I'm Back in Texas

Saturday: well kids, i'm back at my parent's house in plano. a super close friend of the family passed away last monday. that monday was also the last monday before the week i begin break. so my cousin's (god rest his soul) wife-grace-and i are at my mom and dad's. i finished my grading and entering for the district so i can do this without the sword of damocles over-head (i.e. work). i left a frigid colorado for a semi-cold texas. what makes it seem colder than what it really is in texas is the nutty humidity.
after a nice vegetarian dinner of artisan bread, mixed-greens salad, and linguini noodles with vegan "chicken" strips, with individual saucers filled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, washed down with my father's stash of maredsous 10 (triple ale, 4-pack action, he knew i was coming, what a great dad huh?),
we started a fire and began the chill session. it seems later than what it really is and i'm also kind of buzzing from two goblets full of this unearthly nectar so mr sandman's trying to make an appearance. in the meantime, grace is giving me suggestions of where to go for the family trip in the canadian rockies this summer. i'm stoked just listening to her and the fire's going just toasty too. i can't hold off mr sandman so i head off to nighty-night. tomorrow we're heading off to killeen, texas for my aunt's (it's a filipino sign of respect to call super close, non-blood relatives gender specific terms of relationship) memorial service. my older bro lem's meeting us out there too so it'll be sweet hanging with him when we arrive.

Sunday: we hauled-ass out of dallas after attending mom and dad's church. while there, the music was pretty amazing. the orchestra and the choir were both busting out some pretty sacred tunes in a chicken-skin producing sort of way. met up with an old high school buddy when-back in the day-we used to sing together in the choir. yup. i was a pretty good tenor back then. now, i just sing real loud in the car. it was nice talking to him. we briefly talked about our kids and reminisced about our days involved with the youth fellowship. now i'm an agnostic dude with a slight proclivity towards the spiritual and empathy to about one-half of the population. i absolutely hate: fire ants, racists, ignorance, cyclists who talk with their mouths instead of their legs, cheap beer (although i like pbr and mgd) and non-tolerant people who drive slow in the left-hand lane...
in killeen we meet up with my mom's university classmate to talk about the itinerary tomorrow for the memorial service.

i was humbled being in the presence of my elders and the historical and cultural lessons i heard as they were talking about growing up in the philippines and the mores and customs about the passing of family members. very cool. also, as with all filipino get togethers it's all about the food. and it ain't even being close to being vegetarian friendly. i swear i was about to break my vow of non-meat ingestion looking at the goodies. they had chicken adobo, curry chicken, and egg rolls. as usual i was relegated to eating rice with vegetable broth, salad, and deviled eggs. my tummy's kinda upset as we're settling down into our hotel room. my brother's flight's late (as usual) so my dad and i channel surfing. nothing good. in fact my brother just called and he's still on the tarmac back in dallas and it's 2200h local. the flight should be just under an hour though...
here's a close call. today, an airplane from my home airport in denver veered off the runway sharply during take-off and miraculously no-one was killed. i don't like close calls; just a wee bit too close for comfort. shoot, that could've been my brother's plane today...
Monday: today was the day of my aunt tina's memorial service given by andy fowler, a pastor who also married my mom's university classmate. it was a touching service. her filipino friends and relatives-we all-sang in her dialogue from her province. the dialect was called ibanag. it was a song about remembrance. her surviving husband took it very well (although he holds his emotions in pretty good). after the service we had a lunch in the fellowship hall. as with texas dietary customs, it includes meat, meat, and (did i mention?) more meat. it wasn't quite as bad as the night before because this round of eats was pretty high in fat. after the lunch we reconvened at chuck's and kinda decompressed looking at old photos and chit-chatting. i changed out of my suit (a black, flat front, three button suit, with white shirt and tie with diagonally running stripes, alternating black and dark purple) and into my blue jeans and nevada cycling t-shirt. my cousin gerry came up from austin and like always we started cracking up and talking foolishness. throw my brother into the mix and it just compliments the current situation. he's older than me by two years but every body thinks he's my younger bro (he holds up pretty good, by bro). together the situation's always light, slightly serious, but really just mutually thankful to have all these people-who used to hang out as kids and enjoy each others' company-now adults who still like each others' company (including the parents!). it was very gratifying and humbling. the weather still sucked though...

i talked to melissa this evening and she's having a tough go watching the three kids. she said it was like playing that gopher game at the state fair when you have a mallet and when a gopher head pops up you whack it back down into it's hole. the goal is to keep no more than one head up at a time but as the game continues the frequency of random, multiple heads popping up increase so it's like your playing flight of the bumblebees on the vibraphone/marimbas/glockenspiel with only one mallet. funny analogy huh? the icing on the cake was when she told me started her car in below freezing temps and she figured out a mouse was in my cold weather mukluk. she did a mighty fierce version of "riverdance" out in the snow, next to her car, and threw the offending mukluk like a shotputter in the special olympics (sorry that might've sounded insensitive) thereby releasing the indoor vole.

Tuesday: i'm back. i miss my family dearly and when they were watching a chick-flick show on the dvd, i build up the air-hockey table we're getting for christmas. i can't wait till we go skiing as a family for the first time this season (while the kids have all day lessons, melissa and i reconnect on two planks)!