I live here
Like everyone else, I'm getting all reflective about holidays and what this new year means...blahblahblah. Things change, and I think this time highlights the changes. Maybe it happens this way because we see our family and old friends and get our old selves reflected back at us in expectations. And we find that the old self is different.
Things that change:
I took down Christmas this year. By which I mean I undecorated the tree, put away the creche and the santas, and took the extra leaves out of the dining room table at my parents' house (with Dad and Brandon's help, but I was Team Leader). My mother flew to China the morning of the 3rd, so she wasn't going to be around to do it, and I didn't want to leave my father to do it alone. I've helped put up Christmas for quite a while now, but this is the first time I've been such a main part of taking it down. There was something sobering and unpleasantly adult about it.
Brandon came to Minneapolis. Not only is this the first time someone I'm dating traveled to my parents' house to stay with my family, it's the first time my parents didn't make an issue out of sleeping arrangements. I can't tell if this reflects a new comfort level for them or if it's just a sign that my mom really, really wants grandkids NOW.
My two aunts and I went to the liquor store together. Something about buying alcohol for your parents always seems weird.
One of our close family friends is an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, throat). We've done Thanksgiving with their family half a dozen times. My parents travel with them. We're close. The day after Christmas, I followed this doctor friend around the OR and his clinic. We straddled the relationships of attending-med student and family friends. He started to treat me as a colleague, which was excellent but also weird.
At one point I was hanging out with people I knew in high school. And I remembered how overtly sexual I used to be. And how flirtatious. They expected me to be like that. And I realized that although I still kind of think of myself that way, I'm not. As much. The sexuality is a little more veiled, and the flirtation is more focused and appropriate. I think it's a good progression.
Other events: visiting Northfield, seeing Ris, Lauren, Rachel, Dana, Grant, Meredith, Kaaren, Em, meeting Rachel and Lauren's adorable kitty, finding that two of my favorite cheap restaurants closed (sigh...Las D and Tibet's Corner...), and starting the Icarus shawl in a black laceweight alpaca.
Happy New Year.
Things that change:
I took down Christmas this year. By which I mean I undecorated the tree, put away the creche and the santas, and took the extra leaves out of the dining room table at my parents' house (with Dad and Brandon's help, but I was Team Leader). My mother flew to China the morning of the 3rd, so she wasn't going to be around to do it, and I didn't want to leave my father to do it alone. I've helped put up Christmas for quite a while now, but this is the first time I've been such a main part of taking it down. There was something sobering and unpleasantly adult about it.
Brandon came to Minneapolis. Not only is this the first time someone I'm dating traveled to my parents' house to stay with my family, it's the first time my parents didn't make an issue out of sleeping arrangements. I can't tell if this reflects a new comfort level for them or if it's just a sign that my mom really, really wants grandkids NOW.
My two aunts and I went to the liquor store together. Something about buying alcohol for your parents always seems weird.
One of our close family friends is an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, throat). We've done Thanksgiving with their family half a dozen times. My parents travel with them. We're close. The day after Christmas, I followed this doctor friend around the OR and his clinic. We straddled the relationships of attending-med student and family friends. He started to treat me as a colleague, which was excellent but also weird.
At one point I was hanging out with people I knew in high school. And I remembered how overtly sexual I used to be. And how flirtatious. They expected me to be like that. And I realized that although I still kind of think of myself that way, I'm not. As much. The sexuality is a little more veiled, and the flirtation is more focused and appropriate. I think it's a good progression.
Other events: visiting Northfield, seeing Ris, Lauren, Rachel, Dana, Grant, Meredith, Kaaren, Em, meeting Rachel and Lauren's adorable kitty, finding that two of my favorite cheap restaurants closed (sigh...Las D and Tibet's Corner...), and starting the Icarus shawl in a black laceweight alpaca.
Happy New Year.