Hello Again

Well, I've been gone a week because I went to visit my family in Delaware to celebrate my brother's marriage to a wonderful woman.  Here are the things I wasn't able to write about while I was gone:

1.) Continental Airlines is total garbage.  The slightly reduced ticket price did nothing to make up for the terrible customer service and inefficiency.  Adam and I have grown used to our using our control issues to create easy and well-organized situations whereever we go and this week proved that even the most controlling and OCD people cannot ensure that everything will go smoothly all the time.  Which is perhaps more disappointing than the terrible customer service and inefficiency of Continental Airlines.   This led me to the scary realization that we have put so much emphasis on creating an easy and smooth life that we may no longer be able to navigate tough situations without getting seriously put out.   

2.)  My brothers have married the two nicest women in the universe.   Along with that, they have added the cutest little girl and the cutest little boy to our family.   They deserve every happiness that life is able to bestow upon them. 

3.)  The Wii "Just Dance" game could be a one-time-use game and it would still be worth the $40 price tag.    Never ever will I forget the site of my mom and dad dancing in the living room to old school hip hop.  Especially since I have it recorded on my camera.

4.)  Just becuase the wine bottle is there doesn't mean you have to open it.  Just because the wine bottle is open doesn't mean you have to pour a glass.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Nuff said.

5.)  Despite the fact that I felt a palpable sense of homesickness upon arriving in Philadelphia for the first time since I moved away (meaning that I missed Texas instead of vice versa), I will never be able to be in the Philadelphia airport without feeling melancholy about knowing that I have to leave.  Actually breaking down in the airport bar and crying before my departing flight was a first though.  But that had more to do with #4 than anything.   

6.)  Breaking down in an airport bar while the bartender and stranger next to you stare in disbelief, and knowing that your husband isn't worried about what either of those two people think about you because he only wants to make you feel better, creates an enormous sense of intimacy that I can't quite put words to.   Though the moment was painful, I'm grateful for it.  I wasn't missing anything with him before that moment, but afterwards, I felt something had been added to our relationship that can't be manufactured or prepared for.

7.)  And finally, although I miss my family and although I will forever complain about Continental Airlines, I am thankful I was able to celebrate my brother's marriage to a wonderful woman and hopefully one day a close friend.  I am also thankful I was able to spend time with my other brother and his wife and their child, and to see my parents thrive as grandparents.  I'm thankful I was able to see my grandmother and grandfather, and my aunts and uncles and cousins - all are special beyond words to me.  For every tiny moment that made me sad this week, there were a hundred that made my heart swell with pride.  For each tear of regret that I shed in the airport bar, there were a hundred laughs throughout the week that will echo through my mind long after the regret fades. 

The great gift of being able to visit your home is being able to appreciate, fully, what awaits you there.

Questions that Confound Me: Part 1

Would it be considered suicide
If a meteor was heading for Earth
projected to hit in 5 hours

And while your neighbors looked for bomb shelters
and tornado cellars
to hide in with their survival gear,

You got a bucket of fried chicken and sat out on your patio
with some margaritas and listening to Bob Marley,
Waiting for it?

Inspired By a Recent Self-Googling Episode which prompted me to wonder...

I Googled myself out of vanity
and curiosity

I Googled my married name second, my maiden name first

Not very many people have my maiden name
And mostly it was Twitter and Classmates.com and someone doing fashion design.
Boring, really.

But I found myself under my married name with my middle initial,
I found myself staring at my name under the words "Presumed Recovered"
And clicked on the link
believing it was someone else.

It says I was admitted
just months ago
and released to my husband after a week of rest.

No one at home will tell me what it means
they say I'm acting crazy
which perhaps I am

And no one at the hospital will tell me about the webpage
they say I should come in
which perhaps I have.

It's scary out here.  In La La Land.

Uh... Yes it is.

Today I spent 13 hours spraying Round Up in our yard (more like 2 hours) and got some blisters and a sore back in the process. 
When I came inside, I complained to my husband (who had been working on our very steeply pitched roof all day and also made me waffles and bacon for breakfast) about having to spray Round Up. 
What I said was "This body wasn't made for labor." 

And then I realized haflway through saying it how stupid that statement was. 

Another Title Could Be: "At Least Try Not to Kill Anyone."

 
Right - now that's a bit of realism for you.  I would buy this cookbook just for its frank honesty about my ability to follow instructions.

Wine'ing

So, many years ago I had a college friend who told me that her mother bought a case of wine every week not to save it in some fancy wine cellar but because that's how much she drank.  And at the time I found it shocking that a grown woman, a mother at that, could drink a case of wine per week and not spend the majority of the rest of her free time either passed out or chugging bottles of water and swallowing aspirins in an even ratio with the amount of booze she was consuming. 

Now, I am a grown woman with a real job and a family of sorts - by that I mean a husband and a dog who occassionally barfs on the floor with no warning, in the same manner as a baby who recently visited this establishment.  By all this I mean I have responsibilities and can't afford to get wasted every night and then sleep til noon like I did in college.  Also it's not fun any more because now my body rejects all that alcohol at about 7 am in the form of a skull-crushing headache accompanied by a violent upheaval of my intestines. 

The point of thsi story is that this afternoon, Adam and I went to the new grocery store in town and I steered us down the wine aisle where I picked up my usual small bottle of pinot grigio and put it in the cart, and he promptly removed it and replaced it with the gigantic bottle of the same pinot grigio, the one that could get the entire cast of Glee wasted.  And then he said "here you boozer, just open it and chug it right here in the middle of the store already - you know you want to". 

No he didn't.  He actually said something like "well you'll drink it all."  but what i heard was closer to the first one.  So now I feel bad for thinking badly of my friend's mom who drinks a case of wine per week, because at least she had three kids to justify her drinking.  I only have a dog with a mild case of upset stomach.

A Great Big Thank You to Veterans

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day - a day dedicated to appreciating veterans for their patriotism, love of country and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the protection of the common good.

Thank you Veterans.  My life is enriched by you, my life is mine and mine alone because of you.  In ways I cannot even comprehend, you have paid for my freedoms.  You don't know me but you fight for me.   We are not related, but you will leave your family behind for months at a time for me.   Your life is changed forever because of the sacrifices you were willing to make, for me.  For my relatives.  For my friends.  For our country.   My gratitude will never be enough, but I thank you.