Musings on music, sports, life in general from Quincy, Illinois.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Sibling Summit

My mother died in 2005, and it's a shame it took a death in the family to get us to wake up and reconnect.

So every Labor Day weekend since, we've gathered. The first four years it was in Phoenix, where you walk out of the airport and the heat sucks the breath from your body. Phoenix meant alternating between the pool or the AC. My brother hosted and we always had a Saturday night meeting to figure stuff out.

Those first Sibling Summits we had some great discussions and aired out a lot of thoughts and ideas. My mother's death put some serious perspective on life and we used the weekend to process.

Now we just laugh. A lot. We have Big Cousins and Little Cousins and I think about what my mom is doing and thinking right now, besides laughing her head off, of course.

This year we are in Denver at my sister's place. Just because you can walk out the door and around the corner and see the mountains in the 70-degree sunshine doesn't mean it's really all that spectacular. Pffft.

The point is to just hang out. Nobody makes big plans or trips. In Phoenix you'd find me beside the cooler and the pool. Yesterday I watched seven college football games and it was pure heaven. Thankfully we squeezed in a trip to the park for a baseball game and Uncle David's awesome grilling. 

I've also learned it's a marathon, not a sprint. Slow and steady wins the race. Cliches kill just about every blog post. But I don't care. Neither does my liver.

Today we are slowly waking up, listening to 6-year-old Erin happily babble in the kitchen and thinking about a 10 a.m. Bloody Mary. Then the boys are going to a Rockies game (taking the Light Rail, a beautiful thing) and the girls are going shopping (tried hiding the plastic but had no luck).

Next year we are thinking about Raleigh, N.C., where my other sister just moved. In two years, maybe little old Quincy. You never know.

It should be illegal having this much fun packing 16 people into a house!



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