Globetrotting Family Time

After past bouts in the recent years of going extended periods without seeing any members of my immediate family, recently there has been a spike in the amount of times I see all sorts of members of my family, and in all sorts of different locales. Let me explain.

My sister Kay, is the one I see the most, mainly due to the fact that she goes to my alma mater one suburb away.

Then for Easter my whole family was in town, including my sister Eileen, in from New York.

This past weekend, I went to visit Eileen in NY, so past streaks of nearly 8 months without seeing her, had now been reduced to mere weeks.

My Dad is coming to pick up Kay from school and bring her home for the summer on Tuesday.

Then, this weekend we will all reconvene in Louisville for the Derby.

So, this past weekend in NY, it was so weird to bid farewell to my sister and throw out a casual, "See you next week". But it is cool.

So, New York. Originally I was supposed to leave on Thursday afternoon. This flight got cancelled due to weather, (who can really blame the airline for that?) and I was rescheduled for a 9:25 flight the next morning. So logically I went out and got really sloppy on Thursday night- after all- I was on "vacation". (So does that mean every weekend I am on vacation? Or do I have to take a Friday off? Does that mean if I take a Friday off, I am on vacation and can do exorbitant activities? Because this weekend I got a lot of "Oh come on, you're on vacation, live in excess. Eat these 15 pounds of steak and drink entire cases of beer in one sitting, etc.")

I arrived at the airport at 7:45 the next morning only to see that my flight had already been delayed until 11. No big deal, or so I thought. I went and grabbed a fine chair by the gate and tried to get comfy, but due to the sandpaper/cat tongue quality of my mouth, I had to go fetch some water. It was at this point, my first monetary transaction since the night prior, and the first point when I had to be dismayed by the fact that I had apparently removed my debit and credit card from my wallet. I know you are thinking right now, "Tim, you are a first class retard, how could you do such a thing?" or "Tim, you classless son of a bitch." or "I wonder what the special is at Panda Express today?"

Well, I do this from time to time. The three items that potentially will not be in my wallet are all those that I might just stick in my pocket, and therefore leave laying about, or in said pocket are of critical importance: debit card, credit card, identification. Of all weekends to lose purchasing power, this was not the one. Luckily, for some odd reason, as I never have paper money, I had around $90 on me. I knew this was not enough for a rip roaring fun weekend, but at the very least I was not to be completely destitute. (and luckily I was going to see my sister, who was very kind in not once calling me "classless", a "retard" or some other vicious combo of words when she was pulling out money to pay for me. Little does she know, or I guess she knows completely, I will be seeing her this upcoming weekend, and hopefully making her go someplace where I will buy her an excess of something, determined by our location. A bar: too much to drink; a restaurant: a gluttonous amount of food; a toy store: a bunch of jigsaw puzzles; an orphan black market: like three of those Korean babies and a little Russian one....you get the idea)

So, several hours later and nearly every time passing tactic employed (reading Hemingway, phone conversations, acerbic mental diatribes at airport employees, annoying texts to friends, sleeping uncomfortably, telling those around me I was alright if they needed to eat me to survive, etc.) we finally left the ground in Chicago at around 3:30. Effin A. So, I lost basically a whole day in NY, which stunk.

Here is a summary of the trip:

-Subway
-Shower
-Dinner with my sister and her friends
-Bar (mocked for being "not party animal" when tired)
-Sleep
-Shower
-Lunch
-Brewery tour (mocked brewery for being "not party animal"...seriously, no free samples were offered)
-Grindhouse (two zombied thumbs up)
-Walk
-Dinner at my aunt's
-Red Hook with sister and cousin Kosiya (this was the most frightening and exciting seeming place to go since they both kept saying that it was "lawless". Unfortunately Eileen's fave bar, a bar festooned with taxidermied animals, was oddly packed with people and therefore she was "visibly shaken" about it not being a typical time at this bar)
-Different bar (mocked for being "not party animal" when tired)
-Sleep
-Brunch
-Home

It was a very quick trip, but still a semi relaxing weekend and a very fun time. It was great to hang out with family members and to talk about all sorts of weird and funny stories. And I am sure next weekend will provide more of the same. Craziness.