Like our kitchen at work. We have all kinds of utensils and mugs and bowls that are available for our use. They are usually castaways that people bring in from their homes that they no longer use. Everything from nice old ceramics to kids plastic plates and bowls. Well, every morning I bring in my little packet of instant oatmeal and mix it with hot water and eat it out of none other than a Thomas the Tank Engine plastic kids bowl. I always find myself searching for this particular bowl in the morning to use for this purpose. Why, you might ask...well....it reminds me of my nephew. He had an IMMENSE obsession for Thomas up until about a year ago. This is just one example of ways I remember people in my family while being 2,300 miles away from them.
As you have probably read in previous posts, I am heading home to Indiana in a month to see everyone. I haven't been home since Christmas, as has become the norm for me during the past couple of years. I would love to visit more often, but money is an issue when it comes to this, obviously. I'm lucky enough that my parents come and visit me, usually in the spring or summertime, so that I don't have to go a year on end without seeing someone from my family. Otherwise, that's how it is. I see my brother, my sister, their husbands and wives and children....once a year. It makes me sad...I wish they would come and visit. But alas, they are either homebodies who haven't traveled much, or maybe just don't want to travel, or they are people I no longer speak with (as is the case with my sister, and subsequently, her husband...not that I ever really talked to him that much anyway). You would think most people would jump at the chance to visit a sibling that lived far away in an exciting city full of things you've never seen or experienced before, but that's just not my life.
Don't get me wrong, I love that it gives me a great excuse to go back and see friends and family....it would just be nice if the feeling was reciprocated a bit more. My dad often tries to make me feel guilty about moving away. Anytime anything has went wrong, he loves to bring out this line: "Well, you're the one that decided you wanted to move away." As if shit doesn't go wrong when you live in Indiana....pfffttt...I know that's a REAL LOAD OF BS. But, at least, despite his disapproval of my move, he does come visit with my mom. Hell, I know my mom misses me, and I actually think she would come fly out and visit more even without my dad, if only she weren't afraid of navigating the airport alone or felt more familiar with traveling.
Back to the guilt...sometimes I think maybe I'll move back because I love the idea of simplicity in my life, but the question of real happiness comes into play. As in: I also think that if I were back there I would be bored out of my mind. But, my parents aren't going to live forever, and I still feel like there really is so much that I don't know about my family. Who knows what the future brings...I really "cut the cord" quite early and enjoy being independent.
All of this talk about home and family etc....well, it brings up another "cut the cord" story from my childhood...one that is quite funny. I'm sure you will enjoy it too, cause it soooo sounds like something I would do!
When I was about 5 or 6, I had finally really gotten into talking to a couple of my friends on the phone. Where did this phone fascination come from, you might ask...well, none other than my lovely older sister. She is almost 11 years old than me, so if you do the math, that would make her around 16 during this time period. What else do chatting gossipy teenage girls do? That's right...A LOT of time spent on that phone! And it was about 1988, cell phones weren't in the picture, so we had a land line phone mounted on our kitchen wall with a really long phone cord. A cord soooo long, that my sister would stretch the handset all the way up one set of stairs around the landing to the second set of stairs.
Did I mention yet that she was ALWAYS ON THE PHONE? Well, I wanted MY phone time too. I obviously had important matters to discuss on the phone with my best friends at the time, Bri and Tarah. You know, we had to go over which boys had cooties that week, etc....VERY important stuff. Anyway, the sister had been on the phone forever, and I was bugging her, yelling up the stairs for her to get off the phone. She ignored me. BIG SURPRISE (even today this is the case). Well, I just wasn't going to take this any longer...I needed MY time on the phone. Smart girl that I am, I decided to take immediate action. (Side note: Looking back, maybe it wasn't necessarily that I needed the phone...maybe I just wanted said sister to pay more attention to me...to accept my existence, per chance?)
My idea of immediate action: I yell one last time for her to get off of the phone. No response. I walk straight over to the little drawer next to the sink...you know...the drawer where the SCISSORS ARE KEPT. Are you putting two and two together yet? That's right....I WALKED RIGHT OVER AND CUT THE PHONE CORD IN TWO.
My sister gets quiet, notices the slack in the phone cord...at about the same time, my mother walks around the corner. Both of their jaws drop, then I get opposite reactions. My mom thought it was hilarious, but my sister...you betcha...PISSED. Who knows, maybe that's where her seed of resentment toward me began.
To this day that story makes me smile...I sure was crafty for a 5-year-old =).
Song of the day: "Let Go" Frou Frou (cause maybe I do just need to keep letting go)
1 comment:
maybe.... maybe not....
one of my fav songs though!
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