my vacation is floating flitting flying by. it has been the calmest vacation since high school that i can remember. no anxiety, no boredom. no missing people heartache, no imposing on friends. a minimum of family conflict, and even brother brian seems to be maturing at last. 😉
i have two more days at home. i don’t know that i’ll be ready to go back to houston. though i do miss my apartment greatly…
we went up to chapel hill today for a nice family dinner. the six graybeals, plus grandmother, aunt nancy, and cousin casey. our christmas dinners have become full of tiny traditions; we always have english party poppers that snap when we open them, revealing a small toy, a silly joke, and a tissue paper crown. presents all around.
this year my aunt secretly put together a slide show of slides from the late 1950s and early 1960s that my grandfather took; it was a complete surprise to my grandmother (as well as us kids), and it brought tears to her eyes. pictures from their trip out to california when my mom was 8, and my aunt was 11. some pictures from later trips around the country, to the 1964 worlds fair. even some pictures from when casey and david and i were little. it was cool, and sort of poignant to see how much it meant to my grandmother.
tomorrow: returning a couple things that don’t fit, and carter arrives for a couple nights.
(12:21 a.m.)
i think i won a free cell phone. cool! i have to check on it tomorrow, but i think the email is legit. i did enter a drawing for a free phone, anyway.
