glad to go, glad to go, glad to go

^ Before and after. It was freezingly rainy when we left LAX that afternoon. At dusk, not long before we descended, I captured the serenity outside.


It's been, what, about 5 days now since I arrived at my sister's here in Belvidere, IL. The flight itself was largely uneventful, even boring. Nanay (mom) kept fidgeting in her seat and it mildly annoyed me. I've never really traveled with her like this so it was new for me. She didn't bring anything to read and didn't want to listen to the in-flight movie (Sisterhood Of The Traveling Skanks II, I think) though she did look at the screen. I mostly listened to my music on my iPhone.


But once my bro-in-law and sister arrived with my niece and nephew to pick us up at O'Hare after we landed I livened up. From then on it's been hilarious, wacky, a bit disorganized, amusing, comforting....and I would never want to trade it all for anything in the world right now.


< This is one huge reason for which I was looking forward to this trip. Looks like a good foot of white to me. Not long after I took this pic out the front door my sister, bro-in-law, niece, and nephew went out to shovel and and machine blow it off the driveway. I just stayed inside with Nanay. I made a pot of French Onion Soup for lunch, excellent for a perfect winter afternoon.

Our family isn't perfect (none are) but we're very close. We bond by yelling at each other to get things done, playing practical jokes, teasing, swearing, gossiping all over the place about in-laws and each other, doing karaoke while drunk til 4 in the morning (mostly my brothers and bro-in-laws), and generally making whores of ourselves eating rich and fattening foods of various cuisines (mostly American, Turkish, Filipino, and maybe Korean). I think if you were a guest at one of our gatherings you'd probably be drunk and joining in karaoke soon enough, or at least on your way there.

In any case, the weather here in northern Illinois is awesomely intense. Just did a check right now: -2 degrees F here in Belvidere. Tomorrow it'll go up to a steamy 5 degrees F. The snow is just beautiful! It stormed like a motherfucker yesterday and everything was practically whited out. I loved it.


> She hates my calling it this, but this is my sister's "Charlie Brown tree". She went all Martha Stewart on it and lavished it with pretty crap and lights. I was only too amused to capture it for digital posterity, if not something to snicker at. Bless my sis.



That's it for now, aside from the pics. I may be able to do some videos to upload but if not I can just do audio intermittently, and from various locations while I'm out and about. I'm here til the 7th next month, and I'm having the time of my life! Merry Christmas indeed!

^ Before and after, family room. I promised myself that if I ever had the chance to own a house a fireplace would be at the top of my list for absolute requirements. There's nothing like it on a frigid winter's evening. Nothing like it.