Hello and Goodbye

Right now I'm in the room that Jerry and his bro shared while growing up. Jerry's sleeping in his old twin that he barely fits in now, and I'm in his brother's twin on the other side of the room. We've stayed at his parents' house twice now, and each time I get a twinge of nostalgia as I think of his childhood and what things/ppl influenced him to be the person he is today. This trip was especially meaningful for me b/c I had a lot of downtime to relax and interact with people.

We took a walk around his neighborhood and I learned about the spelling bees he's won (and yet homeboy still loses when we play Scrabble), the shenanigans he pulled as a kid (not unlike the shenanigans he now pulls as an adult), and the smack he used to dish about his neighbors (no wonder he's still such a gossip/smack king to this day!).

I now understand why he feels a bit sad every time he leaves this place. I feel the same way too. We've had the most wonderful time here, and I'm sad to leave the ppl that I've really gotten to know, esp his sister/parents/nephews/friends: my previous association with them have involved minor face time (we went to d-land with his nephews), or via chatting (his sister keeps sending me bridemaids dresses links, ha!), email (his mom will email me to ask me where her son is, doh!), or through Jer's stories of his friends and their quirks. But after reading the Sunday paper and painting 2x4s with his dad, learning sewing/knitting from his mom (that post is coming), looking at cheap-o wedding dresses with his sister on amazon.com (just for fun, okay!), playing Legos with his nephews (they are SO cute and brought up so well), and embarrassing myself at Wii in front of his friends/talking smack about our mutual so-cal friends (Jer, you've been hiding your cool friends up north!), I feel like I've barely gotten to know these people and I want to hang out with them more!

If we decide to settle in LA eventually, we'll have to repeat this process of coming but also leaving. The thing about getting close to people, they make leaving places more difficult. On the bright side, they make each of our visits worth looking forward to. :)

Okay, can't wait for September which is our next scheduled visit! In the mean time, we have a 300 mile drive to do today. Boo. When I get back I'll post more about our trip (including ATVing in Pismo!).