Thursday, July 21, 2005
Family
One of the strangest and greatest things is to have extended family that are good friends. Even though you may only see them once or twice a year, the intervening miles and months may serve not to disunite you, but rather to give you a larger body of new stories to share with each other. The holidays and summers spent together seem to sire plentiful shared memories and inside jokes that bond you more tightly to these blood kin. At present, I am sitting at my uncle and aunt's house near Houston, TX (in Humble, TX, for those of you familiar with the greater Houston area), with all of the cousins from my dad's side here. We have convened here a couple of days before our family vacation. My dad's side has been taking family vacations every summer for as long as I can remember. We've been to Branson, Hot Springs, Gatlinburg, Mobile, and Pensacola before, but most of the vacations have slid (too quickly) by us at Gulf Shores, AL. My dad's siblings and parents liked Gulf Shores for its beaches, family atmosphere, and proximity to us. We spent either 6 or 7 consecutive summers in that lazy beach town. For the first time in many years, we are not going there, but instead our vacation will carry us to Galveston, TX, where the beaches are not as pretty, nor the water as clear, nor (somewhat thankfully) the atmosphere not as "family-oriented." The reason the older adults chose to switch was this: it's closer. It's closer to everyone, but much closer to my aging grandmother (who is disliking long car rides more and more), and it's much closer to my dad's brother and sister-in-law, who have skipped out on the past several trips (though still sent their kids). We are hoping to get everyone to come and enjoy.
Another change from previous years is a good one: we're renting enough property that everyone has their own bed. In the past few years, we've been renting a house for the week. The houses claim to sleep x number of people, but this number includes people sleeping on the sleeper sofas, which have grown increasingly uncomfortable as we boys have grown up (yes, we boys have always been given the sleeper-sofas-and-no-bedroom package while the shorter and lighter-weight girls have gotten the big-bedroom-with-its-own-bath deal). This year, the parent-adults have a smaller house for themselves, and two condos for the kids (we range in age from 15 to 22) - one condo for the boys and one for the girls. This means I get both the luxuries of my own bed and a lot more privacy than in previous years. And since, as of last year, obtaining potables became legal (read "easy"), we kids enjoy ourselves as people our age do with a bit more freedom than in past years. Last year, our first year of legal libations, we sat on the beach at night (at Gulf Shores) and raised our spirits, since we were sharing a house with the parents and the beach was out of night-time visibility. This year, we can enjoy our potation in the comfort of our own condos, while the adults can pretend that they don't know about it. And vice versa: we can pretend that we don't know what they're doing over there. All in all, I'm really excited about this vacation. I think we are in a position to have a very fun week. Which is good, as this will be my last week before I start medical school. I'm looking forward to making new memories which will knit us tight together until our next family gathering.
Another change from previous years is a good one: we're renting enough property that everyone has their own bed. In the past few years, we've been renting a house for the week. The houses claim to sleep x number of people, but this number includes people sleeping on the sleeper sofas, which have grown increasingly uncomfortable as we boys have grown up (yes, we boys have always been given the sleeper-sofas-and-no-bedroom package while the shorter and lighter-weight girls have gotten the big-bedroom-with-its-own-bath deal). This year, the parent-adults have a smaller house for themselves, and two condos for the kids (we range in age from 15 to 22) - one condo for the boys and one for the girls. This means I get both the luxuries of my own bed and a lot more privacy than in previous years. And since, as of last year, obtaining potables became legal (read "easy"), we kids enjoy ourselves as people our age do with a bit more freedom than in past years. Last year, our first year of legal libations, we sat on the beach at night (at Gulf Shores) and raised our spirits, since we were sharing a house with the parents and the beach was out of night-time visibility. This year, we can enjoy our potation in the comfort of our own condos, while the adults can pretend that they don't know about it. And vice versa: we can pretend that we don't know what they're doing over there. All in all, I'm really excited about this vacation. I think we are in a position to have a very fun week. Which is good, as this will be my last week before I start medical school. I'm looking forward to making new memories which will knit us tight together until our next family gathering.
# posted by Jeffrey @ 9:44 AM 
