August 2003
2003.08.07
Delayed Delivery
03:15 AM PST :: comments: 0On our vacation we visited quite a few college friends, one of which I had roomed with for a summer. When I arrived, he told me "I've got something for you." It was a letter. Unopened. Adressed to me. From Tree. Postmarked Aug 15, 1995.
[Apparently the mail had gotten lost, and by the time it finally arrived, I had moved out (but my roomate had not). So my roommate threw it in with all of his stuff as he was moving out and it got buried in a box somewhere. It remained unfound through multiple moves and was finally unearthed by his wife last month. They were going to send it to me, but by then, we had already made plans to visit them. So they decided to just hand it to me when I arrived.]
Tree and I had been dating for a year and a half when she wrote that letter. I opened it to discover a typical mushy "I miss you, here's what I did today, I love you, I can't wait to see you in two weeks" letter that we had sent to each other frequently that summer (and every summer that we were apart).
I've never opened eight year old mail before. I imagine that it was like opening a time capsule (I've never done that either). All these memories about what the texture of our relationship and the flavor of our love came rushing back. The (relative) newness of our desire. The aching of separation which forever afterwards became entangled in my mind with the damp lethargic heat of summer. The thrill of pet names which have not been uttered in years because they've evolved and morphed into unrecognizable new ones. The anxiety of insecurities whose butterflies have long since been put to rest. The delight in the trivial minutia that comprised each other's lives.
I was simultaniously feeling nostalgic while reading the letter and cracking up laughing with my friends over the absurdity of just being handed a letter from Tree eight years late while she is standing right there in the room with me.
The back of the envelope reads "P.S. - get my package!" Neither of us has any idea which package that refers to.
-wink
2003.08.05
Happy Birthday to G
05:35 PM PST :: comments: 0I'm back from vacation. It was quite good. I saw tons of people that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm so glad that I got to see everyone.
And I'm so glad to be home. We stayed in 10 different houses in 13 nights. (And the first and last nights were in the same place too, so we moved sleeping quarters 11 times!) Everyone gave us great sleeping quarters, but all that moving around gets exhausting.
More important than any of this boring vacation stuff is this: I have a new nephew! He's awsome. I got back into town just in time to be there for his birth. I've never held such a young baby before. He's so small. And yet so large (especially considering that he was inside my sister until just a little while ago).
Happy Birthday G!
-wink