March 23, 2002 - 12.39 am
This is probably going to be a really quick entry because I'm so exahusted, but I really wanted to talk about this a bit before I lost any of the memory.
My favorite aunt and uncle were here this past week. Beth and Ron, and they have two beautiful daughters, Darcy Jane and Katherine Teller. I really adore them. My aunt Beth really isn't that much older than I am. She was a junior in college when I was born, and for most of my life that's seemed like a long time, but I'm starting to realize that it really isn't. Ten (or so) years ago, she married this great guy that she met in college, a zoologist from New Jersey with a fro to rival all fro's and one of the most fun attitudes I've ever encountered. When I first met him, he played in the mud with me and we went on a bug hunt for a class of his. When we were in Denver, doing some last minute shopping for their wedding, he took me and my sister, MB "hiding" from the rest of the family, and we weren't bored all day. One of my favorite things about them is I am just excited to see them today as I was 10 years ago. I mean, they are just as much fun now that I'm almost 20 as they were when I was 8.
When Beth was pregnant with Darcy, their now 7-year-old daughter, I stayed with them while I went to camp at the zoo they both worked at. They made me feel like such a part of their lives and I've never lost that feeling of an important person to them. I think my sisters and I each thing that we're the favorite niece.
And the girls, Darcy and Katie. They're both smart smart little kids, they know more about animals than most college kids I know, and they're fun to be around. They're not spoiled or out of control, and they bring such a joy to everything we do together. A dinnertime discussion is about things that are truly wonderous, like their next-door neighbor's dog, Jordan, or the bad rat in Harry Potter, Scabbers.
I love my family. I mean that, I truly love every member of my family. But I want to show you why I like this particular branch so much.
So my grandmother, truly the matriarch of the family, turned 70 this trip, and we went to the Country Club for dinner. We had all dressed up, long skirts or dresses for the women, slacks and a jacket for the men, low lighting, and the country club had just been re-decorated and looked very posh, rich leather and woodworking. The menu was typically fancy, five courses, escargot, the whole works. The rest of the dining room was filled with older, "respectable" people, most of whom knew my grandparents, my grandfather is a doctor, and my grandmother a socialite and philanthropist. So, there we are. Eleven of us in total, nine of us over the age of eight, and for the most part, we all behaved ourselves quite well. But. Toward the end of dinner, I glanced over at my aunt, who was cradling Katie, and she glanced at me, smiled and picked up her spoon, putting it to the end of her nose.
Now there's a story behind that gesture. When my whole family, my father's parents, brother, and sister, and significant other at the time, were in Denver shopping for Beth and Ron's wedding, we all went out to a really nice dinner. I was probably 8, and boooorrreed. My soon-to-be uncle Ron asked if I knew how to hang a spoon off of the end of my nose and I of course said no. He grinned, and breathed on his spoon, perching it on the end of his nose, where miraculously, it stayed! My sister, MB wanted to learn the trick too, then my Dad's brother, Roger, and so on and so forth. Before long, the whole table, except my grandparents had spoons hanging off of their noses. It's still one of my grandmother's favorite stories.
So, when my aunt put her spoon on her nose, I giggled and put mine there. My sisters, MB and A caught on and hung their spoons off of their noses. My uncle laughed and started too. My 7-year-old cousin, Darcy wanted to know how to do it too, so we taught her, and before they knew it, my grandparents were once again faced with a whole table of people with spoons on their noses. We were laughing like goons, and having a really great time. Right then, a waitress wispered to another, they really like each other, don't they? Yeah, we really do.
Tonight I said goodbye to my family. They go back to Orlando tomorrow, where my cousins go to school, and my uncle works at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I cried a little when I drove away from my grandparent's house in Greeley to head back home, to Boulder. We had such a great visit, but to be truthful, I'm really feeling a little sad. But what a great family.
