Family Ties

It has been a luxury to spend my days asking myself leisurely questions of when I will meet with family, rising early to write my thoughts or looking forward to the evening time, when Steve and I settle into a good movie or a book. Though, despite its pleasure, vacation is an odd animal for me to easily welcome into my home.

“To Do’s” lists are scattered throughout the house. New ideas pop into my head and I am continually optimist of the amount of tasks I can complete in twenty-four hours. Even when I fail, I am deeply pleased because I did so amidst high expectations. Yet really, is it any wonder that I am busy making my life spin when my mother, who is now 79 runs circles around us all? I can only laugh to myself, thinking that dysfunction comes in all forms...and there is hope for me.
Until I am cured completely, I will enjoy the miracle moments of free of malady. Starting with...

Our family gatherings began on Tuesday evening. Steve’s big sister Becky invited us over to her and her husband’s house for dinner. Their Ashland home sits right across from a small cemetery. Typically, if Andrew was with us, we would arrive just a few moments early so he could test his nerve by bravely and curiously stalking through the tombs stones, but that night it was Steve and I and making a ceremonial romp through the soggy grass without Drew didn’t seem as adventurous.

Becky made us a traditional Southern dinner that is usually served on New Years to promote good health and prosperity....thank goodness for me it was a Vegan meal of savory black bean soup, rice and hearty spinach and red onion salad. I was in heaven.

Conversation was intriguing as Steve, Jim and I were able to exchange some similar Alaskan tales from the six months Jim spent as an after-school program teacher in New Hope, Alaska. Jim and Becky shared some of their stories from traveling through Vienna and Prague. We were given more insight to Jim’s obsession with the Hapsburg family of Royalty. You see, it all stemmed from a glimpse of a handsome movie star in a green uniform worn in the classic movie depicting the Hapsburg family. I was even able to pull from the couple where they met. Jim ‘fessed up that they met at church and then quickly quoted the Beatles, “And I saw her face...I’m a believer.”