I was 10 when she was born, and I remember thinking to myself, "One day she'll be 10, just like I am, and I'll be 20." At the time, it was barely fathomable to me that I'd ever be an adult (or that the wriggling red mass I was looking at would ever be "big" like me). I don't remember if I had that same thought when I turned 21: "Someday Haley will be as old as I am now, and I'll be...even more of an adult." It's a thought I could easily imagine myself having. In any case, that's the reality of it now. She's 21, and a junior in college—a period in my own life that doesn't seem ten years ago, and yet it obviously was!—and before you know it she'll be in her thirties, and married (or not!) and a mom (or not!), and I'll be even older...
Speaking of my family, Day 11 of the trip was dedicated mostly to lunch with Mom's side of the family. This would normally include Haley, but she was at the shore, so not this time.
It was a Sunday, and Mom suggested that I could go to church with her before we leave for lunch, and I more or less gracefully dodge that bullet. I spent most of that morning doing some more cleaning and then reading by the pool.
Some books in my collection I had been clinging to since high school or thereabouts, because I really wanted to read them (or maybe more accurately, really wanted to be the kind of person who would read them), but could never get around to it. One of those was the Illuminatus! trilogy omnibus; I ditched that one because I'm definitely no longer a 14-year-old girl with a crush on a pretentious snob of a classmate. Another was Journal of a Solitude, which I bought at a library sale (the library that's now reaping the benefits (?) of my book hoarding tendencies) on the premise of "woman alone in the woods." This was right after I had AP English Language and Composition and fell in love with Walden and so a lady version of the same thing held a lot of appeal for me.
I decided to take a break from the boxing and the repacking and the sorting and sit with Journal of a Solitude out by the pool. It was summer, so it was basically peak beauty when it comes to the flowers and the landscaping.
Not pictured are my absolute favorite flowers: some huge red hibiscuses just off-camera to the left in the first photo. But they had their moment before my trip and so there was only a couple of sad, drooping blooms left by the time I arrived..
This time Journal of a Solitude stuck with me, really stuck. I finished it on the bus to Albany and ended up giving it to Homesteader Friend, my host in Maine, because it seemed like exactly her thing. I was glad I held on to that book for as long as I did, because I'm glad I finally read it, and I hope Homesteader Friend gets something out of it herself.
Anyway, Lawyer Mom only took the time to change out of church clothes and then we were off to visit my grandmother at the senior home for a little before meeting everyone else (my aunt, my brother and his wife, and my "aunt" Doris) at the restaurant. My grandmother just turned 90 this year, and she's still "with it," but has it a little rough getting around. Her hearing also isn't the greatest so you have to slow down your speech by a third (and also crank up your volume by a third). We talked a little bit about how I'm doing in Sweden, and how she's glad that I'm not in Korea anymore.
We had lunch at an Italian place that Layer Mom and her sister habitually take their mother out to, because it's close by and it's easy for her to maneuver and they have food she likes. There were enough of us that we had a large table in the back to ourselves. I had a lot of the same conversation again with Aunt Donna (actually my aunt) and Aunt Doris (my grandmother's best friend and accepted friend of the family): what I'm doing in Sweden, good thing I'm not in Korea anymore, etc. I also get a very belated birthday card.
Aunt Doris was keen to know what life is like in Sweden, and it was hard to know exactly what to tell her. Everything about my life is pretty banal and not that different from the US, except that I don't drive. I landed on the story about going to the doctor on New Year's Eve to get a small piece of metal out of my foot and how it was less than $10 US for a quick (but necessary!) visit that took all of five minutes. The conversation was immediately sidetracked by the insane state of the American health insurance system and how much that kind of visit would cost with their respective insurance plans. We also talked about my brother's Instagram, which his wife hates ("anyone who doesn't know you or your weirdo sense of humor will just think you're an idiot") and which, according to Aunt Donna, Haley loves ("she gets it, John, she thinks it's hilarious").
After lunch, Lawyer Mom and I stopped at one of the vineyards between my grandmother's and home. We didn't get a bottle but I got a wine slushie, which I sipped for the rest of the drive home.
There was more cleaning once we got back home. The books were basically all done by this point; now I was up to my eyebrows in knick knacks and mementos. I also tried to get together jewelry stuff to either mail back to myself or to give away to crafty friends. The whole time I was home it simultaneously felt like I didn't have enough time in the day and that I also didn't get anything done, the worst of both worlds. But now Musikfest was over and there was nothing left for me to do except take care of my stuff and see Best Chemist Friend.
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