Return to the fold (family)

Upon my return to the right coast, I've been making up for lost family time in a big way. I've been spending quality time with my extensive family (oldest of 4, thank you very much), extended family (walking with an aunt this morning, talking with several uncles), and the de facto family (neighbors, friends, and others). It's entertaining (most of the time) and somewhat exhausting (only every once in a while) after so much time away.

Last night, my dad and I spent some time talking about the blues. He went to a show and had a very good time. During our post-show conversation, I was reminded of the time that I rebelled against my family by hating music. They love it and pre-teen Me hated it just because. Luckily, pops brought me to see music that I could not hate and I am not bereft of all that is good in the world [My own personal opinion is that a person who does not like music is on a slippery slope to abject disgruntledness for life.] I like our conversations about music. He grew up with Led Zep, old blues, and millions of others I'll never have the first hand knowledge he has. But, he likes to tell stories and I like to listen.

Today, I tried to teach sister #2 how to parallel park. In my humble opinion, I'm a good parallel parker. That's a lie. I think I'm a great parallel parker. If you are around me long enough, it's possible I'll tell you the story of the man who came out of the store to take my picture because of my superior parallel parking skills. Anyhow, the sister needed to perfect the parallel park for today's road test and I attempted to give her some last minute advice. It turns out parallel parking is a personal thing. Each person must find their zone. My perfected technique did not translate down the years. Poor kid will have to learn on her own.