Greetings, friends!
Where did January go? I spent the last week rushing from home to airport to California and back again, squeezing in work as I went. In my brief, non-working interludes, I got to visit some family members I hadn’t seen in a while. But it’d been even longer since I’d visited my uncle’s house. I paced around, re-familiarizing myself. The vast collection of abstracted paintings and block prints. The koi pond where my sister and I watched silvery fish swim laps. The notorious bathroom where my dad projectile vomited all over my aunt’s pristine new Stetson. The gate at the foot of the staircase for a dog that no longer exists. All of it, nearly identical to the way it’d been.
But there are some noticeable changes. Seated around the old dining room table, those of use who remain are balding, graying, and wrinkling versions of our former selves. I ask a lot of questions about my grandparents and listen intently as everyone’s unique iterations overlay one another. There are …