When Worlds Collide

[mythematiclife]

My family has been here this past week. For a while before they came, I was kind of nervous. Well, maybe nervous is not necessarily the right word; I wasn't shaking-all-the-time-for-fear-of-what-they-might-say nervous (I've told all my friends here about those two years in high school during which I felt that an outfit wasn't an outfit if it didn't include duct tape and fishnet stockings, and I don't think my parents could do much worse than that), I was more apprehensive than anything else. I was apprehensive of what might happen when my family life came into contact with my British life. I wondered whether these two lifestyles could gel, or even if they could exist simultaneously; I guess I just wasn't entirely sure that when my nearest blood relatives stepped off their plane onto Scottish soil, everything wouldn't implode.

There were certainly adjustments in dynamic that needed to be made, and some things to get used to. It was at times weird, and bad, and sometimes I wanted nothing more than to strangle my brother and run. Overall, however, it was really good to have them here. It was so nice to be able to have a civilized drink with my family in my favourite bars, to introduce them to my friends, to take them around my city, and to show them what I do all day and why it is I LOVE this life I've been living.

None of us look particularly good in this photo, but at least we're all in it (sort of), and we're all in this most fabulous city of Edinburgh: