Ch. 6a - The End of the Beginning (Thank You!)

So, my Hyundai and I have arrived in San Francisco safe and sound.. I didn't get any tickets or flats along the way and I saw a lot of strange, beautiful things, including a lot of my favorite people in the world (we all of us are strange and beautiful, don't you think?). In short, this post and this blog is dedicated to them... THANK YOU!!! Whatever it is that I have done, I couldn't have done it without you.

Thank you Mitch; Aunt Lorrie; Becky, Chris, Brendan, and Doolin O'Brien; Margaret and Mia and Margaret's Grandma; Dan and Kash; and Danie and Jesse. Also, thanks to my New York cousins, Sara and Ellie, and my New York friends Justin and Laura, all of whom offered and would have been glad to let my unemployed ass sleep on their couches before I left. Thanks, too, to my parents, Aunt Arlie, Uncle Stan, Uncle Bob, Buba, Grandma and Grandpa, and all my family in Florida who gave me their continual moral support. I may end up sleeping on their couches one day too, and they'll be more than happy to have me, I know that.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I love you all, and if I ever get a couch of my own, you know you have a place to stay in San Francisco..

In geographical order, from east to west, here are all the homes, rooms, or view from the homes I slept in along the way; my homes away from home:

Looking back on this blog I realize that how I chose to tell my story had a lot to do with where I was at the time I actually got down to telling it.. all the places you see above. History is always presented through the prism of the present I guess, this is nothing new, but even my own past is constantly changing in my mind as I look back on it. Maybe someday I'll rewrite this story entirely and come to wildly different conclusions.. or maybe I won't. Until then, this is only 'the end of the beginning' of the second (or is it the third? fourth? Whatever.) metaphorical book of my life. I don't know how it will all end. But it had to start somewhere.

Ch. 3a - Once Removed

Allow me to introduce, to those of you who haven't yet met them, my two newest cousins... First, once-removed. Doolin is 4, Brendan is 7. They are my Cousin Becky's (and her husband Chris') sons and they are the closest thing I have to nephews or nieces.. I am an only child and I have but three actual first cousins. Becky, Chris, and the kids live together in a beautiful (chaotic in a good way, vibrating with love and energy) house in Lafayette, CO, a few miles outside of Boulder. I had met Brendan and Dooly a couple of times since they were born, but this is the first time I got to spend any significant time with them and I loved every second! I hope they loved it too.. I think we all had a great time. We hit
the ground running, quite literally, as soon as I knocked on the door Wednesday evening... before I knew it we were running back and forth across the backyard, pausing only for wrestling and holding upside down by the ankles. They have seemingly endless energy. I, uh, do not. They wore me plum out! Somehow I was always "it" in our tag games.. I smell foul play. I slept well, though.



All told I was in CO for 7 days, splitting my time between my Cousins' house and my Aunt Lorrie's (Becky's mom) house in Denver. We did a lot and it was great to get to know them all so much better. More Denver area stories to come, but for now let me impart the wisdom I took away from the guys: Don't ever lose sight of your inner kid. Yes, it's been said a million times, but I was face to face to face with the intoxicating spirit of youth for a week and it was good to be reminded of just how freeing and invigorating it is to allow yourself to think like a kid. I was reminded to be unselfconscious, full of joy, and completely open to the world, as my cousins are.. to love and be loved freely, with as little filter as possible. I feel like the secret of life is in there somewhere.. damn kids figured it out! They are totally unencumbered in their minds... being too self-conscious is my least favorite trait about myself; they, on the other hand, are not weighed down by all that excess neuroticism. Imagine that! Sounds good doesn't it?