Last Thursday, Dad's friend Chris arrived from Ann Arbor Michigan to stay with us for a week. It is now Thursday again, and he left about two hours ago. I have acquired several things as a direct result of his visit.
a) I now know how to juggle fairly well
b) I have a guitar (given to me by Chris)
c) I feel as if I have gained several IQ points just from being in his presence
He is one of my father's best friends. I have been looking forward to meeting him for a while now and was glad to get to meet him. Because of the possibility of nuclear fallout this summer, Chris might not have come, but the testing was postponed indefinitely. Hopefully, I can leave this accursed hellhole (Utah) before they decide to unearth several trillion molecules of nuclear waste into the atmosphere.
Anyway, I am so glad that Chris was able to get out here. He has a pink Volvo convertible, but he took the train out here, as the car might not have made it.
Just an aside: he has a very cool voice. It is off-key most of the time, but I really enjoy listening to it. He has exercised his vocal chords enough that he is a good singer. By definition, he wouldn't be a good singer, but he is past that to the point that I could sit and listen to him sing all day because I truly enjoy his voice. It's very odd.......
Right now, I'm missing Ann Arbor like crazy. Talking to Chris about names, places, streets and events that we both knew about was great. I haven't talked to anyone who has been to my hometown since I moved to Utah, and it was such a relief to reminisce about beautiful, green Ann Arbor with someone who knows the place like the back of his hands.
posted by Nina at 5:01 PM
1 Comments:
Nina,
have you read Dante? oi, he said there is a special place in hell for flatterers :) :) :) :) or something to that effect.
from what i have been told (from being with your father when he was first dealing with some of it), you and your family have been through hell already.
from what i have observed on my own, you all have grown strong enough to walk through fires unscathed.
troublesome, yes. prone to bickery and squabling, of course. what else do people do, what else are family for, if not mirrors for yourselves? and the home an arena to play out the mad games of human drama, but in saftey and trust?
beyond the facade of everyday living i see a supportive and adaptable family, abundant in the thickest bonds and enforced with great enduring love.
you are so very lucky.
it was a fine pleasure to meet you Nina, and to see how much you take after your father. And each one of you - young sapplings under his shade but growing and becomming beautiful trees of your own, in your own forests.
there are many families in this world, countless families, plagued by hatred, alienation, lies and neglect and suffering. stubborn and lazy, impovershed, uneducated and ignorant, children so lost, in almost hopeless situations, fools raised by fools to one day do the same foolish things.
though i did not have the time to really get to know each of you, within moments your bright spirits showed, each unique, each ready to explode into the world, each a source of much light, screaming, we are no fools!
and how soon then i knew my own foolishness - wondering if my friend brandons offspring would be like the many mindless little drones populating and repopulating our homes and cities.
of course not. they would be open minded like thier father. they would be interested in learning. they would be kind, they would be loud. they would be brilliant.
great, now i get to go to Dantes special place too. oi vey.
steve and i, we're still pretty young, but we aint no spring chickens. we have survived to the odd phases of life when although we feel younger and more alive than ever before, many of our peers (and even those much younger than we) are having children. ha, at rapid rates even. youll get there, youll know how weird it feels to be a pseudo-grownup.
a lot of my attention is spent on fathers and children, because statistics say that soon i will be one too. a father i mean, not a child. thats absurd. everyone would give me funny looks on the slide at the playground. cops would be called. handcuffs and rumors would be involved. "no you dont understand officer! in my heart i am a child too!" - no comment, yikes.
so i was very excited to meet you 6 finally. to see what hope there is for a good man to have good kids. for a eccentric man to have sane kids in an insane world. notice i said eccentric, not 'crazy'. that is because i am being nice today :)
but really, to find out that strange people like we are can have children who are not completley nuts, who are smart and fun and funny and friendly and kind, to other strange-ones if not to each another, j/k, that is a wonderful thing to know. its one more little piece of the big puzzle for me.
plus you rock. again, Dante, lol, damn him.
and for the record, its easy to sing off-key... singing off-key ALL THE TIME NO MATTER WHAT, now that is quite a challenge. :P
i had so much fun, it was a joy to hang with all of you. words are jokes with no punchline, they cant tell you how energizing and uplifting a time i had. your father is like the coolest person i have ever known, 'like' being a nessasary qualifier for masculinity's sake, (like a hit-hug, its a guy thing) and you are the coolest people ever. that was digression, its late and im tired and this is way too long, oi. what is cool anyway?
i am glad to know you.
peace. -c
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