Personally, I really enjoy fog. It is kind of like the clouds are so depressed that they become heavy with emotion and can’t cry and instead just sink to the earth to be comforted by the ground’s natural warmth. I just got home. It is four in the morning. I spent the day driving with my sister, hanging out with old friends, and overall just having a good time. These trips back to Michigan are very healthy for me.
Let me recap Christmas and the day after.
As per Zack’s modus operandi, he woke me with a gentle 730a “Alriiiight!” and crinkled paper and wooshed about the living room with his new loot. I fell back asleep and dreamt of Portland city lights. I finally woke up around 1030a. I unpacked my stocking which was stuffed with candies, zombie finger puppets, gift cards, and a Tibetan prayer player (AAA batteries not included.) Dad and I drove in my rental car to the only open Starbucks nearby in Birmingham. 25 minutes later we were back with coffee in hand for the family. I slowly opened presents throughout the morning. I received some wonderful presents…2 of which I am wearing now; cozy new socks. My mom and dad had promised not to get each other gifts this year and I caught wind of this. I decided the most tactful thing to do was take the money that I was going to spend on everyone and pool it more to them. I got them both $100 gift cards. I’ve never been able to do that for them before and it made me really happy to see I could get them something that they could use. Everyone got gift cards, candy and a “Smooshed Apple” fruit jerky. It was nice.
For most of the day, we hung around the house, playing games and joking around. Sierra decided to start the excavation of her room and modified her picture wall, which is literally a wall of photos from the last X years. It was great to see her start to take the initiative. Steph came over and modeled her impostor “Snuggy” which I am calling a “Sniggy”. It is a comforter that snaps on like a hoody and has zippers and all sorts of ancillary function. Wow. We had dinner, laughed, ate, laughed some more. Sierra retreated to her bedroom with Steph and the rest of us ate pie.
I played with my gifts and wound up passing out on the couch after watching with Sierra and Steph the last 2 episodes of The Hills…(Lesa-shut it) and the horrifically bad movie “Wanted”–too clever, too violent, too desperate to be Fight Club’s distant cousin. The last line of the movie has the main character look at the camera and ask, “What the fuck did you do today?”–too condescending.
This morning I woke at 11a to the giggling sounds of Sierra and Steph as they talked over coffee and cereal. Steph left and Sierra and I decided to go gallivant around west Royal Oak. We wound up at Michael’s and Dunam’s looking for on-sale Christmas lights and cozy shorts. One out of two isn’t so bad. The shorts fit good I am told. I also escorted Sierra to Comerica bank where she started her first checking account. I am very proud of her. Little steps make large differences.
We wound up going to Athena’s Coney Island where we gorged on junk food and chocolate milk shakes. She told me a bit about school and we laughed over fries. We then drove to Hilton Family Billiards where I was effectively stomped by Sierra as the pool shard she is at 10-7. Finally, we went to Cafe Du Marquis and had wonderful talks with regulars about Finnish Metal, Chess Metal, and Pepito the Cafe Du Marquis mascot chihuahua. I was worried about smelling bad from all of the smoke I was surrounding myself by so I thought purchasing a shirt would be a good idea. The shirt I bought from the cafe smells of 15 years of collected smoke and is most likely giving me lung cancer now as I wear it.
I dropped Sierra off at the house to meet up with her other friend Abby. I made some calls and texted some people before heading back to the east side to visit Tom, Jackie, Steve, and Sean. Tom’s grandmother died recently and he bought her house. I am really proud of him. I met Roxy the pitbull and made love to her jowls on the couch. We picked Jackie up from work and an hour later her sister.
After driving her sister home we thought it would be only apropriate to go to Ram’s Horn and buy late night coffee and sandwiches. The waitress was bored so I kept harrassing her as I normally would. When around old friends I am a little more obnoxious than around my professional colleages and wound up talking to the waitress about her sleeping problems; at which point we discovered she has a hard time staying awake. Casually, I asked her if she had ever been branded while sleeping. She never came back to check on us after that.
We went back to the house to exchange memories, smiles, laughs and the education of mild narcotics. I decided that I needed to go as I didn’t want to be out too late driving in the fog that had rolled in over the last few hours.
Fog on I-696
As I drove through the fog, I started thinking about the trip so far. The trip from Portland to here. The tension of the house as the year draws to a close, the seal problems of the house and its lack there-of. There has been a lot of social, physical, mental, and spiritual fog on this journey. I think talking has cut through a lot it. It is hard sometimes to sit as a spectator to my families trials and I am always an open ear but I wish sometimes I could give them more of myself.
Tomorrow, or should I say, later today, we are going to the DIA to see some art and enjoy our family friends Kate and Jerry Dunn. Jerrry is Sierra’s god father and one of dad’s oldest friends. I love them a lot and have always thought of them as family. I look forward to that time. I have to give up my sweet ride tomorrow as well–kind of bummed out about that. Sunday will be wrap up day as I pack my loot as well as more books to slowly move my stuff out of the basement here back to my home in Portland. Yikes.
Happy holidays everyone. Please be safe and have a wonderful and fun and love filled New Year’s celebration!
~Gabe
