The Ties That Bind

Some things I picked up from this quick weekend jaunt to Los Angeles to see the 'rents (and others):

- Expect the worst. If for no other reason than, when it doesn't come to pass, what you get instead is a surprisingly pleasant time.

- My family has some deep-seated animosities toward the spouses of some of my cousins. I mean DEEEEP. Yikes.

- My Uncle Tim has a strange dynamic in his family: you can tell he really cares for them, but hot damn, he can be a dictator.

- I'm sooooo glad my mom and my Uncle Randy have mended their rift. It's nice to see them together again.

- What my family considers "fun" and what I consider "fun" differ wildly.

- My cousin (in the 7th grade) has some fascinating reading material. I picked some random young adult book I found in the car (because we weren't doing anything and I was bored) and couldn't put the book down. Well, that's also because I wanted to finish it before I left town again, and it's 260 pages. Even with young adult books, I'm not a very fast reader.

- "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", a song I originally heard on the Flood album by They Might Be Giants (1990), is actually a cover of the same song by The Four Lads from 1953. Which is a little disappointing for me, because I though that song was just so wonderfully characteristic of TMBG's quirkiness, but it apparently wasn't unique. Ah well.

- I feel kinda bad now for those times I went to Los Angeles and didn't tell anyone in my family I was going. Mostly it was because I didn't want to feel obligated to call my relatives in the area, and besides, I had plans with friends that would have made carving out time for family difficult. But just the same, I feel bad for thinking bad things about why I didn't want to hang out with them.

Oh, and here's a photo of the infamous pool. If you see anyone in it, please tell me immediately, because I'm told that my cousin Bob asked Brandon to leave (politely, I hope). If he's still there, we'll have to have Bob come back and, well, ask again.