another cousin
One of the New York cousins came to town. When mom said we would be entertaining one of the relatives this past weekend, I was a bit worried. But when she randomly handed me the phone and I realized the relative in question was cousin Victoria (one of the more intriguing characters in my as yet unwritten New York Day Camp diary), well, I was much more perky about the prospect.
Here is what tickled me about her visit:
1) She's a vegan. She also doesn't much like cooked vegetables, and actually used to be a raw foodie. (Quel coincidence! It was just earlier that day that I had introduced the concept of raw food veganism to evilgrins.)
1a) Yeah, I'm a jerk, but it was nice to go to family dinner with someone who makes my eating habits seem a bit more normal in comparison.
2) She's a fashion designer.
2a) I spent half the night peppering her with questions about fabric, inspiration, prices, etc. (She recently closed her boutique and will be switching to a wholesale business model supplemented by online retail sales so my first questions were about that.)
3) She's starting up a social networking site (like Facebook with a focus on art, fashion, and music).
4) She has an absolutely charming Bronx/Brooklyn accent.
5) Her hair! She's got this awesome crazy Afro.
5a) My parents would freak if I ever styled my hair that way, but in her case not one peep. (This reminds me that I should type up some time the experience one night when Cousin Agby proclaimed "You are too old for guff!" and then all my cousins gathered round and started giving me advice on how to get out from under my overbearing mother. And all I'd said was "Well, time for me to be getting home." I guess they'd assumed I would be staying out later if not for the Mominator waiting at home to yell at me for breaking curfew.)
6) She gives me hope for visiting Nigeria someday and not feeling like a complete outsider. (Apparently, if you go to the areas where the white people congregate--because apparently there are white people in Nigeria now*--you can find supermarkets that carry soy products.)
7) She has a wonderful story about getting hit by a car while biking in New York. (She was hit by a car, which then took off. While she was sitting at the side of the road recovering herself, her bike was stolen. Then it turned out that she had pulled a ligament or something in her leg so she had to be on crutches for a month. And after all that, as soon as the weather got warm again, she bought another bike and resumed as before.)
7a) The first time she shared this story, it was awesome enough. When I asked her to tell it again, after Cousin C arrived at dinner, is when she dropped the tidbit about the initial accident actually being a hit and run. Call me a jerk [again], but that shit was hiLARious. I mean, that could've been a Seinfeld episode or something.
8) She's so ambitious and motivated I felt really humbled. (She's, like, amazing.)
~~~~
* The one time I went, I had a moment of "wait. what? weird..." when I realized that I was walking through a crowd and not seeing a single white face in it, and then further realized that I hadn't seen a white person in days.
Here is what tickled me about her visit:
1) She's a vegan. She also doesn't much like cooked vegetables, and actually used to be a raw foodie. (Quel coincidence! It was just earlier that day that I had introduced the concept of raw food veganism to evilgrins.)
1a) Yeah, I'm a jerk, but it was nice to go to family dinner with someone who makes my eating habits seem a bit more normal in comparison.
2) She's a fashion designer.
2a) I spent half the night peppering her with questions about fabric, inspiration, prices, etc. (She recently closed her boutique and will be switching to a wholesale business model supplemented by online retail sales so my first questions were about that.)
3) She's starting up a social networking site (like Facebook with a focus on art, fashion, and music).
4) She has an absolutely charming Bronx/Brooklyn accent.
5) Her hair! She's got this awesome crazy Afro.
5a) My parents would freak if I ever styled my hair that way, but in her case not one peep. (This reminds me that I should type up some time the experience one night when Cousin Agby proclaimed "You are too old for guff!" and then all my cousins gathered round and started giving me advice on how to get out from under my overbearing mother. And all I'd said was "Well, time for me to be getting home." I guess they'd assumed I would be staying out later if not for the Mominator waiting at home to yell at me for breaking curfew.)
6) She gives me hope for visiting Nigeria someday and not feeling like a complete outsider. (Apparently, if you go to the areas where the white people congregate--because apparently there are white people in Nigeria now*--you can find supermarkets that carry soy products.)
7) She has a wonderful story about getting hit by a car while biking in New York. (She was hit by a car, which then took off. While she was sitting at the side of the road recovering herself, her bike was stolen. Then it turned out that she had pulled a ligament or something in her leg so she had to be on crutches for a month. And after all that, as soon as the weather got warm again, she bought another bike and resumed as before.)
7a) The first time she shared this story, it was awesome enough. When I asked her to tell it again, after Cousin C arrived at dinner, is when she dropped the tidbit about the initial accident actually being a hit and run. Call me a jerk [again], but that shit was hiLARious. I mean, that could've been a Seinfeld episode or something.
8) She's so ambitious and motivated I felt really humbled. (She's, like, amazing.)
~~~~
* The one time I went, I had a moment of "wait. what? weird..." when I realized that I was walking through a crowd and not seeing a single white face in it, and then further realized that I hadn't seen a white person in days.