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July 15, 2005
Family Matters
Late last night I received an offer to join a last-minute surf trip to Big Sur. This would have meant Leave the city at noon, join my 1pm conference call from Highway 280, hike down a clif through poison oak somewhere South of Nepenthe to knit and journal and watch surfers from the rocky beach-with-no-sand, hike back out (and up) through the poison oak, sleep in the car on the side of the road, repeat the hike/knit/journal/watch/hike part, and drive back in time for Saturday night fun in the City.
Except for the poison oak part, it sounded perfect! There are few things better than spontaneous adventures. Since my boss is out of town, nobody would even have known I'd skipped out early. And I was kind of excited about calling in to the conference call while in the middle of a fun road trip...
I reveled in the fact that such offers present themselves, and ultimately said no due to a Friday night scheduling conflict.
Now the weekend plans involve neither Option 1 nor Option 2, but an unforeseen Option 3. After years and years of not being with us mentally and a mercifully brief bout with pneumonia, my paternal grandfather passed away this morning. And so I'm off to San Diego, where my cousins Ming, Wei, Ghean, and Ling (AKA #1, #3, #4, and "The Girl," though they say it in Chinese) are already gathered. Hung, #2, won't be joining us since it's a long haul from China to San Diego; Adam is in the middle of the hours it takes to plan the float plane/jet combo journey, and with any luck we'll see him tonight, too.
Since they're on the mind, here's a photo of #3, one of my great aunts, #2, lots of red meat that dad barely warmed on the grill, and The Girl, taken last summer when Ming almost got married. Folks flew in from all over the world; it was fascinating to see the event get instantly reframed as a reunion when the wedding itself got called off the week before... gotta love family!
Posted by Elizabeth at July 15, 2005 10:30 AM