Murciélagos

I owe you a story or two. First: holiday at my place.

Okay so just my aunt and mom came over, which is good cause I don't have many places to sit. I was nervous, fluttering around doing last minute cleaning even as they came through the door. I took jackets, guided them to seats.

We exchanged pleasantries and ooh/ahhs about the view, caught up on who's doing what right now and how the day before had gone. I offered them soda pop and used heart shaped ice cubes. I got a heap of really cool presents, plus my aunt brought me some Jameson 12 and that was really sweet of her. She texted me ages ago asking what my poison was. Long enough that I forgot about it and was totally surprised. We drank more pop. I wanted to stay lucid and completely myself, you know?

But my mother and I have a tradition. Every holiday we make it a point to tell each other to fuck off at least twice by the time the turkey is carved. Like, in all seriousness. Since the oven in my apartment is basically just a bit more reliable than an EZBake, there wasn't a turkey so we decided to get it over before the amuse-bouche. I do love about us how adaptive we can be.

And plus, it gave me a chance to channel my inner project manager. Imagine a creative review gone totally awry, 2 of the company's owners straight going at it. Or a mistakenly sent Reply All. Dust off the dungarees kid, and get on to the summary and the "thank you for coming, I'll send notes" part.

I stood up and said "I'm going to BevMo for some Coca Cola. The real kind, with sugar in it. Would anyone like anything?"

My aunt: no, thank you

My mom: stony silence

Ahem. Find my iPod with the rudeboy music playlist. Don my best Joan Holloway smile and put the headphones in. Take a 15 minute break.

When I returned I set out a platter of awesome small things that I know they'd never eaten or hadn't seen in a month of Sundays. We talked about the food. Safe, safe food. Some smiles eventually came out.

Then you know, it got weird. But in a good way. At some point I pulled out Trivial Pursuit cards and just started asking questions. We didn't keep score. When I got tired of that I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling and started singing Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire in my loudest voice. They eventually joined in. We opened gifts. My aunt now owns a swarovski crystal license plate holder, I say whatever makes her smile. It was all really silly.

In the end there were goodbyes and no hard feelings, but I felt like I could sleep for a thousand years. So I did.

And that's my family, my holiday. Tells you more about me than maybe I care to have on display but my thoughts are that transparent is a good look for me at 36. I'll keep you posted.

There is also my love life. There will be close to no more stories about it here at 36. Only glimpses that could be mistaken for anything else. Dreams and nightmares and mostly dreams. I'm preparing for the holy place.

Today I'm going to the movies and the MOMA and maybe one or two other things before I check into home to finish my light art and take perhaps the longest bath in history.

Champagne wishes, soul mate dreams.

angelina