...and all of You...

Part of me thinks I am hiding behind film reviews. Haha.... That sounds so shrink couch.

I love writing film reviews but I do feel a flood of personal commentaries/observations/whatevers building up behind some dam.

I love my family, I do.

I came down from Guelph with my maternal grandmother (a.k.a. Nana), who lives in Kitchener, this Wednesday and have been staying at my mother's place in Bloor West Villiage (Toronto) since. On Wednesday, I had dinner at East Side Mario's on the Queensway (west Tobes) with my mother, her husband, both maternal grandparents, a grand-mother-in-law, both aunts, one uncle and two cousins. It was bumpin. I had fun with my 15-year-old cousin who hails from Lewes, in Sussex, UK, who has grown up in the last year and a half and has a wicked (but altogether familial) sense of humor. It was a great dinner, as in... hardly painful at all (rare!) and after that, the aforementioned cousin, my brother and I went to watch The Bourne Ultimatum. The best part about that escapade? The fact that my brother and I watched The Bourne Supremacy (part two of the three-part series) with this very same cousin and his older brother last time they visited and we didn't realize it until we were standing there in front of the theatre checkin out show times. I mean that's a crazy thing to not plan. If there's a fourth part, we gotta fanangle something to keep the tradition alive.

It was weird that I could see my cousin checking out girls as we were talking. He wasn't very discreet....... What else can I say about that?

I've enjoyed hanging out with the aunts... I've enjoyed being treated (like for outings and dinnerings) and most of all I have enjoyed passing this whole time without any "we're disappointed in you" speeches, or the likes. It's kinda..... scary. It's unprecedented and somewhat nerve-wracking. On Thursday we went to Ontario place in the afternoon/evening to see this Chinese Lantern exhibit. It was very beautiful, I do declare. I had a lot of fun and my 4-year-old cousin is a gem. He's .... disturbingly well behaved and his imagination is a craze to be reckoned with. I enjoyed having my brother there, too, though because he and I would have a bond that no others there would. Yep.

We scored on this free water ride near the end of the day. We went twice in a row.... little Simon (the cousin) LOVED it beyond your wildest imagination and the rest of us, my aunt, brother and self, were scared out of our lives. There's photo documentation of this fact which I hope to post soon enough.


Today (Friday) was a more relaxable day; the out-of-townies went to the zoo to see some dinosaur exhibit and I stayed here with my moms and her moms. Every time the three of us hang out, I think about how I need to have a baby soon so we can get four generations in one room. Love it.

We did a bit of prancing/shopping in this loverly Bloor West Villiage and I talked myself out of buying more things than I expected I could. I ended up with a birthday card (that I gave 76 days early) and a lil' pursey-wallety dude... for $3.42 (marked as $3.50 before taxes...go figure). It's 100% jute! I don't know what jute is but I'll play it on a Scrabble board the next chance I get.

On Thursday morning, the Oakleys (that's my eldest aunt, her hubsand and son - it would also include the other son if he were here) came to my moms' for "tea" (how british can you be I do not know...) and whild the oldies talked their brains off, the cousin, Rob (or "Blim"), and I played gin. First he made me play "Speed Gin" which is a completely ridiculous game - Gin with the Euchre deck - and then I made him play Rummy 500 partly because I hate over using the Euchre portion of a deck (it happens too often) and partly because the game just wasn't sound or properly challenging. Holy run-on sentence, Batman. We played with Simon a bit because he couldn't play cards OR hold grown-up conversation and the "pretend I'm a baby dragon" game wore itself out rather quickly. When the baby dragon pretended to have a nap, I felt rather optomistic. I don't know many kids who can pretend to sleep (when they're bushed) and actually NOT sleep.


One of these days I'll be a real person. I look forward to that. I don't entirely want to talk about it though.

Observing my mother with her two sisters and her mother gives me much insight into which of my mum's traits, my sister's traits and my own are from the nurture side of the fence. I wonder which things I can fight and which things I will grow into yet. I wonder how they don't see that they possess traits that they despise in the others. I wonder why I'm not in bed yet.