Stuff happens when you pretty much miss 24 years.
I've certainly popped into town more than a few times during my Rip Van Winkle meets Deliverance phase, but it's easier to see changes in vignettes than if they ease in around you.
I was at the upper end of a particularly fertile period in my family history. There are six years between me and my middle brother with about five cousins popped out in between and one right after.
Today I look at a group that started out so similarly and marvel at the directions and differences. It's easy to be pigeonholed by the "ones" we were (the smart one, the athletic one, the beauty queen one, the nice guy one...) but a lot more fun to see who we became.
It was inevitable that Cheryl would become a soceer Mom, but it's fun to see the strong as nails Mama who lay quietly beneath the surface. Yes, the idea of her driving her mini-van downtown is funny and wrong turns on unfamiliar turf were inevitable. But she is up for the adventure. When she walked into the lobby of my apartment building last night, the owner of the building came out to see if she was lost (our lobby is broadcast into the rooms through the cable television system and the guy obviously was not used to seeing sweet and perky in the vicinity). She was smiling and explaining she was here to see her cousin Judi when I got there to let her in. As the landlord walked away, I swear I saw him smile for the first time since I've been here. Cheryl is like that.
Cheryl's older sister (my younger cousin) Stacy transitioned only slightly from the athletic one to the cool one. Her Dad had the James Dean factor when he was young, and Stace was the one to carry it forward. There were no pretenders among us for the crown, it is hers outright.
The video for a song (On My Way) she wrote debuted last night at a downtown club. Cheryl and I met cousin Bernie and his wife at the club. This was the third time in as many weeks that suburbanites Bernie and Karen came downtown for me and I was honored. This was the second recent trip for Cheryl (the first one being, of course, taking the kids to see Peter vs. the Wolf with the symphony). I was as happy about them being there as I was in seeing Stacy's debut.
It was hard to hear much over the music so I did a lot of watching, particularly the interaction between Stacy and Cheryl.
For two polar opposite females personalities to share a room through their teen years is a hormonal perfect storm. These two didn't just fight, they tortured each other.
Today neither one of them is any more like the other than they were a couple decades back, but they obviously love and respect who they are today.
I remember who they were, see who they are now and know I missed some good stuff in between.
People change and stay the same at once. I'm just glad to be back among the people who know who I was... and love me anyway.

Copyright 2005 Judi Griggs