Treffen mit Leute

As a child, my family and I never went on what I considered to be real vacations (e.g., Disneyland, Washington D.C., Mt. Rushmore). Instead, we would take road trips to see my parents', mostly my mother's, relatives. I wasn't fooled for a minute that Ohio and Iowa were exotic places, but my sisters and I couldn't drive or persuade our parents to detour anywhere else.

These vacations were what I remember to be as basically couch vacations. We would show up at one of my mother's cousin's place and be very polite, waiting to be asked to be seated. My sisters and I would sit on the available couch and sit quietly while my mother caught up with the scuttlebutt. Typical questions directed at my sisters and me included, "What grade are you in? What kind of books are you reading?" Our answers were limited and over excited in the hopes that maybe this cousin whom we've never met before would be like a favorite neighbor of ours and keep water in the fridge in a metal pitcher and offer it to us with a cookie or some sort of sweet. If the furniture of the relative looked expensive, we hoped for some sort of small toy present that would keep us occupied during our two-hour sits on the couch.

At the time, I didn't appreciate these vacations, but I find myself in a similar situation now. Seeing as though for the next half decade or so I will only be visiting the States for a month or two at a time, my vacation time is now visiting time so that I can catch up with friends, former colleagues, and family. Things are a little different, though. I'm old enough to guide a conversation and have more life experience to share small anecdotes and clever observations. I'm also more judgmental than my younger self, so gossip scuttlebutt really catches my interest. It feels good to laugh really hard with people I don't see very often, but still love dearly just the same. Trash talking over Trivial Pursuit boards is also a nice addition to visiting vacations.

So here's to you, mother. A 27 year-old Monique is apologizing for the 7 year-old Monique's restlessness and whining on long car rides to Midwestern family visits.