A Long Absence

Friday, Jan. 02, 2004
5:42 PM

Hm. I don't usually go three weeks without an entry, but it seems I have done just that. I guess it's for a combination of reasons, mostly because of holiday madness, getting over illness and time sliding away from me. It's amazing how fast three weeks can go by and you don't even notice.

I had a lovely Christmas with my family and my sweetie, though of course the holiday had an undercurrent of sorrow after receiving the news about Kevin's grandmother. On top of that he experienced some allergic reaction to something in my parents' house, most likely mold of some sort. I believe my mother now has more leverage to convince my father to tear out the pea-soup-green carpet that is at least 25 years old (was in the house when we bought it in 1981).

Got to spend some time with my uncle and my grandmother, now the only living grandparent between me and Kevin. She's doing pretty well but increasingly less steady on her feet, leading me to worry about falls and broken bones. She still lives on her own, and though she has my uncle nearby to look in on her, she's nearing 86 and I worry about her.

In a neat counterpoint to worrying about elderly relatives, I got to spend time playing with my niece. She has learned to crawl but doesn't want to bother with it much - she'd much rather grab somebody's hands and take off toddling. Not yet to the point where she's willing to let go but it's amazing to see how quickly she's growing and developing her motor coordination.

We got back from visiting my family last Friday, spent most of Saturday reading on the couch (a rare thing for both of us to be doing that at the same time) and then on Sunday headed up to Pennsylvania for Kevin's grandmother's funeral. I had already met a lot of Kevin's family but did meet a few cousins and uncles I hadn't known before. It was certainly a tough time for everybody but I think that it was healing for the family to come together and support each other. I was made to feel very welcome by everyone and that was nice. Kevin took us (me, his sister and her boyfriend) to the small town where he spent Christmases as a child and it was touching to see his nostalgia. It's not likely that we'll get back there any time soon, so it was important to go at such a significant, albeit difficult, time.

The rest of this week has passed quickly. We've spent a lot of it with Kevin's family, many of whom were staying at his parents' house. Sauerkraut and kielbasa for dinner there last night, which is a new tradition for me. I never grew up eating anything in particular on New Year's, though my mother remembers eating black-eyed peas. I haven't spent much time reflecting on 2003 or looking ahead to 2004, really. Last year started off with us not having a lot of money, still waiting for that magic phone call that would make everything better. That didn't come until May, but thankfully it did and in retrospect the process wasn't that long after all. Things started looking up after that, and hopefully they'll just keep getting better this year. We have our wedding to look forward to, and we're planning a trip to Italy in the fall. What could be better?

Ciao!