the fam
My father's wife's family is in town. My pops isn't my biological dad, he's my step dad, so his wife is my step-ish mom, Hopie. Anyway, her fam is in town: sister and her two daughters (teens) and Hopie's Ma. Combined with my two little sisters and myself, it's a large group of boisterous women; everyone except my sisters and myself are from Chicago, and everyone except me are Jewish. So it's a bunch of loud Jewish Chicago transplanted ladies. And, they are vegan. It's a motley crew. I adore them.
My little heart strings are tugged when Hopie's fam comes to town. My family lives on the East coast, and we rarely talk, even more rarely see each other. It's sad, but I have and will remain the black sheep of my family. I just have a different goal in life, different way of living than my family. They have family dinners, see each other on a weekly basis, hang out, blah blah. My Ma calls me; she misses me, wishes she had the opportunity to spoil me the way she spoils my brother. She sees him all the time, she can take him to dinner, drink some booze with him, buy him gifts, pay for major car repairs on his Yota. I haven't seen my Ma since I had major surgery, in 2004, I think. And yeah, I miss it, but I wouldn't want to sacrifice myself to be there. Which is what I feel I would have to do if I lived near my family. Even though I'm biologically related to that family, I have never really thought that my family misses my presence during family get-togethers. I don't think that I would contribute the way my brother or mother contributes. That's not sad to me, it's reality.
But. Hopie's fam makes me feel like I am an intrigal part of the whole. I hung out with my 16-year-old 'cousin' yesterday, we shopped it up and bopped around. Goodtimes. That and the family dinner I attended, I figured I had filled their quota of Chy-time. But this morning Hopie's Ma called me to invite me out to the aquarium. And she invited me to stay with her in Sacramento, even planning a route and good time to drive down. They want to know what I'm doing this weekend, are they going to see me again before they leave? I can't express how that made me feel. The fam.
My little heart strings are tugged when Hopie's fam comes to town. My family lives on the East coast, and we rarely talk, even more rarely see each other. It's sad, but I have and will remain the black sheep of my family. I just have a different goal in life, different way of living than my family. They have family dinners, see each other on a weekly basis, hang out, blah blah. My Ma calls me; she misses me, wishes she had the opportunity to spoil me the way she spoils my brother. She sees him all the time, she can take him to dinner, drink some booze with him, buy him gifts, pay for major car repairs on his Yota. I haven't seen my Ma since I had major surgery, in 2004, I think. And yeah, I miss it, but I wouldn't want to sacrifice myself to be there. Which is what I feel I would have to do if I lived near my family. Even though I'm biologically related to that family, I have never really thought that my family misses my presence during family get-togethers. I don't think that I would contribute the way my brother or mother contributes. That's not sad to me, it's reality.
But. Hopie's fam makes me feel like I am an intrigal part of the whole. I hung out with my 16-year-old 'cousin' yesterday, we shopped it up and bopped around. Goodtimes. That and the family dinner I attended, I figured I had filled their quota of Chy-time. But this morning Hopie's Ma called me to invite me out to the aquarium. And she invited me to stay with her in Sacramento, even planning a route and good time to drive down. They want to know what I'm doing this weekend, are they going to see me again before they leave? I can't express how that made me feel. The fam.
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