so a large chunk of my extended family on my dad's side is camping together this weekend for an annual thing that started years before I was born and has more or less continued since then. Kind of amazing, everyone together but still with their own campsites, but we all just move from table to table, eating and laughing and catching up. I think there will be about 15 couples, a bunch of singles, and a LOT of kids. So..40 people? ish. It completely overwhelms BT, who essentially has a family of 3.

But camping was a highlight of my summer when I was a kid, and then I still loved it later when i was a teen and my cousins and I would hike and play volleyball all day and then drink beers at the beach after dark. And now everyone brings *their* kids and it's just really a nice time. But i'm missing it because dissertation, and guilt, and and i just really had to head back home. Except the universe actually gave my plane mechanical failure and i got stuck in toronto for the night. Not long enough to head out for the trip, but enough to see my parents, help them pack the car, eat half the brownies my mom had baked for the trip, and hopefully to get in a beer with my brother tonight.

I didn't want to leave mtl this morning, and now I don't want to leave toronto. It's taken 8 years, but i think I'm finally ready to leave nola and move back home. I just feel like my life here is so much richer and more supported and why am I sticking it out all by myself in the South anyway?

This is new. I'm going with it.

4:41 p.m. - 2014-07-24