Soon after moving back home, I decided to document my life as a 28-year old moving from the big city and back in with my parents in Abilene. This is done in weekly emails to my siblings, which I will post here, editing out, of course, embarrassing stories you must be actively privvy to my life to hear.
The adventure began on the final drive to Abilene where I alternately sobbed and blubbered for a large part of the trip. I kept thinking,
“What. Have I. Done??"
This is partially because I gave the decsion to move no meaningful consideration ahead of time, partially because my siblings are truly my favorite people, partly because I was just starting to put down roots and make friends only to move back where I know no one, but mostly because I have no one to watch Brendan Fraser movies with now.
I finally pulled myself together and plucked up once I recalled the sight of Billy "playing jazz flute" for Ann (the young woman with Down Syndrome Josey cares for). In fact, if you’re ever having a bad day, I recommend you ask Billy to do this for you. Anyhow, things got even better that first night, as this is the night I came to be standing on the front porch with my parents at 5:00 in the morning.
You see, around 5am, I was awakened by a bark from Tasty Pete and decided I would take the opportunity to go to the bathroom. I blindly felt my way to the door, opened it, and BAM! There was someone standing in the doorway staring at me. My blind eyes slowly made the figure out to be my own mother and my heart started beating again, though I could not fathom why she was standing righthtere in my doorway at 5am. Then, there was an excessively long silence in which she just looked at me. I think her eyes may have actually been glowing.
Suddenly, she began exclaiming in one of those excited whispers-that-ends-up-being-louder-than-normal-talking, “It’s raining! Let’s go look at the rain! I can‘t believe it, rain!” She then went to wake up dad, who responded with the Smith’s trademarked Very-Angry-Sleep-Awareness grumble. (You know the one…it’s like we’re trying to respond to human communication, but we’re stupid, violent ogres who can only grunt and growl.) When mom came back, she was truly like a little kid on Christmas morning. “Let’s go outside! It’s raaaaaainnnnnning!” So we all crowded onto the front porch to observe the rain. I mean, if there had been room, I’m pretty sure she’d have started twirling with her arms out, Julie Andrews Sound of Music Style.
Also this week, I learned that dad’s cousin played bass in Linda Ronstadt’s band and traveled all over the world with her. Apparently, this was at a time when laser shows came about and he became so interested in lasers that he began splitting his time between playing in the band and producing laser light shows for bands. Then, he went to school and got a fancy laser degree and then worked on the Star Wars initiative. After that, he moved to Colorado and now works for HP, which honestly, sounds like a letdown considering the rest of his life.
The adventure began on the final drive to Abilene where I alternately sobbed and blubbered for a large part of the trip. I kept thinking,
“What. Have I. Done??"
This is partially because I gave the decsion to move no meaningful consideration ahead of time, partially because my siblings are truly my favorite people, partly because I was just starting to put down roots and make friends only to move back where I know no one, but mostly because I have no one to watch Brendan Fraser movies with now.
I finally pulled myself together and plucked up once I recalled the sight of Billy "playing jazz flute" for Ann (the young woman with Down Syndrome Josey cares for). In fact, if you’re ever having a bad day, I recommend you ask Billy to do this for you. Anyhow, things got even better that first night, as this is the night I came to be standing on the front porch with my parents at 5:00 in the morning.
You see, around 5am, I was awakened by a bark from Tasty Pete and decided I would take the opportunity to go to the bathroom. I blindly felt my way to the door, opened it, and BAM! There was someone standing in the doorway staring at me. My blind eyes slowly made the figure out to be my own mother and my heart started beating again, though I could not fathom why she was standing righthtere in my doorway at 5am. Then, there was an excessively long silence in which she just looked at me. I think her eyes may have actually been glowing.
Suddenly, she began exclaiming in one of those excited whispers-that-ends-up-being-louder-than-normal-talking, “It’s raining! Let’s go look at the rain! I can‘t believe it, rain!” She then went to wake up dad, who responded with the Smith’s trademarked Very-Angry-Sleep-Awareness grumble. (You know the one…it’s like we’re trying to respond to human communication, but we’re stupid, violent ogres who can only grunt and growl.) When mom came back, she was truly like a little kid on Christmas morning. “Let’s go outside! It’s raaaaaainnnnnning!” So we all crowded onto the front porch to observe the rain. I mean, if there had been room, I’m pretty sure she’d have started twirling with her arms out, Julie Andrews Sound of Music Style.
Also this week, I learned that dad’s cousin played bass in Linda Ronstadt’s band and traveled all over the world with her. Apparently, this was at a time when laser shows came about and he became so interested in lasers that he began splitting his time between playing in the band and producing laser light shows for bands. Then, he went to school and got a fancy laser degree and then worked on the Star Wars initiative. After that, he moved to Colorado and now works for HP, which honestly, sounds like a letdown considering the rest of his life.
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