iesika

I'm back! The weekend was rather less emotionally devastating than I was fearing - score one for the power of tiny children as distractions.

It rained a lot Saturday, so we didn't get to do as much boating  as we would have liked, but Friday night we had a ridiculous mini-rave in the living room and Saturday there was a game of Minute to Win It.

Got to catch up with the branch of the family who have oil foam in their yards right now. CNN interviewed one of my cousins (who runs a pushboat company), which I'd known about, but I'd somehow missed the fact that another cousin was interviewed on NPR despite HAVING HEARD THE INTERVIEW. I caught about half of it and thought "Wow, that really sounds like Peg-Leg Pete. Haha, everyone in Burris sounds the same." ^_^;;;

My cousin's name is not actually Pete, by the way, but that's how he refers to himself. Because of the peg leg. Oh god, family, how are you so ridiculous.

I started back to school this morning. I'm attending full time, and have drastically reduced my work week to two afternoons and Saturdays. I'm still at the community college, which is only a moderately long walk from my house.

The big news, really, is that I've finally admitted to my parents that I have no desire whatsoever to go into the health care industry. None at all. I am no more interested in nursing now than I was at the beginning of last semester (and if anything, I like the idea even less).  I'm finally taking classes again for something that I WANT to do - that is, teaching. Teaching science, more specifically. I'm so excited! Even if it does mean I have to take another math (which looks like it won't be too bad, actually. My teacher seems pretty cool, and I have, at the very least, never actively HATED trig the way I've hated a lot of other branches of math). I'm really excited about Bio class because my teacher was really excited about biology in general - she went on a bit today about how beautiful and magnificent biology is, and people were rolling their eyes, but I was all like "Amen, sister!" Dr. Bio is also currently undergoing chemo for breast cancer, but her prognosis is good and she's supposed to be done by March. I really like her, at least so far.

All my classes are MWF except for labs, which are T & R mornings. I'm out on MWF by 2 and done with school by noon on T & R. I have one more class this afternoon, and then I get to go home.  I'll probably take two classes this summer

And speaking of cancer - moonypadlover will be the only one on my flist who's actually met him, but I think I've mentioned my cousin with colon cancer before (the one with the twin toddlers and adorable 5 year old girl). He's recovering fairly well from his colostomy (what his daughter calls his 'poo-poo bag surgery') but hasn't resumed chemo yet. We aren't entirely sure he will. He's getting around pretty well at the moment, but he's not really expected still be here for our family reunion in May. He and his wife celebrated their 10th anniversary on Friday.

I spent Saturday and Sunday up in North Louisiana (Monroe, Bastrop, and Rayville) visiting lots of folks, in particular Granny and Aunt G (the above cousin's mother). On Saturday evening, I was at a 90th birthday party for Mammaw D, who I'm not related to at all (She's my Dad's brother's wife's mother) but whom I adore. She drove herself to the party, was wearing two inch heels and a cute skirt, and complained about her son asking her again to retire and leave him the family business. She told him that he wasn't too old to be taken over her knee (he's nearly 70). Aunt W and Uncle B were there, as was Cousin H and his girlfriend. I brought Cousin H a kingcake to take back to DC (He's with the Smithsonian now, as is the girlfriend. He just did a privately commissioned restoration on a Picasso, which I thought was very neat). A good time was had by all.

Also, there is no word in the English language for the relationship between the parents of a married couple, let alone at a double remove, but  Mammaw D (Dad's brother's wife's mother) invited Granny (Mom's mom) to the party (though she did not attend for reason's of poor health). Mammaw D also sent us home with a huge floral arrangement (her business is a wholesale florist supply place) for Granny, which was very sweet and made Granny cry.

Back from Bastrop. Uncle Tom passed Friday not long after I posted, before I'd even left the house. The funeral was this morning. Thanks to those who've expressed their sympathy. I do appreciate it.

I'm about to go incommunicado for the weekend, as sixty or so relatives from my mother's side descend upon our cabin on the Tickfaw for the 10th Annual Kinnaird Family (mini) Reunion. The Real Reunion includes descendants of all of my grandfather's 9 brothers and sisters - this is a smaller group of just his and Uncle Red's kids (Uncle Red is the guy who refused to leave his house in Bel Chase during or after Katrina and had to be forcibly evacuated by his son and a local deputy). The grand irony is, Papa passed about 8 years ago and Uncle Red has never been to a reunion - we haven't invited him since the first year, when my Aunt Laverne divorced him at the age of 76, largely because he tried to prevent her coming.

Unlike most family reunions, this one is very enjoyable. We tend to do things like host drag pageants and giant themed scavenger hunts (Mom and I are up to our ears in pirate themed stuff for the kids this year, including a full-sized homemade Jolly Rodger we're intending to run up the flagpole).

And the food is to die for. I'll be posting recipes when I get back.