One Man’s Walk through life

Hangin With The Fam

In El Paso, I spent a ton of time with my family, which is is not an altogether trivial feat spread out as it is. And it was good time that we spent.

Nathan, my dad and I played pool one afternoon. Fun. It’s definitely something of a tradition for us, and I’m glad I got a chance to do that before I left. As a total bonus, I was completely and totally undefeated champion of the table And I get to hold that title until the next time we play…in a YEAR.

Another night, Nathan, Javi, my Stepdad, and I got together over a bottle of wine…well, half a bottle. And we just talked. About serious stuff, the kind of stuff we always talk about. I love that. I especially love the dynamic that the four of us have together. We talked about our parents’ marriage and separation, about where my stepfather was and could be. We talked about my sister and how amazing she was and where she was. We talked about communication tools, and tricks. And we listened. I don’t know what’s going to happen w/ my parents, but I will say this visit has left me a little more hopeful than I was.

Definitely one of my highlights was devoting an entire evening to hanging out and listening to (as opposed to talking at) my sister. Cecilia truly is one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. And I’m grateful to Nathan for reminding me how cool it was to get her to open up, as I hadn’t in too long. She’s so strong and brave, and tender and scared, and intelligent and open. She’s scared about what happens after high school. She’s totally loving her friends and her relationships. Ceci is so bright, and she is amazingly empathic (which YES is a word, my Uncle Robert looked it up 3 days ago, and so is empathetic) We dropped off her friend, then went to chico’s tacos and talked for a while, came back and talked in the carport for a while, then talked until probably way too late as she was getting ready for bed. I’m going to miss my sister.

Nathan and I hung out a ton. It was easier since he often didn’t have many classes during the day, and I am continuously astounded at how freakin’ awesome my brother is. He is playing Jesus in a passion play – in Spanish! And rehearsing for 4 other plays at the same time. I had just “decided” (these types of decisions change every week) that when I come back I’m going to go back to school and get a psyc degree so I can be a therapist. When he informed me that that was his plan after getting his BA. We had soon agreed to both become therapists and graduate to a Frasieresque life in Boulder, CO. Then all we have to do is figure out how to trick all the rest of our family to come.

Throughout this, I was also thinking about Erin. And writing to her. And talking to her for a few stolen hours here and there. I’m so excited about her. The more so because even though I haven’t seen her since Chicago, I’m still just as excited. I almost feel like these 2 weeks w/o seeing eachother are a dry run for South America. But I get ahead of myself.

Anyway. Butterflies.