Tradition

So I'm with my family for the great Turkey Day tradition. I am thankful that I came from a family of computer geeks and my brother's house has ample laptops just laying around and a fantastic wireless connection.

I love my family, don't get me wrong, but time and time again I am reminded why we all live in different time zones. My brother has the most amazing sense of humor I've ever been around in my life. But he drives me crazy and stresses me out. My sisters are almost as crazy as I am, and make me even more so. And my parents...don't even get me started.

But tomorrow we will feast. In the traditional Law Girl family way we will stuff our faces until we feel like we can't eat another bite and then make "wafer thin mint" jokes for about an hour.

In all of this chaos, I look around at the faces that look so much like mine, and I wonder. I wonder if they think the same things about me. I wonder if they think that I'm the crazy one who lives in fly over land. I wonder if they talk about me when I'm not here. I wonder if in 40 years we'll still be doing the same things. The traditions that mom and dad have forced on us our whole lives, that we have all rebelled from, will they hold true once they are gone? Will we come up with our own as replacements?

I watched the kids sliding across the hardwood floors in their socks. The baby toddling around, wanting to be like the big kids. It reminded me of all those thanksgivings when we were younger. The years where one of us would beat on another one and there would be a screaming match ending with mom threatening to pull out the paddle. The years where we brought in people who had no place else to go, and the weirdness an extra person brought to the table. The years where one of us would bring the new significant other of the month to introduce to the family. The faces that have all passed from memory.

That, of course, made me miss George. I wanted to bring him with me. I wanted to introduce him to my family. I wanted him and my dad to sit and debate electric currents and copper wire. I wanted him and my brother to sit and geek out on the new laptop. I wanted to watch my sisters size him up and decide whether he would be worthy of their best behavior. But...well...yeah.

So, I sit. The family is all sleeping now. The strange house making unfamiliar noises. Curled up in an odd bed, typing on an unfamiliar keyboard. Missing.