Untitled #3

It has been an interesting day.

To begin with a caveat, I am exhausted. I have been sleeping on an air mattress since Tuesday night, and have driven all over the cities the last two days. It has been good, but it is verging on a little nuts. But today took the cake.

My mom called me this morning to inform me that my uncle died last night. Mind you, this wasn't revolutionary news. He was 87, living in hospice, and when I saw him last week, he was doing quite poorly. Still, I just wasn't quite prepared. My uncle Tom was the oldest of 13 brothers and sisters on my mom's side. He was the relative I was the closest to on that side as well. We used to play golf occasionally, and he always liked it when I sang in church. He asked me to sing at his funeral during a phone call a year and a half ago. In a lot of ways, that request has been the most difficult part of this all. I am flying back to NY on Monday morning. The funeral has been scheduled for Tuesday morning in my old hometown. When all is said and done, it will simply be too much to get there.

I have spent the day on the phone with my parents who left for their month long vacation yesterday. It has been a round-robin of whether or not they should drive back and I should come down. It has continued to be exhausting.

That said, I went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time today. It was for Bri's nephew's 5th birthday. It was a little surreal. Before that, I had coffee with an old friend who moved from the cities a few weeks before I did. It was wonderful, and encouraging, and he offered me a job. In Rhode Island. A little later I stopped by the house of an old roommate and his wife offered me a job. In Minnesota. It was getting a bit more surreal.

I decided that I needed coffee. After nearly two hours spent at Dunn Bros with a good friend and quality conversation, things seemed a little more tangible.

For a quality nightcap, Bri and I decided to go see the movie Juno. I felt the need to laugh for a while. Can I say this movie was absolutely wonderful? I had high hopes. Jason Bateman, Micheal Cera, Ellen Page and written by Minneapolis' own Diablo Cody. I was not remotely dissapointed. I also must say it was the best soundtrack I have heard since Garden State. I am not joking, it was even better than Devotchka and Little Miss Sunshine.

All in all, its been a little crazy. Too much coffee and a little too much crazy. I think I should go sleep now.

One last thing, Happy New Year. (A little early)

Baby its Cold Outside

Its been awhile, I know. All I can say is, reporting on progress in Xbox games wouldn't be that interesting of a read, so I left you all in the dark.

Bri and I have been back in MN for 8 days now, celebrating Christmas with our respective families. It has been an altogether interesting/stressful/strange/happy/reflective holiday. Time spent with my family was made quite interesting by my parents preparations to travel to Texas for a month starting this coming Friday. To say the least, they were a little distracted. Dispite having to help install a new washing machine in the RV and change a few of its tires, I was able to find some time to relax and enjoy the time spent with my family.

Bri and I headed back up to the cities yesterday in a wonderful little snow storm. We avoided a nearly disasterous accident in Mankato through some divine intervention that was unbelievable. We actually hit the cement guard rail on a bridge and completely avoided damage to the car. The snow packed up on the bridge saved the car and our drive. All in all the drive took us an hour and a half longer than usual, but we managed to make it up.

I have been trying to adjust to Christmas with another family, and I am finding it incredibly exhausting. I love kids, but I am just not used to being around them. After awhile, I start to get surprisingly claustrophobic and find myself looking for the nearest exit. Good times.

It has been wonderful to see old friends while we are back, and I am looking forward to more of that starting again tomorrow. I am realizing just how much I have missed these people and what a profound influence they have on my life. It is going to be very hard to return to NY on one hand and leave them all behind. On the other hand, I am desperately looking forward to spending time with my wife again. I find that we exist in the same house here, but things are so crazy, that it is impossible to acutally enjoy the holiday together.

All that said, I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season and are enjoying time with family and friends. Bri and I will be in town through Monday morning, so give us a call if you want to get together.

Maybe if you all are lucky, I might post my new rant on why I want to stop celebrating Christmas for a couple of years to see what it is like.
You can all hope!