My mom came to visit me on Thursday. She was heading down to Maryland for the weekend, to visit her college roomate who's twin sons were having their bar-mizfah(s?) this weekend. Philadelphia is (sort of) en route to Baltimore, so we had dinner.

I feel sort of guilty, only seeing my mom for six hours in as many weeks, and I sort of feel like I should've spent this weekend (our "fall break" — a misnomer if there ever was one, but more on this another time — was this weekend) going to visit home, but I guess, with my mother here, and five sevenths of my family no longer at said home, it would be a little pointless.

She arrived at her hotel just as my English class let out. It's sometimes a little weird when two different spheres of your existance — at least, spheres so completely different as home and school — meet together in the same place at the same time. I'm never quite sure what to anticipate with those things. I'm always afraid the combination self that I'll come up with for the moment won't quite seem true enough to anyone.

It's not like I consciously create different identies (if they even count as real "identities" which I'm not sure they do) — they just sort of happen. Different wines bring out different flavors in foods. It's that way with people too, I guess. (Or something.)

But anyway, as it turns out, sometimes these identies aren't so different. Or maybe they just blend better than I thought. I don't know. But anyway, it was good to see her.

I've been trying — and not terribly successfully, I suppose — to keep better tabs on everyone this year. I call home more often and write emails and I don't think more than a week has gone by this year when I haven't had some form of contact with someone in my family. But some things, you really can't get across the lines of an email or telephone.

(Sometimes, I wonder if I'm destined to be one of those people always wishing they were at a place and time just passed, or not quite there yet, but never satisfied with where they are. I don't want to be that way, but it seems so inevitable sometimes.)

It's good to see people in person, potential clashing of spheres and all.

previously | http://parenthetical.org/ | next

Replies: 3

Posted by Z @ 10/16/2001 01:32 AM EST

bar mitzvah

Posted by shaun @ 10/16/2001 01:29 PM EST

I hear you on that keeping in touch thing. I'm so horrible with it.

Posted by kim @ 10/16/2001 03:24 PM EST