Monday, August 11, 2008

Reunions, family, and driving...oh my

The boy and I finally got back into Seattle after our week long sojourn to Idaho, Utah, my 20th high school reunion, and more family than you can shake a stick at.

It was a very nice drive and much shorter than I remember it being. We stopped in Idaho to stay the night and see my father, my step-mother, my nephew, half-sister, niece I had not met yet, and my unborn niece that is due to make her appearance any day now. If you feel you need a flow-chart to keep track of all the family, join the club. It was good to see them all, and I hope to be able to get down there more frequently, and hopefully they can make it up north on occasion.

We then headed to Utah. Highlights with the family included a delightful afternoon of pedicures and dish with my sister The Rookie, a big free for all dinner with the bulk of my siblings (half, step, real, fake, and everything in between), with my sister A being one of the very missed absentees at this fete. I did a few cranial sacral sessions with the family, which proved to be a very good learning experience. Ly and I connected with some folks we went to school with in Cedar City, Utah that we hadn't seen in about 15 years. Had a lovely dinner with my sister of Chaos in her cute little house, over which I am still harboring envy. We managed to log some good pool time, some good chat and catch up time with family, friends and my precocious nieces and nephews. It was good to see my brother who I don't get to talk to as much as I would like.

The 20th reunion was a mixed bag. At least 4 of the people I was wanting to see didn't come to the reunion, but I did manage to catch up with a VERY old friend with whom I used to totter around in diapers (as infants to clarify for those who were wondering). It was good to see him and his lovely wife. I did feel a little out of place as the majority of people had an average of 4 children. I was truly one of the minority in that I didn't have any children. When telling many folks at the reunion that I was not able to have children, I got that "Oh, you poor thing how lonely your life must be" look. Folks were honestly mortified as though my life just wasn't the same as it would have been if I had bred. I took it all with a grain of salt, spoke of the amazing things with which my life is currently filled, and moved on to other subjects. I did get a little bit of the, "oh...you still doing drAHma? You were always so good at that drAHma." It seemed to me that many of the popular student body folks were still gathered together in the same configurations I remember from high school. The only difference is that they had about 20 more pounds on 'em, more lines around their eyes, and many were sporting fake tans. They chose a good soundtrack for the evening, and I don't care who knows it, 80's music ROCKS!

Ly and I drove straight through on our way back to Seattle. I had to get back to work, and I needed a day to chill before doing so. Plus, this past weekend was filled with weddings, a final party for the massage school I went to, and our 12th anniversary on Sunday.

So that's the skinny, thank you to the family for making it a very adventurous, playful, and entertaining visit.

10 comments:

Wendy said...

It was very nice visiting. Now we must come see you! :)

The kids were ticked when they got back from dad's (early mind you) and you were already gone. :(

The Rookie said...

It was so good to see you both and spend time visiting amidst the chaos that is our mother's house. Alice and I will have to come to Seattle one of these days and visit you.

And my toes STILL look fantastic, thank-you-very-much!

JJisafool said...

Happy Anniversary! 12 years is damn impressive.

In fact, I'm not sure which of you I should be more impressed with.

thelyamhound said...

Jim, I'm sure we do a good job of ensuring that everyone suffers equally. :)

Missuz J said...

I totally skipped out on my 15 year this summer. Just no-fucking-thanks for me.

Glad you had a nice trip.

JJisafool said...

Dude! I just got an objectionable content warning from Blogger coming here through the link on my blog.

That is so fucking cool! I want one!

BTW, anyone else seen this?

Stine said...

I found it in the settings tab. I thought it would be respectful since I now have lovely nieces that are on blogger and I don't want them jumping into the life of Stine all willy nilly and without parental approval(except Ly's still asking himself why he didn't heed this very warning). Just want to make sure to give everyone as much notice as possible.

amandak said...

OK, so even though I just talked to you yesterday, I finally figured out how to get back onto Blogger, so I wanted to say hi here too! Oh, and I put up a new post which has no information on it you don't already know. Just to keep the redundancy going.

talk to ya soon!

NME said...

Damn! That trip sounds jam packed. My family needs flow charts too. And yet noone is doing my toes or adjusting me. Need better family.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to have missed you. You definitely are welcome to visit anytime. Who knows where we will be next year. I am so glad you had a good time.

As for the reunion. NO THANKS!! I don't know if I will ever go to one. I would just like to catch up with a few old friends.