The Cousins

Thanksgiving with the fam is an interesting experience every year. Every year, I usually say I don't want to go home. The thought of having to deal with the repricussions of my parent's divorce every year during the holidays fills me with tension and anxiety. Some of my cousins usually annoy me every year, mostly because they are immature. But this year was different.

This year, their mom (whom my brothers and sister and I were all scared of growing up) kind of threw a "not talking to anybody" fit. She barely said hi to anyone and left earlier than everyone else.

She did not even really say "hi" to her kids. One of her kids is engaged, and she doesn't like his fiance. Another one is dating this guy that smokes, and she doesn't like him either. Both the fiance and the date were there tonight. So she chose to ignore everyone (the entire family!!) rather than participating in the evening's events.

I actually had fun, but I was struck by how both of these cousins sounded like their mom was really hurting their feelings by not respecting their choices, and I feel for them. Sometimes you just need to know that your parents love you, no matter what. And that when kids grow up, the parents just need to let go and try to be supportive as long as these choices aren't life threatening.

I think that in spite of their outgoing and sometimes eccentric behavior, my cousins are very courageous for taking a stand against their mom, and following their hearts.

Shooting Star

I got home late tonight. This is not unusual. I was kind of irritated that I had to drive around the block to find a parking spot...this is the one not-so-great thing about living in CA. There is very little parking. Anyway, as I was walking from my car to my house, I saw a long shooting star. I have not seen one in quite awhile. I have been in sort of a motivational slump lately, and it has been difficult to get things done for both school and work. I started to think that it was interesting that people make wishes on shooting stars when the stars or meteors are really self-destructing. But because shooting stars are both beautiful and rare, and I got to see one, it gave me a little bit more hope. I was glad I got to see it.

Violin in the Morning

I think I am a little anxious today. I woke up this morning from an anxiety dream... one of the ones where I really needed to open my eyes, but couldn't. It was frustrating.

When I was finally able to wake up, it was much later than I thought I would sleep. It was awesome to wake up to hear my roommate practicing on her violin. I knew she was good, but I haven't heard her play, until this morning.

So I went to pick up a duet for us to work on. I bought a Beethoven duet for violin and cello. This will be good for both of us.

Saturday

Spent a lot of time on my own this weekend. I had to write a paper. So I managed to finish it at about 11:30pm. Then I tried to sleep. The temperature kept dropping, and it was getting colder and colder. Then it started to rain. My feet were freezing, but I was wearing socks, flannel pajama pants, a long sleeved t-shirt, and I had two blankets. After about an hour of non-sleeping, I finally got up, put a sweatshirt on, took the socks off, and turned on the hot water in the bathtub. I warmed my feet up in the bath, while wearing all my clothes, and then dried them thoroughly. Then I put some wool socks on. I'm not quite sure why I was so cold, but after all that, I was finally able to sleep.

In thinking over this situation, maybe it would not be a wise decision to move out of state. My true CA intolerance for cold would be a severe limitation.