Vacation Pep Talk
Didn't start well, but after half a bottle of wine, a long drive of rehearsing how I'm going to make someone cry at UC Davis, some good quality time with my brother and sis-in-law, and enough caffeine to make me hyper, I'm now really excited to be done with work and wander around Eugene and amuse myself.
I've been spending the morning going through their house, and loving how they set it up and decorated it. There's just enough knick-knacky crap around to make it homey, and most of it is stuff I would want when I have a home I'm sharing with a sweetie. They have a corkboard set up with personal goals they're going to help each other with, and fortune cookie messages taped in random places throughought the house. I think what appeals to me is that my brother has cool stuff (a lion fish model on a stand above the computer is the best example), and Lauren has some cool fabric set up in nice ways throughout the house, but not over the top hippy-like. Just enough. :)
I love it here. I wonder why I just have a place to hang my hat, and not a real home.
I realize how much I miss hanging out with them, and how even though I love my parents a ton, I'd even consider them friends, and they're usually super supportive--sometimes they're just crazy. It really helps to talk to Ian about it, because he understands how mom can just come out of nowhere to blindside you with one of her worries that you hadn't even considered being a problem before. So I got to complain about how mom sucked the pure joy out of an idea I had, becuase she's worried that I'll get raped/murdered/dumped in a ditch if I stop along the way on a road trip. Most of the time she says these things in a mild "I know I'm crazy and I worry, but I have to say it just in case" kind of joking way, and not a "oh my god you're really going to die this time!" kind of voice.
The best part was that we spent a good part of dinner laughing hysterically because we were trying to figure out the timeline of mom's life before she met dad, and coming up completely confused with contradicting stories that we've heard from her over the years. Mom is very close-mouthed about that part of her life, and we're intrigued with why. Ian's willing to drop it (becuase he's a normal sane person), but me and Lauren really want to liquor my aunt up and get the real dirt from her.
Because our only real conclusion is that mom must have done some pretty terrible and/or stupid things, considering the way she worries about me and my personal safety. All we really know is that she had about seven years to do this crazy shit, cause the rest of her life is pretty straightforward. Maybe I'd do more things to worry about if there weren't drug testing at a lot of jobs, since there sure as hell weren't any when she was in her twenties. I'm mostly interested in that time period because of the contrast with those stories and the way she is now.
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Weed was worth the stop. I bought a coffee mug, and I was severely disappointed that they didn't have Weed lighters! Maybe at a different place, or maybe they were out. I'll have to check it out more throuroughly on the way home. The town really needs a big ass "Welcome to Weed, CA -- 3000 feet high!" sign where we can take pictures of ourselves.
I've been spending the morning going through their house, and loving how they set it up and decorated it. There's just enough knick-knacky crap around to make it homey, and most of it is stuff I would want when I have a home I'm sharing with a sweetie. They have a corkboard set up with personal goals they're going to help each other with, and fortune cookie messages taped in random places throughought the house. I think what appeals to me is that my brother has cool stuff (a lion fish model on a stand above the computer is the best example), and Lauren has some cool fabric set up in nice ways throughout the house, but not over the top hippy-like. Just enough. :)
I love it here. I wonder why I just have a place to hang my hat, and not a real home.
I realize how much I miss hanging out with them, and how even though I love my parents a ton, I'd even consider them friends, and they're usually super supportive--sometimes they're just crazy. It really helps to talk to Ian about it, because he understands how mom can just come out of nowhere to blindside you with one of her worries that you hadn't even considered being a problem before. So I got to complain about how mom sucked the pure joy out of an idea I had, becuase she's worried that I'll get raped/murdered/dumped in a ditch if I stop along the way on a road trip. Most of the time she says these things in a mild "I know I'm crazy and I worry, but I have to say it just in case" kind of joking way, and not a "oh my god you're really going to die this time!" kind of voice.
The best part was that we spent a good part of dinner laughing hysterically because we were trying to figure out the timeline of mom's life before she met dad, and coming up completely confused with contradicting stories that we've heard from her over the years. Mom is very close-mouthed about that part of her life, and we're intrigued with why. Ian's willing to drop it (becuase he's a normal sane person), but me and Lauren really want to liquor my aunt up and get the real dirt from her.
Because our only real conclusion is that mom must have done some pretty terrible and/or stupid things, considering the way she worries about me and my personal safety. All we really know is that she had about seven years to do this crazy shit, cause the rest of her life is pretty straightforward. Maybe I'd do more things to worry about if there weren't drug testing at a lot of jobs, since there sure as hell weren't any when she was in her twenties. I'm mostly interested in that time period because of the contrast with those stories and the way she is now.
----------------------
Weed was worth the stop. I bought a coffee mug, and I was severely disappointed that they didn't have Weed lighters! Maybe at a different place, or maybe they were out. I'll have to check it out more throuroughly on the way home. The town really needs a big ass "Welcome to Weed, CA -- 3000 feet high!" sign where we can take pictures of ourselves.