Tonight I feel like I can finally exhale and start going back to normal again. My lovely sister and lovely cousin have been visiting for the last couple of weeks, and today was the last day for my last visitor and I finally feel free from questions like, “Am I selfish for wanting to take a nap right now?” and “Are they having fun?” and “Should we go out to eat again tonight?” It was a good visit, I was happy to have them, but now I can pick up the pieces, get myself back in order, and recover from what feels like three months worth of eating out and going out for entertainment. I’m not going to fill in the gap, but there are two really nice memories that I want to preserve and treasure:

A game of chess

I had a lot of fun with my sister: talking, visiting, going to see music, drinking. The most fun thing we did all visit though was to go to a NW coffee house that has chess sets available. We played one game fairly quickly, being quiet ourselves because there was a very Nancy Meyers-ish first date going on next to us between a hilarious woman with a young kid and a freaked out, very chill guy. The second game, I asked for her coaching, and we played a wonderful, nearly three hour long game that was neck-and-neck the whole way. I take very little credit for my victory, but she’s such a private person that I don’t usually get a window into her actual cognitive processes very often.

Queer Portland

My second outstanding memory was split over two days spending it out and about with my cousin Remy and Jesus Christ. The first night, we ended up going to CC’s on a night when it was weirdly busy, and having a couple of those small town/gay circles are small moments of serendipity that made me seem cooler/more of a regular than I really am. The second day we spent walking up and down Mississippi after a perfect dim sum breakfast.

Wed-ness-day

I woke up and made my cousin breakfast. I got a chance to talk to Luke Skywalker for a little bit, we’ve both been busy. She gave me a little bit of shit for feeling like I hadn’t had my “quality time” with her, but then we had a classic conversation over IM later in the day so I’m calling that even. Made it in to work on timeish, sleptwalked through my day– the less said the better– and made it home to veg out and try and get back to normalcy. I had a whole bunch of things I wanted to talk about but I don’t even care anymore and I’m eager to try again tomorrow.