I'd missed my family. We go for years without really seeing one another, and everyone is accustomed to that, but nothing really replaces the ability to go home and be among them for a while. It's a return to what constitutes 'normalcy', and it always helps to put things into perspective.
One thing I have noticed is that we all sound alike. Down to the strange, sing-song inflections and quippy, pun-filled humor. It's so distinct as to be Kennedyesque, but far less irritating. Sitting with my mother and youngest Aunt, drinking wine and laughing at the television, one voice becomes hard to distinguish from the other, and I caught my husband looking over several times to see who was speaking from where he worked in the dining room. He stayed largely at distance, but it was Fortuna's preference to give me free-range as much as possible. That said, they love him to death, and I've been given repeated compliments that we are well-matched. (Comes as high praise from my Grandmother, a veteran of 'bad matches' via her many daughters' misfortunes.)
My cousins are growing so fast. I'm the oldest in this generation, and I remember all of them as babies, so seeing my only male cousin at nearly fifteen and taller than me already was a surprise. Even in a year he's grown so much, and matured, though it's perhaps due more to family circumstance than development. He and his younger sister inherited a unique combination of features, their mother's dark, thick hair and her distinctive features, but instead of the standard pale blue eyes, a rich, almost mohogany brown. It's very striking, and they'll both grow up to be head-turners, I'm sure.
As always, they also inherited the ever-present food allergies. The tendancy comes with being a part of this family, though they have the good-fortune of only having a few of the list. Their mother was amazingly kind when it came to meal planning, and is responsible for the first really great non-allergenic meal I've had outside of my own house. It was wonderful to eat without clutching a bottle of benedryl - though oddly, Fortuna was triggered instead, the poor guy is allergic to sulfites, but the wine was so good he didn't want to pass up a cup. So he spent the night with an awful headache and ended up going to bed early while we migrated from my youngest Aunt's home to my Grandmother's place near Lake Ray Hubbard.
My mother is reserved, as usual. She tends to get quiet as the night wears on, due in part to how stressful her work is by day...it's strange to get used to, as I tend to incorrectly interpret withdrawl as anger in her. She, my Grandmother and I visited a local stone beadery and fawned over their pretty strands of gemstones. I was given a gift of smokey quartz beads, smooth pears of dark, transluscent stone, and although I have been running a jewelry business, I'll be keeping those for myself. My mother also bought a strand for me, (rather unexpectedly), a grouping of etched agate in shades of milky white and green, commenting off-handedly that they would look good with my recently re-blued hair.
There's more to say, but I think I'll have a nap. I'll post more about this later.
Best quote ever:
"Grandmother, how do I get out of Dallas? Where do I go?"
-she thinks for a moment- "Well, you 'Go West, Young Woman'."
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soror's journal
