1991

Minette just flew out this morning to return to the US. That just leaves Robin here, until the 4th, after which my cousin-entertaining duties will go on hibernation mode. One thing I didn't expect was how cooperative they were in wanting to eat. They would call us on all suggestions to have another snack, another place for dessert, a second breakfast. I think their goals were to gain weight while here.

They don't fly in as often as my other cousins. In fact, the two haven't been here in 15 years. In the week or so they've been here though, I'd like to think that we somehow filled the void between of who we were as 11 year old kids and who we are now as people in our mid 20s. One funny recollection we talked about this afternoon was how we'd hang out before. They lived in Valle Verde, and we lived in Sta Mesa Heights. We would just show up un-announced at their apartment-step during weekends, and their helper would get all worked up trying to figure how to feed three extra mouths for lunch. Sometimes also, our driver would just ring their doorbell to announce that it was time to be picked up and brought over to our house. Can you imagine spending time with your friends now without flagging what the activity would be, or making a schedule, or figuring out where it is appropriate to meet? It's regression in many ways, isn't it.

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I think we were heading off to Metrowalk to buy some pirated stuff (yes!) when the subject of Irish-ness was brought up. I used to make fun of Mahar for wearing it as a badge of pride. As I clarified to a co-worker who thought I thought as my younger bro did, I don't self-identify as Irish. I don't even self-identify as American so I don't really get why any of us would want to talk about it in that way. My cousins gave me a fresh perspective though on what it meant for the family. 'Coz they more on the, yes, we're Irish and shouldn't hide it bit as well. they said that our grandmo thought very strongly about this as well -- and communicated it too. I had to ask: well, what is it then that would mark us that way, for us to legitimately (caution!) claim such a thing? Yes, our great-grandfather was Irish . .and?

Musicality, poetry, Irish names, catholicism(? how ironic if they had brought this up but they didn't). Most interesting though was the comment brought up by Minette...you could say it's also Pride. People who are even "less" Irish then us, know they are. So that was something I had to think about. . .but then we started moving on to talking about how occasionally frustrating it was to deal with this multi-cultural baggage. . .more on this another time.

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I visited 3 cemeteries this All Saints day period. first time i think for us