A Wedding Down South.

The last ten days i was in Georgia, helping in any way possible with my cousin's wedding. Now, in hindsight, it's pretty crazy how much work goes into a DIY wedding, and it's all for three hours of a reception. All in all, it turned out really wonderfully, but honestly, the best part was getting to see family i hadn't seen in years. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep. 

18 January.

I think one of the most interesting things about attending a funeral are the people there and their stories of the connections they have to the lost loved one. Of course i knew my grandfather was an extraordinary man, but the little anecdotes and the people who showed up unexpectedly were what really got to me emotionally. People come out of the woodwork who expand stories of what his passage from San Francisco to India during WWII was like, and how once he helped bend some rules as an underwriter to help out a colleague, or how he made it a point to know every single person's name and where they were from at his church. Family travelled from upstate new york to attend the service and seeing them was one of the first things to make me lose my composure. I was so overjoyed that this part of our family was there that i hadn't seen since i was six years old, and it meant so much to share the day with us bringing back so many great memories. Funerals are hard, and this was no different, but what surprised me most was what bits of the day really moved me most.

A lot.

(Grandpa on the far left, with his brothers and sisters)

A lot has been going on in my life lately, and now it's found me having to go back home to the states for the second time in the past month to attend my grandfather's funeral. He died last week on the 11th day of the 1st month of the year at 11 o'clock. Lots of ones, a number i've always been fond of, and a day i always remember because it's one of my best friend's birthdays and the inverse of my birthday, something we always got a kick out of -- 11/1, 1/11. Whenever i'm home and things are feeling hard i tend to hang around the kitchen more than usual, and nothing has been different this time. In the past 12 hours i've made an olive oil cake, brownies and chocolate chip cookies. But really, the thing i'm most excited about is Marcela Hazan's trusty Bolognese Sauce that is simmering away. Best after having bubbled for at least five hours, it's even more satisfying because it has a few more steps than your typical simple pasta sauce. Tomorrow we will eat it as a family, and there's not much more that could make me happier right now.

A Look Back at Your Own Family.

Looking at old pictures of my grandparents i find myself looking for every tiny bit of me in them. I don't have to look hard at my grandmother. We look exactly the same. If only i could fit into all of her amazing old clothing. 21 inch waists are hard to come by these days.

Have to love the internet.

It makes talking to your grandparents across the ocean possible.

Alternate Life.

(See how many grammatical errors you can spot.)

Sometimes i like to imagine my life as a choose your own adventure, except instead of thinking about the half of the book that's happening, i like to think about the part that didn't happen. The part of the book that you skip past and usually don't return to. This past weekend my entire family flew to Alabama for a wedding in the deep south, on an army base no less. Most of you will know that there isn't really a place that could be less 'us' than Alabama. And nonetheless, this trip is something i found myself strangely wishing i was on. This is the forgotten part of the choose your own adventure. I would have been there seeing all of these things with them had i not ended up in england. They sent me pictures of their favorite bits of ridiculousness, and it's these that i will post. Oh america, i can't really say that i miss you, but my oh my you are entertaining in endless ways.

When it comes down to it...

... these are the people that matter the most. Happy new year mom, dad & baby brother.

Dads.

If there's one thing today that is absolutely swell... it's my dad. Happy father's day.

Nature Always Wins.

This past week my house in pennsylvania flooded and it caught me off guard more than i thought it would. Houses flood all of the time... people deal with this constantly, right? But when it's your things that are affected you go into immediate panic mode and when you're far away it feels even worse. I didn't know what was ruined, what was salvageable. Dozens of my books that i'd collected over the years at school would have their pages pressed together, my grandfather's photos soggily stuck to their pages, rugs full of water underfoot. It's strange to see decades spread out in empty spaces of your house all mingling together. Textbooks on dada next to class photos of my grandfather from high school, Fitzgerald novels next to polaroids from the 80s of family trips to Disney World. History comes together, nature always wins.