Noteworthy

the other day i was on a mission to find a couple of old pictures and found this instead:

"no booze".  jackpot.  (every couple of months i get an urge to get a tattoo of her handwriting)

totally framed it and it is now hanging on my bedroom wall.

bottom right corner.

where i can see it every day.

boom.

Merry Christmas

 christmas with my family has always been exactly, completely, entirely...  

this:

and even though my parents traded snow for surf and moved...

here:

and instead of having aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, priests (yes, priests) and friends over for dinner we started passing out gift baskets at my dad's hospital in... 

these:

and candlelit midnight mass on christmas eve has become us one by one trickling into the living room to watch my crosspoint family on...

this:

and us "kids" no longer wait at the top of the steps for our parents to get the coffee and camera ready before we get to see what santa brought us like...

this:

not all that much has changed like...

this:

merry this and happy that to everyone and everything.

'tis the season.

ps - i got the most bestest biggest outstandingest terrific amazingest supercalifragilisticexpialidocious gift ever this year.  more on that as soon as i can share details...

Christmas Courage

i come from a family where funny is king.  sarcasm is our first language.  the sole purpose of gift giving among us is for the giver to purchase something that the recipient will be mortified to return.  this clan will go to great lengths for a laugh.  

but this?  this took some special kind of christmas courage.  my 21 year old brother flew from wisconsin to texas, that's one thousand one hundred and eighty miles... in this:

i have never been more proud of him.

joe james

for a year and a half the first of my younger brothers, joe, lived with me here in nashville.   my dad helped him move in and gave us 4 days before he predicted bloodshed.  based on our relationship in high school this prediction was not too far off base.  we proved him wrong.  we didn't get into it until the week he was moving back to minnesota.  you know... bickering in front of our friends about trivial things while they all laughed understanding that we were fighting because because he was moving away and it made both of us sad and we just didn't recognize it blah blah blah.

for the last 2 months he has been back here in nashville launching a new office for his company.  i have loved having one of my best friends close by again.  it really is a very cool thing to get to do life with your sibling when you are both adults.  he is a funny, intelligent, well traveled, open minded, curious, loud, independent, caring man and i am proud to call him both family and friend.

i love you baby brudder.  nashville and i will miss you.  again.

halfway to 110

today my mom turned 55.  i just can't say enough about how much i love this woman.  she rode the tilt-a-whirl with me even though it made her sick, threw michael jackson dance parties in the living room for us kids, taught me the importance of ice cream, and hasn't taken my album out of her car stereo for 6 years.

happy birthday maddy.  i'm glad grandma and grandpa got it on 55 years and 9 months ago.  (ew.) 

7-13-65

i had a lunch date with my grandma today.  every time i am back in minnesota we carve out a couple hours to grab a meal or a cup of coffee.  i usually pick her up and help her down the front steps of her porch but today she requested that i meet her at the back door.  her knees are beginning to fail her and, without the help of the railing in back, the front steps are getting a bit tricky for her to navigate.  

i hadn't been in that backyard in years.  i have early memories of planting sunflowers with my grandpa along the fence that separates her yard from the neighbors.  a motorcycle ride that my uncle peter took me on started in the alley that the house backs up to.  my brothers and i used to chase each other in circles around the house waving ancient tennis rackets we dug out of the garage (OK, there was some minimal hitting going on with these rackets).

there are no more sunflowers.  there haven't been since my grandpa passed away a decade ago.  there are no more motorcycle rides, just a rusty old frame that is screeaaammming "tetanus".  there are no more 3 foot tall humans running around, no more "moooooom, joe hit me!!" being yelled through the screen door.  what was once thriving looked abandoned.  then out of the corner of my eye, this:

near the door, on the sidewalk, in the corner.  treasure.  my grandpa's handwriting.

robert conlin.  july thirteenth, nineteen sixty five.

a little piece of life remains.