Family ramblings

William's graduation 2005

Today is Mother's Day, and I miss mine. Mom, hope you had a terrific day. The older I get, the more I realize that parenting is a long-distance race that never ends, but if it did the t-shirt would say "I raised four kids and all I got was this immense joy, endless laughter, terrifying worry and plenty of tears." Thanks, Mom - you and Dad made it seem so easy when we were being our most difficult.

William's graduation 2005
Julia's graduation 2003

As American childhood elongates and grown-up children move back home and postpone starting families of their own, it must be getting harder and harder to let go. In Latin America, where the norm is for children to live at home until they marry, the question asked on meeting someone is "Do you live alone or accompanied?" Accompanied means with your parents. Kind of nice in some ways - there's no stigma attached, quite the contrary. It's still considered a little odd to live away from your family, especially if they are in the same city. An older woman I met early on here told me, with evident pride, "I was one of the first women I knew to live alone." She faced not insignificant social disapproval back then, about 15 years ago -- it was seen as suspiciously open in a world kept locked up tight by family ties.

Minus that aspect, I've often thought my family fits in more closely with the Latin model than the North American one - what with all the uncles, grandmothers, and sundry students always living in one basement bedroom or another, we were considered slightly strange in our leafy suburban neighborhood.

Growing up the oldest in a relatively large family where both parents worked, I did more than my share of babysitting, cooking, and cleaning (or at least that's how I remember it). My younger brothers used to call me "mom" sometimes, whether by mistake or design it's hard to say. At one point the accepted use was shorthand for "stop being so damn bossy."

----------

We're finally are getting decent weather here -- it's been warm and sunny since Friday. Today I ran on Ciclovia, had a delicious lunch at Trish's house where she was welcoming a visiting friend, and rearranged my room. A nice slow, shabby Sunday.

Friday we celebrated Sarah's going away at Andres Carne de Res in Chia -- a trip there implies contracting a bus, drinking beforehand because of the exhorbitant prices inside, and too many colors and people to count. It was both overwhelming and a blast! Sarah is going to work at Denali National Park in Alaska for the summer -- it's exactly the kind of work she seems perfectly suited for.

Afterwards I stayed at Tom/Porter's place in the north -- I'm not crazy about taking taxis on my own late at night, although buses I feel fine taking as late as they run. The next morning we woke up late and had a philosophical breakfast -- funny how often those happen after a late night dancing. We watched a cat in the high rise across the street inch towards the sun as it strolled along the ledge, ate arepas and talked the talk. I managed to take three buses on my way home, but the day was delicious and I didn't much mind.

Tomorrow is basketball and a workshop at the girls' school, then some kind of reception at the embassy. Those are generally interesting -- 10 lefty loonies (myself included) and Bush's ambassador to Colombia.