Family is family is family

I'll post something from the train ride to Albany (the lower Hudson valley is gorgeous, I heart train travel) -- but before the week overtakes me, thoughts on family.



My sister left me a funny voicemail, asking after my Thanksgiving with "the in-laws" - and perhaps when you've crossed the boundary of cohabitating and sharing family holidays, however new, that's fair enough. For someone as in love with tradition as I am, being in a houseful of people all related to each other and getting to help with dinner and joke with grandparents and to play silly card games and to see another family's neat little quirks was the next best thing to being at home in my mom's kitchen. Especially when that family has been so welcoming and sweet to me. It also made clear that big families have similar dynamics, especially at infrequent reunions like this one (and like our big extended family Christmas in Pike, the one time per year we're certain to see everyone). Generations of cousins snuggle in on the couch to catch up or pack in around the TV or card table - they take walks and do dishes and look at pictures - they size up each other's boyfriends and girlfriends (ahem) - and their parents and parents' cousins do the same. Family elders are treated delicately, preciously, and watched over more closely than anything in progress in the kitchen (and they get away with a lot of good zingers, too). The pie is always good, family women are formidable, and everyone loves the hosting family's pets. Even if the host family's pets are a sweet half-Dingo(looking) dog that can ring a bell to let you know it wants to go out, and three Bearded Dragons of varying sizes. Wicked.

It's not to say that Kolz's mom's family is like my dad's extended family - because every tribe has their tics and traditions, and I love mine for that - but more that, as much as I've been missing home lately, it was amazing to feel at home someplace that wasn't home at all. It was suburban Albany, and Kolz's uncle hasn't even lived there that long. But I take it as a good sign that I only left the house once in the two days we were there, and the time still flew. I'm making it sound like a dream from the Prairie Home Companion (and it was probably far more functional that most of Keillor's Thanksgiving tales) - and it wasn't without stress. I slept for 2 hours after getting home on Saturday, and spent the afternoon not saying anything for the first time in a few days...but you know, everyone liked my cookies. I liked everyone. It was great.

Would that the time were flying a bit more slowly tonight - I'm hoping to get through my undergrads' papers tonight, and prep for the week. With the fellowships blissfully out of my way, I have to attack my orals list, or I'll still be struggling with it in June. And that is NOT part of the plan...