Can you believe 2015 is almost over??? Gah, I better get to explaining the end of 2015 before 2016 gets here. I like to look back at mhy old posts and man oh man...I'm shocked at how time flies but also at how incredibly stupid I was/can be. Sheesh. But I am pretty darn funny. Kinda.
So back to Thanksgiving and Rissa returning to the great state of Texas.
I've been to Texas now three times and all three times has been to Dallas. For such a large state I should check out other cities but until Family or friends move there, Big Dallas will be the spot.
Last time I made my way out to Texas it was for the Annual Conference for NIRSA and I was looking for a job...and the time before that I was headed to spend Thanksgiving with the same aunt and uncle. Only then it was just me and them. And two dogs. That's it. The Lone Niece Thanksgiving of 2014 was my first trip to Texas. It can be a little odd to hang out with family when you aren't surrounded by more family or your immediate family but we became closer and we had a great time. One of my favorite times and great memories.
This time however, I started a trend. My aunt invited her newphews, and her kids had moved back in with them while they figured out careers, school and started families of their own.
So we had 1 aunt, 1 uncle, 3 nephews, 2 significant others of the nephews, 1 daughter, 1 son, 1 son-in-law, 1 grandbaby, 2 original dogs, 2 dogs owned by daughter and son-in-law, 1 dog owned by son, and 1 dog owned by a nephew and last but definite anything but lease, me, the original lone niece. If you can't do the math, I'll let you know...it was 11 adults, 1 infant and 6 dogs all under one roof.
Luckily it's a 2 story house with 3 bathrooms (thank god) or it would have been wayyy worse of a time. I should also explain that the nephews are not my cousins. I had never met them before, they're on the other side of the family. It was just me and the uncle to represent our side but they were pretty cool bunch. 3 brothers and their girlfriends and one of their dogs. We got to know each other and the whole week was pretty fun. Upon arriving, I got the chance to meet them all and we all spent the evening drinking wine (my aunt and uncle are big winos) chatting loudly, laughing over family memories, holding the new baby and drinking more wine (i'm not kidding, they really are big winos).
Wine and baby Keenan. What more could you ask for?
We ate way too much food on Thanksgiving, but with 11 people, left overs are not a thing, they maybe had some left overs that lasted until later that night. We also played a game that's really not PC but super fun.
It's called Secret Hitler, and it's a game kind of like Clue, where you try to figure out who the liberals and the facists are (facists are bad) and then try to kill off Hitler before he becomes Chancelor. It's actually really fun and we spent the time accusing family of being facist-sympathizers while shouting German obscenities and drinking a plethora of wine and beer. It probably was fairly historically accurate to what actually happened in Facist Germany. I got plastered as I haven't drank much since July and 3 glasses in I was telling everyone to call me Angela Merkel and explained how I was going to save pre-EU Germany from economic disaster and that they would all be idiots if they didn't vote for me in the Bundestag (the equivalent of the House in the US) and my international relations and poli-sci major finally had a purpose and I was nerding out real hard.
Friday we nursed some slight hangovers (ok I probably was the only one with a hangover, sue me) and went out to the Big D itself, Downtown Dallas. We went to probably the classiest bowling alley you will ever find, with gourmet food and legit cocktails and a craft beer selection to make the snobiest of beer enthusiasts drool. You went bowling, and then a staff waited on you so in between turns, instead of eating sketchy nachos and whatever is left in the cooler I had a Moscow Mule, some artisan bread and cheese dips (their version of a pretzel and nacho cheese) and someone else got 4 gourmet sliders that were not sliders but actual burgers but it's Texas so you know, that's small.
Proof that I bowled over 100 for the first time in my 24 years of life. Going pro next week.
We brought baby Keenan with us and it was loud and more like a decently lit bar that everyone just happened to be wearing bowling shoes at, but he did great for an infant. I helped get him ready and let's just say that's about the best damn version of birth control ever. Not 3 seconds (I'm not even exaggerating a little bit) after I got him kicking and screaming into his clothes and jacket to go out, I picked him up and he not only spit up all over himself but me as well. Ok, kid. I know you don't know who the heck I am but you're going to need to learn real fast that Aunt Marissa is not to be spit up on. We probably had to change him 4 times and we were only out in public for maybe 2 hours.
Lindz, I love your kiddo, but you can keep him. Taking a hard pass on the whole having kids deal for quite some time. A very hard pass.
Outfit #2 of 4 that day. Little man is cute as a button but so. Much. Laundry.
But it was a very fun night and after bowling we found a place to sit and eat and drink (do you notice a theme here?) and chat. It was definitely what I needed. No job, no work, no home sick, just fun.
Saturday, was go home day for most of the cousins, nephews and myself, so it was more or less spent just picking up, and then heading out. I didn't want to leave, to be honest. It felt really nice to be with family and people who care. And New York meant I'd go back to my very lonely schedule of work, gym, home, repeat.
I think my aunt and uncle picked up on how much I was struggling at that moment. I hit just about 5 months on the East Coast and I was on the lower part of the roller coaster ride of ups and downs. My uncle and I had a good talk about the real world, and he told me about how learning the hard way is the only way but it'll be ok in the end. He talked about how he screwed up at first too. He and I are pretty darn similar, and we both have only just began to realize it. We like the same weird, alternative music that people look at us like we're trying to be Portland hipsters at a concert in the back of a dive bar, in plaid t-shirts and think-rimmed glasses, but then we show up in jeans, converse shoes, in a Mini Cooper and with an attitude of "I'll do what I want" (btw Trevor, Ch. 35 on SiriusXM is my new favorite satellite radio station. And yes, I ask for my parents to renew my subscription every year for Christmas. Check it out.) and have the same sense of sarcastic, everyone here is an idiot, humor (the title of Grand Master Master of the Universe title is up for grabs currently) and a tad too defensive for our own good, and a bit of weird idea that school is good and the more degrees we can get, why the heck not? He's sitting on 2 master's and a doctorate. Why? Because he wanted to advance his career but we both are big nerds. I got my MBA just because I knew it was going to advance me in a career. Which career, who knows. I would have preferred a poli-sci master's degree, and I have a subscription to not only the Times but Wall St. Journal too, my favorite TV shows deal with lawyers and Madame Secretary with her kicking some serious international relations a$$ and I'm like I so could do that (no not at all). I'm already looking at classes I can audit for free since I work at UAlbany. I dabble with the idea of teaching at the college level. But I'm only 5 months and 5 days into my current job so you know...patience. Also something my uncle and I lack. But it was a good life talk with him basically just saying I did it, so you can too. It made leaving a bit easier and got me excited for the future.
What really got me was on Friday night as we were sitting all together in a little restaurant that was definitely more for the hipster Dallas locals, and after maybe a few drinks (more than a few, we promise we aren't alcoholics) I was talking with my aunt about my job and just everything. And I've mentioned it before but I'll say it again. If my emotional level isn't between a 3 and a 7, I'm crying. So I'm tearing up about being home and friend-sick. She gave me a hug and said, she was proud of me and that I was more of a daughter than a niece. Hit me right in the feels. I'm very lucky to have not just a good but a close relationship with them both.
Ok, I'm pretty infatuated with the baby and I'm pretty happy he's around now.
I went back to New York happy to be back actually. We finished up IM sports and Clubs for the semester and I don't feel the need to cry everyday on my drive in or sometimes on my drive home too because I have nothing to go home to and those tweets and letter's to the president really do get to me. (That was a very real time but none of my coworkers know so keep it on the DL) I'm not as miserable. And a few days after my thanksgiving vacation, my boss and I had a semester in review and he asked me what grade would I give myself for the time I had spent. I said a B, and that was honest. It's no where I want it to be yet but we're doing good things and I think it's headed in the right direction. He agreed and gave me an A-. He said that he didn't think that they could have picked a better person for the position if they had the chance to pick anyone and not just the ones who applied. That's pretty uplifting to hear your boss's boss say. I guess it's going a lot better than what they had planned on for the first semester. And we got some big plans for the next semester that I'm excited for, and others that are necessary but not as fun.
All that's missing are the 6 dogs!
Still weird to think that I made it through my first semester. It felt like it dragged on and on but looking back it went by pretty fast too. Funny how that works.
To be continued.
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