Family in Town

My parents got up here last night. It took them just at 13 hours (including 5 stops for bathroom breaks and dog-walking).

It is awesome to have them up here and to share some of my new places with them. They shared my reaction of being starstruck with things that I now look at as commonplace. "Look at all this traffic!" "Where do all of these people live/drive to/shop/go for coffee/etc.?!" My dad, too, had the hell scared out of him when he was following directions to my apartment but found himself on a ramp taking him to the George Washington Bridge. Granted he had been driving for 13 hours, and he had four Mountain Dews in his system, but my mother tells me his hands started shaking when he got to that point. Bless his heart. I remember freaking out and telling David to check the directions at least a dozen times before I calmed down when we exited before crossing the bridge into Manhattan. It's not a mean place at all, but there's something distinctly terrifying about the thought of driving into a Metropolis for the first time.

He's also claustrophobic. I understand the bumper-to-bumper traffic freaks him out, too. I was showing off Hoboken today, and he got pretty freaked out when we were on a ramp to the Holland Tunnel. The thought of bumper-to-bumper traffic AND being underground in a tunnel made what's left of his hair stand on end. I felt bad, but it was also kind of funny.

I'm always learning different things about my parents. They, like most people I know, were worried about me moving up here by myself, and they continue to worry. They worry to a lesser extent now that they see I have a fitting apartment and know my way around.

However, my dad and I stayed up pretty late last night, drinking beers, catching up. He very rarely gets emotional, but last night he told me that he really misses me. Mom has hinted that he lets it slip now and then that he feels lonely without me around. Last night was the first time he's just come out and said it. But just like *THAT* he changed the conversation to something else, something completely unemotional or delicate. That is a quality I have always admired in him, but its also pretty scary. One of those blessing/curse situations that I am noticing more and more.

Later in the conversation, Dad and I were talking about moving for work. He told me that there is no way he could ever have uprooted and moved away like I have. That felt like a victory to some unspoken competition we've had since I have grown up. "I did something my dad could never do." AWESOME. There's probably something oedipal about the fact that I value this fact so much. I don't care, though. I'll enjoy this sensation while I have it.

Mom is mom. She's a breath of fresh air. Whenever she's around her children its like she's ingested her weight in extacy. She's just completely wired with love. Its endearing, and if anyone else acted the way she does, I would find them completely obnoxious.

Today has been a New Jersey day for them. I took them to Hoboken, Liberty State Park, and then around my neck of the woods. Tomorrow we're going to the city, and I'll show off some of the things I like about the Hudson River Valley area. And then Monday we're going to have a hodge-podge of things to do.

My only complaint so far is that they didn't bring the bourbon from Kentucky that I asked of them. To be fair, I only e-mailed them about it on Thursday, and they didn't get the message before they left on Friday morning. Oh well....just one more thing to look forward to for Memorial Day weekend.