Tuesday evening:
Am now back in the old town and at my folks' house. It's about 11:30 and I'm curled up in bed in the guest room. Grandma, Dawn and Jeff are arriving tomorrow. Oh, I can't wait to see them! It's so great seeing my folks again! Feels a bit strange, too; I haven't been back here in about a year. So, on the way back here in Stace's car, I called Dad and Sharon to let them know when to expect me. Kristy called her mom and stepdad too. It's about a two-hour drive to the old town. Of course, being the holiday, everybody and their mother and uncle were on the road, so it was a bit congested. But as we got closer to Stoneybrook and we got off the turnpike, it eased up a bit. Felt nostalgic passing by our old landmarks, like Washington Mall, Stoneybrook Middle School and Stoneybrook High. We also saw some new things, like a Superfresh Mart across the street from Washington Mall and a couple of apartment complexes. Best of all, we saw indications of construction and in front of it was a sign for Borders' Books! Wow! Says that it will open in the spring. Swell, I love bookstores and I'd been to the one near Times Square a million times. It's neat, you can read books and get a tea and a snack at the same time. I wonder if Ms. Silverbein, our high school principal went to visit any of her kids or if they're coming to visit her. She has three grown kids, the youngest one being a daughter one year older than us. Kristy lives near Washington Mall, so her folks' house was the first stop. We all went in for a while and there were hugs and tears. It was great seeing Elizabeth and Watson again as well as some of Kristy's stepsibs. Karen and Andrew are at Stoneybrook Academy now. Next stop was Stacey's mom's place since she lives closer to Dad and Sharon. It was good seeing her again and Stacey's mom invited us in for a cup of tea. We did a lot of catching up and Ms. McGill told us that she was reading a good book on the late author V.C. Andrews, who died a few years ago when she was only in her forties. I read a couple of her books; most of them were so sad and bleak, making me cry. The book *Flowers in the Attic* was made into a movie back in the eighties. I saw part of it, then got scared by the mean grandmother and cold-hearted mother and leaned on Kristy and closed my eyes the rest of the movie, crying. Once we talked awhile, Mona and I headed to her mom's house for pretty much the same thing, then I headed to my own folks' house, which is about a ten-minute walk away. Once I saw Sharon, it was sob and hug time again. Dad hugged me too and both of them kept their arms around me for a minute as I joined them in the kitchen. We did some face-to-face catching up, then Sharon took me out back to show me the porch that she'd completed. Oh, it looks fantastic! It still needs to be painted, but still it looks terrific! She showed me pictures of some of the furniture she planned to put there...mostly white wicker and a little hammock to relax and lie in. Best of all, it's a screen-in porch, so even if it's raining, you can still sit out there and read or something. Looked out at the back yard then and even though most of the leaves are gone and it was kind of a gray, dusky day, the sight was still wonderful. Went upstairs and read a while until we had dinner. It's almost like old times, all of us eating here in the kitchen. It reminds me of back in high school, how during most of the week, all four of us...Sharon, Dad, Dawn, and I all had busy schedules. Dad is a lawyer; Sharon used to be an interior designer, but is now an architect; Dawn had been active in the environmental group at SHS after she moved her junior year; I myself had been involved in the school newspaper and also along with Mona and Anna, had played several musical productions at several SHS performances. So for most of the week, it would be either just two or three of us at the dinner table, but at least once a week, all four of us managed to be there and that's when we did our catching up...quality time, if you'd like to call it that. I'm thankful to have them all as my family. Hey, Tigger, the cat's crawling on my bed. I remember first getting him back at the beginning of eighth grade. He's about eight now, getting along in years. Doesn't move as fast as he once did, but is still a sweet lovable little tochas. I lifted him gently up and gave him a little kiss just now. I'm also getting sleepy, so I'm turning out the lamp now.
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Saturday evening:
Been a couple of days and a busy holiday so far. Tomorrow morning, I head back home. Dawn and the others got here Wednesday, so did Claud and Janine. God, it was sooo great seeing some of my old friends again! Of course Grandma and I cried and hugged right there in the airport. Dawn and Jeff were tanned and looked great as usual. So for that night, all four of us and Grandma were there for dinner. Dad and Sharon showed us the pre-cooked turkey. The sight made my mouth water. Dawn, Jeff, and Sharon have their vegetarian feasts as well. After dinner, Dawn and I took off for Claud's parents and most of our friends were there, except Abby and Anna, who spent Thanksgiving with their grandparents in Long Island. Claud called them and we all talked to them via speaker phone. Several of their cousins as well as both sets of grandparents seemed to be over there too and some of them said hi. Abby joked about the great game of relatives of the holidays and all. Anna and her band got a few gigs on weekends recently. Ms. Stevenson's doing fine. We had a few sodas, then headed over to Kristy's to play pool. Really felt like old times sake of course. We stayed there until almost midnight catching up and all.
Thursday, the big T-day, all of us...Dawn, Grandma, Dad, Sharon, Jeff, and I spent most of the early part of the afternoon making the dinner. Dawn, Sharon, and Jeff, of course stayed far away from the turkey "carcass" as they call it and we joked around about each others' tastes in food. Dad, Grandma, and I are the meatitarians of the bunch and I myself am a big sweet-eater. I'm kind of smiling now as I think that some of the stuff I eat would make Richard Simmons gasp and faint in shock. Claud and I are the chocoholics of our BSC bunch; back in high school at our meetings and sleepovers, we'd pig out on chocolate big-time. We sat down to eat at around six and it was a kind of nostalgic peaceful dinner. I think back to the time when Dad and Grandma weren't on such great terms. See, back when my natural mom first died, Grandma, her mom, took care of me for a year and a half, then Dad reclaimed me and there was a dispute about that. I was just a toddler then, so I don't remember that part. But Dad took me back to Stoneybrook from Iowa and for a long time, he and Grandma barely spoke. Then when I was in middle school, Grandma wanted to see me again and Dad reluctantly consented. But the tension between them lingered until ninth grade. It had been T-day then and Grandma was over for the dinner and she and Dad got into an argument and I started to cry and begged them both to grow up. They did and started to work things out, at least they stopped bickering. Then the summer after tenth grade when a fire burned our old house down, Grandma came and brought more mementos and pictures and she and Dad officially made peace. So having the dinner this year made me grateful that they'd made peace. We stuffed ourselves as usual, then bit by bit, slowly got up and went other places. Dad, Sharon, and Grandma had coffee and went into the living room. Jeff went to see a friend and Dawn and I went up to her guest room and we talked, did a lot more catching up. She says that the temps in Arizona are hovering in the seventies. She also talked to her other friends, Sunny and Jill and they're doing all right. She also tells me that Maggie's mom is slowly getting stronger and standing up to her dad more, who tends to be controlling. For a long time, Maggie's dad kind of "ruled" the family, much like in some old-fashioned families, but it's getting better now. So my folks and Grandma went to bed around ten while Dawn, Jeff, and I stayed up as late as shit and played Uno at the kitchen table. Hard to believe after being stuffed from dinner, we ate a few snacks and Jeff even had a bit of leftover salad. I then e-mailed Greta and Wyser, then headed to bed myself with a good book and a cup of tea. Wyser's mom is over at our house visiting Wyser while Greta's up in Maine with her aunt, sister, and a couple of cousins.
Slept until almost noon Friday. Almost everyone was up and out of the house by the time I woke up; Dawn was the only one there and she and I had a quick sort of brunch in the kitchen, then we headed out to Washington Mall to do a little early holiday shopping. The mall was a ZOO. It's all decked out with Christmas trees, Hanukkah menorahs and all. It's so pretty. Seeing the little platform in the center of the mall for the Santa reminded me of the time back in ninth grade when I'd overspent on my dad's credit card and took the elf job to pay off the debt. Boy, had that been an experience and a half! I'd also met a homeless girl, Angela there, who'd been kicked out of her house by her narrow-minded parents. I'd befriended her. I'd ended up inviting her over for the holidays that year and she fortunately was able to save up enough money to fly out west and join friends out there. I wonder how's she's doing now? I smiled softly and Dawn asked what I was smiling about. I asked her if she remembered the time I'd elfed. Dawn laughed then and said that yeah, she remembered. She'd thought I was going off the deep end because when I first took the job, I'd kept it secret because I didn't want anyone to know how much I'd blown on the credit card, but finally the stress got too much and I'd tearfully fessed up to Dawn, then my folks. Fortunately, they'd understood. It was a relief that I was able to pay off that debt and it taught me a little something about credit cards. I have one now, but I make sure I carry a calculator, so I never spend more than I can afford to pay at the end of the month. I only use it for emergencies and things like that. We bought a few things, then got home around late afternoon. Kristy had called and said that the big news that her brother Sam had was that he was engaged. Wow. In a way, I'm not too surprised; he's being going out with a Sherry Jade for almost five years and they've lived together for nine months. I called her back and she filled me in. I passed the congratulations message on to Sam and Sherry. So, Kristy's getting a new sister-in-law. I've met Sherry a few times; she's nice. She's part Native American and is rather tall, has big dark eyes and black hair that reminds me of Claud's. They're getting married in May of 2005. Kristy also invited all of us BSC to the wedding. Friday night all of us BSC went out to Aster and Dusker's for old times' sake. Saw a lot of high school kids there from several different high schools as well as a sprinkling of college students. We ate and talked a lot at first, then as we people-watched, we got kind of quiet and pensive. We then each commented about various memories we'd had. Mona remembered coming "out of the closet" here back in eleventh grade to me, then to the rest of us. Kristy remembered toward the end of our senior year of high school, it wasn't here, though; it was at this bar, the Macarena Cellar, when she, her then-boyfriend, David Amesworth, Claudia, Stacey, and I had gone there the night after our prom and drank some. I'd been driving, so I only had a half a small glass of scotch. Meanwhile, Claudia, Kristy, and David had gotten absolutely plastered and had to be practically carried home. We all laughed about that. "So...I didn't say anything real idiotic when I was wasted, did I?" Kristy asked us. Stacey and I shook our heads. I smiled as I remembered that emotional time right before the end of high school. It had been a beautiful night with a magenta and orange spring sunset and all. We then played pool until late, then headed back to our folks' houses.
Slept late again today. Was mostly quiet today. Stace headed to her dad's place this morning, so Kristy, Mona, and I are taking the train back tomorrow. Earlier this evening, we had dinner in the living room in front of the fire, my family and I. It was a lot of leftover stuff from T-day. Dad and Sharon still have a lot of turkey and salads left to last them at least until Hanukkah.
Sunday afternoon:
Am home again! Mona, Kristy, and I caught the late morning train back after saying goodbye to our folks and got back home to the Big Apple just a few minutes ago. Got a chance to chat a little just now with Wyser's mom before she left to head back to her home. Greta will be back late this afternoon. Before we left, Dad and Sharon gave me a plastic container of leftover turkey to take home, so I thanked them and hugged goodbye. We also all decided to spend the Christmas week at Grandma's in Iowa. I'm looking forward to it; I haven't been there in a long time either. The whole city now is decked out with holiday stuff and the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center went up and is going to be lit in another week or two. Wyser told us that she and her mom and cousin went to the Macy's Day parade and as usual, it was huge affair. They're still cleaning up from it.
Sunday night:
Kristy came over for dinner and Greta's back, so we all sat in the kitchen and had leftover turkey and duck. Mona's mom also gave her a container with some leftover duck. Well, classes are on again tomorrow for another few weeks, then it's finals, then the MONTH-long winter break! Yeehaa, I can sleep in for most of those days when I don't have work! I think I'm hitting the sack early tonight, so I can gear up for holiday shopping and finals. Later!
More later!
Am now back in the old town and at my folks' house. It's about 11:30 and I'm curled up in bed in the guest room. Grandma, Dawn and Jeff are arriving tomorrow. Oh, I can't wait to see them! It's so great seeing my folks again! Feels a bit strange, too; I haven't been back here in about a year. So, on the way back here in Stace's car, I called Dad and Sharon to let them know when to expect me. Kristy called her mom and stepdad too. It's about a two-hour drive to the old town. Of course, being the holiday, everybody and their mother and uncle were on the road, so it was a bit congested. But as we got closer to Stoneybrook and we got off the turnpike, it eased up a bit. Felt nostalgic passing by our old landmarks, like Washington Mall, Stoneybrook Middle School and Stoneybrook High. We also saw some new things, like a Superfresh Mart across the street from Washington Mall and a couple of apartment complexes. Best of all, we saw indications of construction and in front of it was a sign for Borders' Books! Wow! Says that it will open in the spring. Swell, I love bookstores and I'd been to the one near Times Square a million times. It's neat, you can read books and get a tea and a snack at the same time. I wonder if Ms. Silverbein, our high school principal went to visit any of her kids or if they're coming to visit her. She has three grown kids, the youngest one being a daughter one year older than us. Kristy lives near Washington Mall, so her folks' house was the first stop. We all went in for a while and there were hugs and tears. It was great seeing Elizabeth and Watson again as well as some of Kristy's stepsibs. Karen and Andrew are at Stoneybrook Academy now. Next stop was Stacey's mom's place since she lives closer to Dad and Sharon. It was good seeing her again and Stacey's mom invited us in for a cup of tea. We did a lot of catching up and Ms. McGill told us that she was reading a good book on the late author V.C. Andrews, who died a few years ago when she was only in her forties. I read a couple of her books; most of them were so sad and bleak, making me cry. The book *Flowers in the Attic* was made into a movie back in the eighties. I saw part of it, then got scared by the mean grandmother and cold-hearted mother and leaned on Kristy and closed my eyes the rest of the movie, crying. Once we talked awhile, Mona and I headed to her mom's house for pretty much the same thing, then I headed to my own folks' house, which is about a ten-minute walk away. Once I saw Sharon, it was sob and hug time again. Dad hugged me too and both of them kept their arms around me for a minute as I joined them in the kitchen. We did some face-to-face catching up, then Sharon took me out back to show me the porch that she'd completed. Oh, it looks fantastic! It still needs to be painted, but still it looks terrific! She showed me pictures of some of the furniture she planned to put there...mostly white wicker and a little hammock to relax and lie in. Best of all, it's a screen-in porch, so even if it's raining, you can still sit out there and read or something. Looked out at the back yard then and even though most of the leaves are gone and it was kind of a gray, dusky day, the sight was still wonderful. Went upstairs and read a while until we had dinner. It's almost like old times, all of us eating here in the kitchen. It reminds me of back in high school, how during most of the week, all four of us...Sharon, Dad, Dawn, and I all had busy schedules. Dad is a lawyer; Sharon used to be an interior designer, but is now an architect; Dawn had been active in the environmental group at SHS after she moved her junior year; I myself had been involved in the school newspaper and also along with Mona and Anna, had played several musical productions at several SHS performances. So for most of the week, it would be either just two or three of us at the dinner table, but at least once a week, all four of us managed to be there and that's when we did our catching up...quality time, if you'd like to call it that. I'm thankful to have them all as my family. Hey, Tigger, the cat's crawling on my bed. I remember first getting him back at the beginning of eighth grade. He's about eight now, getting along in years. Doesn't move as fast as he once did, but is still a sweet lovable little tochas. I lifted him gently up and gave him a little kiss just now. I'm also getting sleepy, so I'm turning out the lamp now.
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Saturday evening:
Been a couple of days and a busy holiday so far. Tomorrow morning, I head back home. Dawn and the others got here Wednesday, so did Claud and Janine. God, it was sooo great seeing some of my old friends again! Of course Grandma and I cried and hugged right there in the airport. Dawn and Jeff were tanned and looked great as usual. So for that night, all four of us and Grandma were there for dinner. Dad and Sharon showed us the pre-cooked turkey. The sight made my mouth water. Dawn, Jeff, and Sharon have their vegetarian feasts as well. After dinner, Dawn and I took off for Claud's parents and most of our friends were there, except Abby and Anna, who spent Thanksgiving with their grandparents in Long Island. Claud called them and we all talked to them via speaker phone. Several of their cousins as well as both sets of grandparents seemed to be over there too and some of them said hi. Abby joked about the great game of relatives of the holidays and all. Anna and her band got a few gigs on weekends recently. Ms. Stevenson's doing fine. We had a few sodas, then headed over to Kristy's to play pool. Really felt like old times sake of course. We stayed there until almost midnight catching up and all.
Thursday, the big T-day, all of us...Dawn, Grandma, Dad, Sharon, Jeff, and I spent most of the early part of the afternoon making the dinner. Dawn, Sharon, and Jeff, of course stayed far away from the turkey "carcass" as they call it and we joked around about each others' tastes in food. Dad, Grandma, and I are the meatitarians of the bunch and I myself am a big sweet-eater. I'm kind of smiling now as I think that some of the stuff I eat would make Richard Simmons gasp and faint in shock. Claud and I are the chocoholics of our BSC bunch; back in high school at our meetings and sleepovers, we'd pig out on chocolate big-time. We sat down to eat at around six and it was a kind of nostalgic peaceful dinner. I think back to the time when Dad and Grandma weren't on such great terms. See, back when my natural mom first died, Grandma, her mom, took care of me for a year and a half, then Dad reclaimed me and there was a dispute about that. I was just a toddler then, so I don't remember that part. But Dad took me back to Stoneybrook from Iowa and for a long time, he and Grandma barely spoke. Then when I was in middle school, Grandma wanted to see me again and Dad reluctantly consented. But the tension between them lingered until ninth grade. It had been T-day then and Grandma was over for the dinner and she and Dad got into an argument and I started to cry and begged them both to grow up. They did and started to work things out, at least they stopped bickering. Then the summer after tenth grade when a fire burned our old house down, Grandma came and brought more mementos and pictures and she and Dad officially made peace. So having the dinner this year made me grateful that they'd made peace. We stuffed ourselves as usual, then bit by bit, slowly got up and went other places. Dad, Sharon, and Grandma had coffee and went into the living room. Jeff went to see a friend and Dawn and I went up to her guest room and we talked, did a lot more catching up. She says that the temps in Arizona are hovering in the seventies. She also talked to her other friends, Sunny and Jill and they're doing all right. She also tells me that Maggie's mom is slowly getting stronger and standing up to her dad more, who tends to be controlling. For a long time, Maggie's dad kind of "ruled" the family, much like in some old-fashioned families, but it's getting better now. So my folks and Grandma went to bed around ten while Dawn, Jeff, and I stayed up as late as shit and played Uno at the kitchen table. Hard to believe after being stuffed from dinner, we ate a few snacks and Jeff even had a bit of leftover salad. I then e-mailed Greta and Wyser, then headed to bed myself with a good book and a cup of tea. Wyser's mom is over at our house visiting Wyser while Greta's up in Maine with her aunt, sister, and a couple of cousins.
Slept until almost noon Friday. Almost everyone was up and out of the house by the time I woke up; Dawn was the only one there and she and I had a quick sort of brunch in the kitchen, then we headed out to Washington Mall to do a little early holiday shopping. The mall was a ZOO. It's all decked out with Christmas trees, Hanukkah menorahs and all. It's so pretty. Seeing the little platform in the center of the mall for the Santa reminded me of the time back in ninth grade when I'd overspent on my dad's credit card and took the elf job to pay off the debt. Boy, had that been an experience and a half! I'd also met a homeless girl, Angela there, who'd been kicked out of her house by her narrow-minded parents. I'd befriended her. I'd ended up inviting her over for the holidays that year and she fortunately was able to save up enough money to fly out west and join friends out there. I wonder how's she's doing now? I smiled softly and Dawn asked what I was smiling about. I asked her if she remembered the time I'd elfed. Dawn laughed then and said that yeah, she remembered. She'd thought I was going off the deep end because when I first took the job, I'd kept it secret because I didn't want anyone to know how much I'd blown on the credit card, but finally the stress got too much and I'd tearfully fessed up to Dawn, then my folks. Fortunately, they'd understood. It was a relief that I was able to pay off that debt and it taught me a little something about credit cards. I have one now, but I make sure I carry a calculator, so I never spend more than I can afford to pay at the end of the month. I only use it for emergencies and things like that. We bought a few things, then got home around late afternoon. Kristy had called and said that the big news that her brother Sam had was that he was engaged. Wow. In a way, I'm not too surprised; he's being going out with a Sherry Jade for almost five years and they've lived together for nine months. I called her back and she filled me in. I passed the congratulations message on to Sam and Sherry. So, Kristy's getting a new sister-in-law. I've met Sherry a few times; she's nice. She's part Native American and is rather tall, has big dark eyes and black hair that reminds me of Claud's. They're getting married in May of 2005. Kristy also invited all of us BSC to the wedding. Friday night all of us BSC went out to Aster and Dusker's for old times' sake. Saw a lot of high school kids there from several different high schools as well as a sprinkling of college students. We ate and talked a lot at first, then as we people-watched, we got kind of quiet and pensive. We then each commented about various memories we'd had. Mona remembered coming "out of the closet" here back in eleventh grade to me, then to the rest of us. Kristy remembered toward the end of our senior year of high school, it wasn't here, though; it was at this bar, the Macarena Cellar, when she, her then-boyfriend, David Amesworth, Claudia, Stacey, and I had gone there the night after our prom and drank some. I'd been driving, so I only had a half a small glass of scotch. Meanwhile, Claudia, Kristy, and David had gotten absolutely plastered and had to be practically carried home. We all laughed about that. "So...I didn't say anything real idiotic when I was wasted, did I?" Kristy asked us. Stacey and I shook our heads. I smiled as I remembered that emotional time right before the end of high school. It had been a beautiful night with a magenta and orange spring sunset and all. We then played pool until late, then headed back to our folks' houses.
Slept late again today. Was mostly quiet today. Stace headed to her dad's place this morning, so Kristy, Mona, and I are taking the train back tomorrow. Earlier this evening, we had dinner in the living room in front of the fire, my family and I. It was a lot of leftover stuff from T-day. Dad and Sharon still have a lot of turkey and salads left to last them at least until Hanukkah.
Sunday afternoon:
Am home again! Mona, Kristy, and I caught the late morning train back after saying goodbye to our folks and got back home to the Big Apple just a few minutes ago. Got a chance to chat a little just now with Wyser's mom before she left to head back to her home. Greta will be back late this afternoon. Before we left, Dad and Sharon gave me a plastic container of leftover turkey to take home, so I thanked them and hugged goodbye. We also all decided to spend the Christmas week at Grandma's in Iowa. I'm looking forward to it; I haven't been there in a long time either. The whole city now is decked out with holiday stuff and the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center went up and is going to be lit in another week or two. Wyser told us that she and her mom and cousin went to the Macy's Day parade and as usual, it was huge affair. They're still cleaning up from it.
Sunday night:
Kristy came over for dinner and Greta's back, so we all sat in the kitchen and had leftover turkey and duck. Mona's mom also gave her a container with some leftover duck. Well, classes are on again tomorrow for another few weeks, then it's finals, then the MONTH-long winter break! Yeehaa, I can sleep in for most of those days when I don't have work! I think I'm hitting the sack early tonight, so I can gear up for holiday shopping and finals. Later!
More later!
