A Couple of Interesting Visits

Providence, Rhode Island

All right, so I’m back on the road after two and a half weeks of winter vacation. Most people work at home and then use their vacations to travel to some exotic location, whereas on my vacations, I go home. As far as exotic locations, well… you ever been to Albany? Anyway, I know it’s been a while since updated the ol’ blog, but in the month or so leading up to my vacation I was working on other projects. I promise to try to work on being more diligent in the near future, maybe.

Anyway, a couple of interesting things happened recently. First of all, back in November I met a couple of cousins. Now for most people this wouldn’t be much of an event, but for me though I have a grip of charming step-cousins over in Idaho, as far as full-blooded cousins go, I have a total of… 2. Yep I have 2 cousins and I had never met them, except for once when I was a baby. To be fair they live in Indianapolis and for most of my life I probably had a better chance of going to Ulaanbaatar than Indianapolis. However, I’ve been facebook friends with one and I had met my Uncle a couple of times and they both told me that if I ever make it to Indianapolis, I should come for a visit. Sure, I thought, if I ever make it to Indianapolis (though I do like saying Indianapolis… I even enjoy typing it – Indianapolis). Well, lo and behold, I got this BER job and what did it say on the schedule in November, but Indianapolis, so I arranged a visit. I must admit, I was a little nervous driving up to the house. If my cousins were weird, would that say something about me? I’m pulling from the same gene pool after all (or at least half of it). In the end, it turned out to be a perfectly lovely visit. I had a great time reacquainting with my uncle and his wife (my step aunt if you will) and getting to know my cousin Susan and her husband Leo, as well as Anne and her daughter (my second cousin). We even have plans to get together again the next time I make it back to Indianapolis… which is in a couple of weeks.

I also had a chance to visit my friend Cara up in State College, PA. It was another example of, “hey you should come visit the next time you’re in State College.” And me going, “Uh, well… I’ll be there in a couple of weeks, as it happens.” Cara was a girl who I dated while working at Club Med and like in too many of my relationships, we never really broke up, we just went in different directions. She went back to school in Pennsylvania and I moved to Mexico. These things happen. Anyway, I hadn’t seen her in about ten years and it ended up being a really interesting visit. She lives in a nice little town house just outside of town with her big, easy-going husband and her months-old baby daughter. Now I’m not at all speculating on what might’ve happened if Cara and I would’ve stayed together or implying anything in any way, but you know how sometimes there are forks in the road of life, and you wonder what would’ve happened if you zigged rather than zagged? My whole visit I kept having the weird feeling that I was walking around on the other side of that particular fork. I don’t regret any of the choices I’ve made (umm… for the most part), but it was cool to see what might’ve been.

What I learned today – Not all Comfort Inns are Sh*tholes, but the one in Providence, Rhode Island definitely is.

Actual product found in Sky Mall Magazine – Canine Genealogy Kit – For only $59.95 you receive a kit containing a cotton swab “that you simply rub against the inside of your dog’s cheek and then send to the lab in the provided envelope.” In merely three weeks the lab will send back DNA results along with an authenticated certificate of Ancestry. This product is just more proof that ever since the advent of fire-making tools and store-bought clothes, Americans have way too little occupying their minds.