While yesterday was a highly productive day trekwise (I spent the day in Rockport, MA — the photos I took are out of this world), I spent most of the day today, strangely enough, in bed. I guess we all need our days to recharge.
Eileen came up briefly in the early afternoon, and finally got to see my apartment. She relayed a story to my roommates that I don’t think I’d ever heard before today:
Before Jenny was born, I had to decide whether I wanted to be an “Aunt” or an “Auntie”. I decided on “Auntie”.
I guess I had never thought about it before… but if you really think about it… if you’re the oldest child. Before you were born, a few people had to decide how they would attach new names to new roles — aunt and uncle, grandma and grandpa, nana and papa. And most importantly, mommy and daddy, mom and dad… ma and dad.
It probably looks like I’m babbling… I guess it made more sense in my head. It also felt more sentimental… I’ve been feeling a lot of that today. Trying to remember the first conversations I ever had with the people I care about most. With Matt it was the cafeteria table, over a piece of poetry. With Shannon, it was a bus ride in the 5th grade. With Zac… our first official conversation was actually over the internet, ten minutes after I walked in the door from summer vocal camp. With Mike… walking in on him in his room, and he showed me pictures of his cat and his favorite car (he tells me our first conversation was actually during my freshman year, when he stole my hat at a party. I feel bad that I don’t remember that at all).
And Brian… our first encounter was at Blue State Coffee with Mike and Matt Beach, followed by D&B, followed by Uno at IHOP (Bickford’s?), followed by Cranium in my apartment until 4 am. I was amused and enchanted that someone enjoyed Guinness seemingly as much as I did. But our first REAL conversation occurred over the WQAQ screenname, and over the air… I feel like talking about music is the best way to connect. It tells me so much about a person… especially if we have that first conversation for a fair amount of time. But I noticed his voice (not just heard — noticed), and how it rose and fell, and how he told a story. And even when we talk now, I still find myself getting lost occasionally in the even metronome of his voice… I love it.
So now I’m watching Weeds and trying to get geared up for bed. Feeling hungry, though not sure for what. It’s one of those nights.
~J.
You know… I’m the oldest in my immediate family, but I have 2 older cousins on my father’s side. My father’s parents were the only grandparents I knew. Oddly enough, I actually named my grandfather and called him “Bo”. I have no idea why. My grandma was just called that. However, my 2 older cousins called them “Gram” and “Pop”. I just think it’s funny that we had different names for them (of course my cousins lived in MA about 2 hours away and I lived in the same town as my grandparents, thus saw them more often).
I don’t actually have any “aunties”. They’re all “aunt”… with the exception of my mother’s aunts that I met. They were “auntie”, but I didn’t know them very well.