Entries Tagged as 'Family'

Santa Cruz Vignettes

Post 1

I arrived in Santa Cruz de la Sierra late late on February 5th, or perhaps early early on February 6th. By three in the morning, I had completed a visa application, paid $135 US, collected my luggage and gained entry into Bolivia. My dear cousins Sergio (Ovando d'Avis) and Yovana (Ovando Eterovic) were waiting patiently [...]


What Six Months Looks Like

Post 2

I am pictured above on the morning of my departure from the United States, on January 4th, 2010. My mother took this photograph in our house in Hamilton, Massachusetts.
I appear to have many possessions with me—two bags-full, in fact—and such is true. I had to choose those items such as socks, shirts, books, electronics, [...]


Not Quite Ready

Post 3

I remain now in Baltimore, sitting and waiting and yawning in the airport, with a barely deiced plane on its way from Boston to discharge passengers and, thereby emptied, consume us for a return again. I slept four hours last night between the first-ever fully completed crossword charades and the morning's downstairs arrival of recently [...]


Promises

Post 4

Madeleine Peyroux - River (with k.d. lang)
I have never spent a Christmas apart from my parents. If this were a competition, I would note that my sister, Nicole, once spent Christmas in México during college. (What, Nicole, what?) When will I break this pattern, and for what reason? I cannot yet imagine, or rather, the [...]


Autumn Morning with Winter On Its Way

Post 5

What am I doing with my car? I am sitting in my dining room on 17th and Denny and looking out the window at Sparkle Motion, wondering at its fate while I am far far away. And I think about the six weeks that I have left in Seattle—six weeks from today until December 22nd—and [...]


Three Mentions of Recent Success

Post 6

I ate four apple cider doughnuts on an achingly autumn afternoon with my father Federico and my mother Melanie and my sister Nicole and my brother-in-law Mark. Not pictured above are the wedding I attended the day before in Gloucester for Amy and Don or the striking colors of my first return to October in [...]


The Best of Times, or Beer with Lunch and Cold Water

Post 7

I feel obliged to archive my day, this 9th of September of 2009, because over and over today I was just feeling fucking triumphant. I woke up just after 7am rested and happy and, without even getting out of bed, got an email via iPhone with fantastic work news (which will remain undisclosed). Trust me: [...]