Update, trip, famliy, brother, sick
This past weekend I was in the Bay Area for my step-grandfather's 80th, and for the first night of Passover. Also got to hang with Binky & Atomic (though not long enough), and had a good time exploring a park and cute neighborhood with ladymsruby.
I also spent a few hours with both parents and my brother all at the same time. It's the first time that's happened in about 2 years. The occasion was just lucky coincidence, as my dad was down for the step-birthday and mom was in town for Passover.
My brother's had a rough month.
You may remember how he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident? Back in December his leg looked like this:
Well, a few weeks ago his leg was hurting him, he was a little blue, some friends came to town, they went out partying, and he ended up totaling his truck. His truck was a late 1960's retired forest service Suburban. Think about that for a second, and what it would take to total one. He ran his into a freeway support pillar in Oakland.
Then (yes, there's more), a week or so ago, he was riding his (no brakes) fixie, and a car in front of him signaled left and pulled right and he couldn't stop in time. He destroyed both wheels on the bike.
And this week he had strep throat, which kept him from the birthday and Passover.
So both parents and I went out to visit him. He has a huge cut over his left eye from the car accident, and scrapes on his elbows and wrists from the bike accident. He has a tiny chip missing from the inside corner of one of his front teeth, which makes his smile look just different enough to be disturbing. I almost cried a couple of times when I first saw him; I went to get food for him out of the car so I could regain my composure.
He looked like this:
He's young (26) and strong and not as indestructible as he thinks he is. It scares me. He's such an incredible, joyous individual. (At this point I'm afraid of even writing anything more down. I'm getting a little choked up.)
My mom asked him how he was doing, and he volunteered that he was going to slow down, collect himself, and spend some time sober. That's reassuring. I hope it helps.
Thankfully, the conversation was not entirely focused on health and wellness. In the good news column, he's gotten into UCSC and is waiting to hear back from Berkeley. Overall it was a really good visit. It was very comfortable and natural, which make sense, but it's still odd for me to be in the same room with my original nuclear family these days. All together we look like this:
Flew back in yesterday morning and went straight to work. Had a lovely dinner with C, argellabliss, and diffcharm. Woke up early this morning all congested and drippy and stayed home in hopes of not getting sick. We'll see what tomorrow holds. Right now I'm mildly feverish and still congested. And kindof hungry.
All of these images and more are hosted at my Flickr, which is my first name+last initial. Also, what do you Mac users use to upload to Flickr?
I also spent a few hours with both parents and my brother all at the same time. It's the first time that's happened in about 2 years. The occasion was just lucky coincidence, as my dad was down for the step-birthday and mom was in town for Passover.
My brother's had a rough month.
You may remember how he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident? Back in December his leg looked like this:
Well, a few weeks ago his leg was hurting him, he was a little blue, some friends came to town, they went out partying, and he ended up totaling his truck. His truck was a late 1960's retired forest service Suburban. Think about that for a second, and what it would take to total one. He ran his into a freeway support pillar in Oakland.
Then (yes, there's more), a week or so ago, he was riding his (no brakes) fixie, and a car in front of him signaled left and pulled right and he couldn't stop in time. He destroyed both wheels on the bike.
And this week he had strep throat, which kept him from the birthday and Passover.
So both parents and I went out to visit him. He has a huge cut over his left eye from the car accident, and scrapes on his elbows and wrists from the bike accident. He has a tiny chip missing from the inside corner of one of his front teeth, which makes his smile look just different enough to be disturbing. I almost cried a couple of times when I first saw him; I went to get food for him out of the car so I could regain my composure.
He looked like this:
He's young (26) and strong and not as indestructible as he thinks he is. It scares me. He's such an incredible, joyous individual. (At this point I'm afraid of even writing anything more down. I'm getting a little choked up.)
My mom asked him how he was doing, and he volunteered that he was going to slow down, collect himself, and spend some time sober. That's reassuring. I hope it helps.
Thankfully, the conversation was not entirely focused on health and wellness. In the good news column, he's gotten into UCSC and is waiting to hear back from Berkeley. Overall it was a really good visit. It was very comfortable and natural, which make sense, but it's still odd for me to be in the same room with my original nuclear family these days. All together we look like this:
Flew back in yesterday morning and went straight to work. Had a lovely dinner with C, argellabliss, and diffcharm. Woke up early this morning all congested and drippy and stayed home in hopes of not getting sick. We'll see what tomorrow holds. Right now I'm mildly feverish and still congested. And kindof hungry.
All of these images and more are hosted at my Flickr, which is my first name+last initial. Also, what do you Mac users use to upload to Flickr?