well, hell

If there's one thing I've learned after all these years on this lovely orb, that one thing would be: Everything is subject to change.
Not even a week after my last trip to this oh-so-peaceful shore, I found myself on the road again. ON THE ROAD AGAIN. After pledging NOT to do so for a while.
Ya see, it's like this. I've been seeing my bird since early March of 2009 and I had not yet met ANY of his family. True, none of them live IN Charleston, but he does have a sister who lives just an hour away. I did get to talk to her on the phone once, but we have not yet met. Nor had I met anyone he's known for more than a few years. But he HAS met almost all of my people. So you see the disparity.
Well, when he phoned to "remind" me of the family reunion in Atlanta that was coming up on the 3rd of July, I told him that I would not be going. First, reference this. Secondly, it wasn't even HIS family reunion, it was that of his brother-in-law's family. Ergo, we would be reunion-crashers. AND I was dealing with surgery jitters and other medical maladies. (I had brought a brown recluse spider back from Tennessee, apparently, and it had bitten me near my navel. No, I had not yet seen my doctor about it, but I had an appointment with her on the 6th for a different matter and thought I would bring up the bite then. Meanwhile, I was taking very good care of it.) I also still felt like part of my getting lost in my travels was somehow my bird's fault, for not being with me, so I had some misplaced and undeserved - admittedly, but nonetheless - anger in his direction.
So, there I am, on the phone trying to nurse this grudge and he says: "it would really mean a lot to me for you to come with me. I really want you to meet my baby sister." I'm telling ya, if you had heard him, you would totally understand why I couldn't say no... and while I didn't say "yes", I did say MAYBE. He had to make sure it would be okay if his sister brought not one, but TWO reunion crashers, and make all the arrangements before I would say okay.
And he did. And we went. And I had a great time! I really enjoyed meeting his sister and her husband and their granddaughter. I really enjoyed meeting their cousin and his wife, also crashing the reunion. I really enjoyed time spent with various members of the brother-in-law's family, participating in the scavenger hunt (and helping the winner succeed!), eating some mighty tasty ribs, and... singing karaoke. That's right, I got behind that microphone and SANG and thoroughly enjoyed myself, beginning with "Rockin' Robin"! Once the Soul Man knew I would sing, he kept asking me to come on up, and you betcha I did. I remember doing "Stop, In The Name Of Love" and seems there was at least one other before my finale of "Lean On Me" just before we departed. Mind, these weren't songs I selected. Oh, no, these were chosen FOR me by the karaoke host. But of course I knew the songs - they were all classics I had grown up hearing, right here in this Southern city by the sea.
Yeah, it meant a lot to my bird to have me flying alongside... and it meant a lot to me to be there, too.