/home/todd

A few days ago I was snowed in; now I’m fogged in.  Midwest weather is bizarre.  I don’t think I ever saw this much snow in December during the 25 years I lived in Michigan, and now it’s all about to melt because the temperature has spiked to 60 degrees.  Flooding in December?  What a strange year.

This past week has completely flown by.  I put together a draft of our next research experiment, finished off my holiday shopping, and spent an evening building a collection of family photos to fill a cute little frame my sister found for my grandma.  I’ve met up with Leslie and her sisters and gone out with Colleen and Jon a couple of times, but mostly I’ve stayed home and visited with family.  Christmas was a day-long extravaganza that started with just the immediate family, then migrated to my Aunt’s house to see my dad’s side of the family, and ended with 30+ of my mom’s relatives coming over for dessert and drinks.  I think the photos speak for themselves:

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I can’t remember the last time we had the whole family together like that… with so many cousins, it seems there’s always at least someone missing (and aside from being home for a couple of weeks each December, for the last couple of years that person has been me).

So now I’m realizing that I leave in less than 48 hours, and sort of wishing that I was staying longer.  There’s no special someone I want to rush back for this year, and visiting with family has been pretty relaxing.  I’m still having plenty of teary moments when something around here reminds of when Twinkle was staying with us, but they’re finally starting to ebb.  Thankfully I didn’t take her to the nearest coffee shop, so I’ve had the ability to retreat there when being around the house has me a little too depressingly nostalgic.  Yesterday I hid out there for a few hours and tore through a book on audio engineering–at least when I get back, I’ll have some fun new recording projects to try in my home studio.

I was kind of hoping to have a chance to try snowboarding with my little brother Kyle while I was home, but I had research to work on when I first got back, and now the weather has turned all warm.  At the very least, I got to take some cool photos of him on a couple of homemade jumps in our backyard.

Kyle pulling a 180

Yesterday Randy invited me over to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with Twinkle’s family. I showed up early, expecting a chance to play some guitar with Randy before the cooking really began, but Ted and Judy had just arrived, so kitchen preparations were already in full swing. Judy showed me how to make a pie crust and mix up a pumpkin pie filling; while I’ve been cooking a lot lately, baking is still all new to me.  I pitched in where I could, then had a chance to chat with Ted a bit a watch the old animated version of The Lord of the Rings (which he’d seen when it was first introduced in theaters).

Dinner itself turned out wonderfully, with Okie pie (sp?), salad, mashed potatoes, stuffing, veggie gravy, and of course (for everyone else) ham and turkey.  That morning I’d cooked up a cauliflower and coconut milk stew as my own main dish, and a side dish for everyone else.  It seemed to go over pretty well, just spicy enough to have some flavor but not really overpowering.

After dinner we had apple and pumpkin pie while watching Kung Foo Panda (which I’d never seen, and was surprisingly good).  Before leaving, we took a couple of group photos that came out beautifully:

Twinkle's Family

Twinkle's Family Plus One

More photos from the day can be found in my photo gallery.

Last year I moved 2,500 miles away from everyone and everything I’d ever known.  It’s been a wild ride of making new friends, trying to find my place in grad school, gaining and losing a girlfriend, and anxiety about what comes next.  Both this year and last, the ramp up to Thanksgiving has been the hardest time to be away from home.  I can fly home a couple of weeks in December, but I can’t justify a second plane ticket just for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Last year Twinkle saved me from a lonely shut-in weekend and invited me to her family’s dinner, and kept inviting me back daily, the entire time her family was in town.  Simply spending evenings watching old movies with her dad and step-mom made me feel more welcome and loved than I can adequately describe; I’d made friends, but didn’t realize how hard it would hit me when they all left for the holiday and I stayed behind.  Having a place to go and people to visit during that time was the best balm for homesickness I could have asked for.

Even without Twink around this year, her brother repeated the invitation, and I’m really looking forward to it.  Her family is wonderful, and it’ll be great to spend the holiday with them.  He even asked me to drop by early with my guitar so that could jam a little bit–slightly intimidating, since I’ve heard him play and he’s amazing, but it should be good fun.  I have to admit, however, that this feels a little bittersweet; depending on where things go with our relationship (which even I can’t truthfully describe right now), I have the sense that this may be the last time I really feel like a part of her family.  I hope that’s not the case; I don’t want to have found such a loving family only to lose them so swiftly.

Anyway, in contrast to last year, Will and Katie hosted a friend-Thanksgiving this year.  They held it tonight, before people began to leave town, so we were all able to get together for a pot-luck (in the best sense of pot-luck, no mysterious goo here) dinner, drinks, games, and gossip.  A wonderful idea, and they pulled it off perfectly.  It feels great to know that in just a year, I’ve met such an amazing group of people.  I suspect for most of them, it’s mostly another chance to socialize and enjoy a Saturday night, but for the transplants in our group, it really helps to make the west coast feel a bit more like home.