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Family news
May. 9th, 2010 06:44 pmI think I've mentioned that my nephew was offered a job on a yacht that was moored on Roatan when we were there in March. He was scheduled to fly down there next Thursday, but when I arrived at the Bend-Redmond airport on Friday, I found my sister-in-law waiting at baggage claim with news that the captain of the yacht had just e-mailed my nephew that morning saying it was off, they'd found somebody else, don't come down. This was quite the bombshell, as my nephew had quit his job and bought a plane ticket -- not to mention the shattered dreams he was suffering. My sister-in-law, on the other hand, was relieved that her baby wouldn't be departing for adventures and risks unknown. However, my nephew had sent a message to the captain complaining about this poor treatment. The next morning he received a message from the captain saying, "Never mind my previous message. Come on down." So the gig is apparently still on, and the first stage will be a trip to Belize, Jamaica, and maybe Cuba, before heading to the home base of Bocas del Toro in Panama.
All of these ups and downs and potentialities were needless to say the source of much conversation this weekend. My nearly-20-year-old nephew is excited and scared. His parents are nervous and hopeful. I'm envious. I would've never had the nerve to do what he's doing. At the same time, I'm proud of him. Hard to say how this will turn out, but he's taking a shot at gaining some life experience and having an adventure. I've got to think this will be a good thing for him, no matter how it goes. Just the way he handled himself through the hairpin turns of the story this weekend was impressive. Kid's growing up.
Also, mark your calendars: My 50th birthday party (and my dad's 80th) will be at my brother's place in Corvallis on Saturday, September 25th. I know this is far afield for even my friends in Seattle, and I don't expect people to make the journey. However, you are more than welcome to come. It will be a pig roast, or something like it. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this as we get closer to the date. There's still a lot of planning to do.
On yet another front, last night I watched a Chilean movie called Gringuito (1998) with my sister and niece. My sister is going to Santiago in July to teach ESL for six months. The movie was a pretty interesting little family melodrama focused on a young Chilean boy whose family moves back to Santiago from New York City. He has trouble with the transition, signaled by his refusal to speak Spanish (gringuito = little gringo), so that in the first half of the film he's the only character speaking English. For such a family-friendly story it manages to get into some interesting nooks of Santiago, including a brothel. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It had a winning ordinariness about it.
My parents are beginning to think about where they want to live in the next phase of their lives. The house at Crooked River is beginning to feel like a chore to maintain, and they both have enough health issues of various stripes that simplifying and getting closer to amenities are becoming goals. It could take a couple more years to get there, but they're going to start looking at places in the Willamette Valley this summer. Who knows how it will go?
Big changes ahead, big changes now. My brother and sister-in-law have a big one hitting them next week. Ah well, reminds me of the years my niece lived in Manhattan. We grow up, and we grow old.
All of these ups and downs and potentialities were needless to say the source of much conversation this weekend. My nearly-20-year-old nephew is excited and scared. His parents are nervous and hopeful. I'm envious. I would've never had the nerve to do what he's doing. At the same time, I'm proud of him. Hard to say how this will turn out, but he's taking a shot at gaining some life experience and having an adventure. I've got to think this will be a good thing for him, no matter how it goes. Just the way he handled himself through the hairpin turns of the story this weekend was impressive. Kid's growing up.
Also, mark your calendars: My 50th birthday party (and my dad's 80th) will be at my brother's place in Corvallis on Saturday, September 25th. I know this is far afield for even my friends in Seattle, and I don't expect people to make the journey. However, you are more than welcome to come. It will be a pig roast, or something like it. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this as we get closer to the date. There's still a lot of planning to do.
On yet another front, last night I watched a Chilean movie called Gringuito (1998) with my sister and niece. My sister is going to Santiago in July to teach ESL for six months. The movie was a pretty interesting little family melodrama focused on a young Chilean boy whose family moves back to Santiago from New York City. He has trouble with the transition, signaled by his refusal to speak Spanish (gringuito = little gringo), so that in the first half of the film he's the only character speaking English. For such a family-friendly story it manages to get into some interesting nooks of Santiago, including a brothel. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It had a winning ordinariness about it.
My parents are beginning to think about where they want to live in the next phase of their lives. The house at Crooked River is beginning to feel like a chore to maintain, and they both have enough health issues of various stripes that simplifying and getting closer to amenities are becoming goals. It could take a couple more years to get there, but they're going to start looking at places in the Willamette Valley this summer. Who knows how it will go?
Big changes ahead, big changes now. My brother and sister-in-law have a big one hitting them next week. Ah well, reminds me of the years my niece lived in Manhattan. We grow up, and we grow old.
