(listening to "The Best of the Waterboys 1981-1990)
My brother Scott and my nephews Evan and Peter drove down from Michigan and stayed with us this past weekend. I hadn't seen any of them for a couple of years. Effort had always been required for the members of my family to be together ever since I moved away from Michigan. As a result, we cherish our time together, and seeing the next generation of our family is always a great experience. Their little sister Elise stayed home with their mother Ann because the drive would be a bit too much for a 4 year-old. The boys are bigger and even brighter than when I saw them last, and seeing Scott has helped me feel a bit more connected to my Michigan roots.
They drove away this morning, headed home under a sky which resembled automotive primer paint. How depressing. We fished, we went to the natural sciences museum, we hiked around parks, we did lots of uncle/nephew stuff. I cooked for them. I drank beer with Scott. This was their first meeting with Lindsey, and the boys seem to like their new aunt. Scott tells me I have done well in the wife department, and I agree. Lindsey enjoyed the family visit, and she was justifiably impressed by the tremendous and frightening intelligence of the boys. It was fortunate that I didn't have any fireworks sitting unattended around the house. Something would have been noisily destroyed. Or maybe not, they are as well-behaved and obedient as an 8 and 10 year-old can realistically be.
It's a hollow feeling. It's quiet again. Lindsey has unhappily gone to work, and her boss has turned out to be less mature, less organized, and less able to deal with other human beings than one would expect from an adult. I have no one to make pancakes for. I have no tangled shoelaces to help untangle; I have no hooks to put worms on. I have to go to work soon, and I'm being thrown into a job half-trained due to obvious corporate shittiness. Scott counseled me that this is the way of the world, and he is unfortunately correct.
I would rather continue making quesadillas or hamburgers for my nephews than talk to demanding, lazy pharmaceutical sales reps.
It's so Monday. It's Mondayissimo.
Monday, October 04, 2004
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4 comments:
Anonymous again,
It's great to see family when you've moved away to persue your dreams. I too love to spend time with my family, but have to travel to the Northern Rockies to do it. -----work----- who is it that came up with this idea. what a joke it is, corporate blah... I hate it that your not enjoying the time away from big green as much as you had hoped. remember, you could be stuck green!
Corporate bullshit is what it is and although it sucks it pays the bills, here are a few tips that you can take if you want or you can ignore.
1) Be like a duck and let it roll off your back, don't let it soak in
2) Don't bring it home, lose it between when you leave from work and when you arrive back home
3) While idealism is great, it isn't always practical
It's always good to reconnect with your own flesh and blood and seeing another generation has to bring encouragement. Go drown some worms this upcoming weekend and cook up some fish or meat!
I gotta concur with Anonymous. However, it sounds like you grabbed the weekend with both hands and shook everything good out of it you possibly could. Bravo! Pics, please??
It was an awesome weekend, truly a needed escape and long overdue. All the way home I heard "I wish we could stay at Uncle Chris and Aunt Lindsey's...".
Had there been fireworks, true, something would have been destroyed- but the boys would have analyzed in depth the theory and physics behind the destruction, and applied this learning to construct an even more diabolical device next time.
Tuesday is so Monday here. Like stepping on a rake. I'd rather continue drinking beer (and wine and scotch) and watching bizarre cartoons with evil simian masterminds who use exaggerated hand gestures.
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