You got a sus, sus, sus, suspect device!
A couple Saturdays ago, my mom, who's been here for a few weeks, asks me to meet her at this restaurant. La Cosa and her mom were joining us for lunch in one of Buenos Aires' trademark tenedor-libre open-grill all-you-can-eat restaurants. I had been suspecting for a while that there was something going on, due mostly to my sister's cryptic Facebook messages about "sending me a pretty big package". I thought this was going to translate to a surprise visit by my sister. So I arrive at the restaurant fashionably late, sit myself down next to my mom and a table conspicuously set for 5, look around expecting to find my sister and am instead faced with my dad's larger-than-life frame.
Yup. Turns out my mother, God bless her, accidentally purchased two tickets to Buenos Aires (thank you faulty website interface) and transferred the extra one to my pops, who was able to take a week off his busy schedule to come chill in Buenos Aires. This, then, resulted in the most unexpected of pleasant surprises: a week of hanging out with both of my parents in the city.
It was a good time. My dad, who had never been here, was fascinated by the architecture and the steak-- particularly that of "Siga La Vaca". My mom, who had raved about Buenos Aires to my dad for years, was finally able to show him around and have her love for the city wholly validated. I always enjoy being a tourist again for a while, and falling in love with the city that's been my home for the last five years all over again. More than that, it was great for my dad to finally see the life I've built for myself here. He got to know my neighborhood, my workplace, the places I typically hang out at. We got to watch a couple movies together in my favorite movie theater in Buenos Aires ("El Hombre de Al Lado", an adequate yet deeply flawed Argentinean drama about neighborhood harassment; and "The Last Exorcism", which I thought was surprisingly entertaining, mostly due to that chick's performance being all sorts of crazy and intense and I don't know if it's just the Satan thing but I think I fell in love with her kinda). He got to meet a few friends of mine. It was awesome.
These sorts of things also get me thinking about how great everything turned out for my mom and dad, in terms of their relationship. My parents' divorce was incredibly messy-- involving custody battles, police intervention and a whole lot of yelling. Ten years later they're best friends, hanging out together, making jokes. It's a huge relief to me that from the web of resentfulness and childishness that my extended family has become, my mom and dad-- once mortal enemies-- are getting along great.
In other news, my faithful 32GB iPod Touch died in at the hands of a well-intentioned British-Canadian-Pakistani, which resulted in obtaining a 160GB iPod Classic, and I have to tell you, I'm thrilled with how it all went down. As much as I'll miss the niftyness of the touch-screen and all the applications, being able to sync the majority of my music library is absolutely priceless. No more of the painful process of picking and choosing which 32GBs of music to carry with me at all times. Thanks to this I've been rediscovering albums I've neglected for a while, like the genius of "Mingus Ah Um" or the energetic and spastic "Mclusky Does Dallas". I'll be writing more about some of these pleasant rediscoveries later.
For now, I leave you with this; my favorite picture from my dad's trip.
Yup. Turns out my mother, God bless her, accidentally purchased two tickets to Buenos Aires (thank you faulty website interface) and transferred the extra one to my pops, who was able to take a week off his busy schedule to come chill in Buenos Aires. This, then, resulted in the most unexpected of pleasant surprises: a week of hanging out with both of my parents in the city.
It was a good time. My dad, who had never been here, was fascinated by the architecture and the steak-- particularly that of "Siga La Vaca". My mom, who had raved about Buenos Aires to my dad for years, was finally able to show him around and have her love for the city wholly validated. I always enjoy being a tourist again for a while, and falling in love with the city that's been my home for the last five years all over again. More than that, it was great for my dad to finally see the life I've built for myself here. He got to know my neighborhood, my workplace, the places I typically hang out at. We got to watch a couple movies together in my favorite movie theater in Buenos Aires ("El Hombre de Al Lado", an adequate yet deeply flawed Argentinean drama about neighborhood harassment; and "The Last Exorcism", which I thought was surprisingly entertaining, mostly due to that chick's performance being all sorts of crazy and intense and I don't know if it's just the Satan thing but I think I fell in love with her kinda). He got to meet a few friends of mine. It was awesome.
These sorts of things also get me thinking about how great everything turned out for my mom and dad, in terms of their relationship. My parents' divorce was incredibly messy-- involving custody battles, police intervention and a whole lot of yelling. Ten years later they're best friends, hanging out together, making jokes. It's a huge relief to me that from the web of resentfulness and childishness that my extended family has become, my mom and dad-- once mortal enemies-- are getting along great.
In other news, my faithful 32GB iPod Touch died in at the hands of a well-intentioned British-Canadian-Pakistani, which resulted in obtaining a 160GB iPod Classic, and I have to tell you, I'm thrilled with how it all went down. As much as I'll miss the niftyness of the touch-screen and all the applications, being able to sync the majority of my music library is absolutely priceless. No more of the painful process of picking and choosing which 32GBs of music to carry with me at all times. Thanks to this I've been rediscovering albums I've neglected for a while, like the genius of "Mingus Ah Um" or the energetic and spastic "Mclusky Does Dallas". I'll be writing more about some of these pleasant rediscoveries later.
For now, I leave you with this; my favorite picture from my dad's trip.