think up a Scrabble word. But sometimes it works. If you let it.
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