Woosh. It's been quite a long Christmas week. I haven't worked since last Friday, meaning a full glorious 6 days away from registers and managers, and I'm sitting here yawning tonight swearing that I was just at work not even a couple days ago. I'll have to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow for a 7 hour shift starting bright and early at 8am; the first hour or so is slow and allows for a lot of mental downtime and boy do I need the downtime so as to keep processing the thoughts, the memories, the goodness of the past week.
For the first time since Thanksgiving I spent a night away from what I now call home; for the first time ever, I spent several nights in a row a bed shared with my sister or splitting (theoretically) a pull-out couch with my punk soon-to-be-step-brother. I was in houses I've called home with no room to call mine; for the first time in my life when my items dawdled on my dad's living room floor I had a fluttering impulse to scoop my things up and at least dump them inside my room as a formality before remembering that my room is now a Buckeye nuthouse for my little brother. Never will I buy that boy OSU paraphernalia ever again for fear of duplicating something in his room after his thoroughly scarlet-and-grey Christmas.
5 Christmases, 8 cousins, and 6 days later I can't wait to climb into MY bed. It has been a memorable week; what with my dad's fiance charming the humor out of my stern grandmother; my family members (including two cousins, one a year older, one a year younger, both beloved friends of mine) from Texas spending time with us for the first time in 5 years; FINALLY being able to give Dave the amazing gift I held my tongue and sat upon for a full two weeks in an amazing act of self-control; watching my mom open up "A Charlie Brown Christmas" over our half-frosted sugar cookies with delight that matched my own; cramming all 17 of the Boyer family, all of us from my dad's parents down to the grandkids together for Christmas for the first time ever, onto the stairs with my Aunt Susan's adorable deaf dog for a seemingly impossible family photo. It was a lot of people, a lot of strong coursing emotion, and ended right when it needed to for all us to end on speaking terms.
There was this feeling as my Aunt Diann helped me dumped my luggage and Christmas loot next to the coffee table in the front room; the same feeling I got when one of my roommates called me the day before to tell me she was missing me and called solely to tell me how excited she was that she had gotten her bra professionally sized and the miracle it had done for her aching back; the same feeling I got when Chandra heard me come in and came out of the kitchen to give me a warm hug to welcome me home. My aunt visited for a while before leaving and she could see that feeling as my body bent tiredly against the futon; she commented that I looked whole, content, and happy here. And I am.
I spent some time with the 3 girls in the house that are closest to my age before going to bed. When I move (yeah, again) in the next two weeks none of these girls are coming with me; the warm and hard-won camaraderie will still be there but nights like these will be harder to come by. Chandra and Carrie and I will be stepping out of this house and into another 4 blocks away, with a lot of faith and slightly flustered at the rapidity of this event, to make more empty bedrooms to fill with other wonderful girls. Walking upstairs Sara, another girl I will not be taking with me, greeted me goodnight with warmth and I felt such comfort in the air of the house. As we all chattered together, gushing our gratefulness to be back with our roommates, I wished I had a jar in which to store the feelings, the voices, the laughing; I wanted to bottle the glow like some bottle fireflies in the summer.
I am warm and tired. I have seen a lot of people that I love and missed. I am back with people that I love and will miss. I wish Dave were home from Cleveland so I could share this sigh, this glow with him. But my Aunt Diann is right - I am happy here, I am content.
Time for the sweet dreams now...
For the first time since Thanksgiving I spent a night away from what I now call home; for the first time ever, I spent several nights in a row a bed shared with my sister or splitting (theoretically) a pull-out couch with my punk soon-to-be-step-brother. I was in houses I've called home with no room to call mine; for the first time in my life when my items dawdled on my dad's living room floor I had a fluttering impulse to scoop my things up and at least dump them inside my room as a formality before remembering that my room is now a Buckeye nuthouse for my little brother. Never will I buy that boy OSU paraphernalia ever again for fear of duplicating something in his room after his thoroughly scarlet-and-grey Christmas.
5 Christmases, 8 cousins, and 6 days later I can't wait to climb into MY bed. It has been a memorable week; what with my dad's fiance charming the humor out of my stern grandmother; my family members (including two cousins, one a year older, one a year younger, both beloved friends of mine) from Texas spending time with us for the first time in 5 years; FINALLY being able to give Dave the amazing gift I held my tongue and sat upon for a full two weeks in an amazing act of self-control; watching my mom open up "A Charlie Brown Christmas" over our half-frosted sugar cookies with delight that matched my own; cramming all 17 of the Boyer family, all of us from my dad's parents down to the grandkids together for Christmas for the first time ever, onto the stairs with my Aunt Susan's adorable deaf dog for a seemingly impossible family photo. It was a lot of people, a lot of strong coursing emotion, and ended right when it needed to for all us to end on speaking terms.
There was this feeling as my Aunt Diann helped me dumped my luggage and Christmas loot next to the coffee table in the front room; the same feeling I got when one of my roommates called me the day before to tell me she was missing me and called solely to tell me how excited she was that she had gotten her bra professionally sized and the miracle it had done for her aching back; the same feeling I got when Chandra heard me come in and came out of the kitchen to give me a warm hug to welcome me home. My aunt visited for a while before leaving and she could see that feeling as my body bent tiredly against the futon; she commented that I looked whole, content, and happy here. And I am.
I spent some time with the 3 girls in the house that are closest to my age before going to bed. When I move (yeah, again) in the next two weeks none of these girls are coming with me; the warm and hard-won camaraderie will still be there but nights like these will be harder to come by. Chandra and Carrie and I will be stepping out of this house and into another 4 blocks away, with a lot of faith and slightly flustered at the rapidity of this event, to make more empty bedrooms to fill with other wonderful girls. Walking upstairs Sara, another girl I will not be taking with me, greeted me goodnight with warmth and I felt such comfort in the air of the house. As we all chattered together, gushing our gratefulness to be back with our roommates, I wished I had a jar in which to store the feelings, the voices, the laughing; I wanted to bottle the glow like some bottle fireflies in the summer.
I am warm and tired. I have seen a lot of people that I love and missed. I am back with people that I love and will miss. I wish Dave were home from Cleveland so I could share this sigh, this glow with him. But my Aunt Diann is right - I am happy here, I am content.
Time for the sweet dreams now...
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