OTAS, you found it

A while back my aunt from Seattle decided she would come in and visit my grandparents last weekend. My parents quickly followed suit as did I, a sort of impromptu family reunion. (I can’t remember the last time when all of my father’s side of the family were in the same place.)

Friday, the date of my departure, things were not looking well – a dizzy spell on the Subway, bad weather, and feeling like I was going to pass out all spelled disaster. Nonetheless, I went to the airport for my much-delayed flight and asked them to just book the ticket for tomorrow. They refused. So I endured the La Guardia delays and got into Chicago late that night.

It was well worth the travel turmoil. (On my way there I managed to finish “The Sun Also Rises” and have to say that switching from Steinbeck to Hemmingway was like sitting in a sauna for three hours, then jumping into a snow drift.)

Unlike other trips to Chicago when I usually stay with Anthony, I spent a night with my brother and did some catching up until about 4am. Tiring, but well worth it. Saturday was a real whirlwind. We did some shopping that morning then went out for a family lunch then to my grandparents’ house for sweets and coffee.

I have to say hanging out with my aunt was really fun. She’d always been a “cool” person, having married a famous jazz musician ... whenever her relatives/friends/musicians were in New York she put them in touch with me to hang out and we had a ball. But I’ve never really known her, per se. She’d been alienated by my grandparents – she rarely visited and vice-versa – along with her son, cousin Mike, and his child, their only great grandchild. . . The Japanese are hard-core. She also has stepchildren who I’ve never met.

This arrangement seemed to have worked. But in more recent years she seems to wants us to know her life. So she took me through pictures of her granddaughter, home, stepchildren, their wives and her new boyfriend.

So it was a really nice visit. Not too much tension – at least new tension. We all got through the datwell.

Then it was time for another reunion of sorts. College friends, old friends, a new friends and my parents got together for a night out. We decided to meet at the bar of one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. At first, we hugged and chatted, but as the hour grew later, and as we had margaritas, every new guest (they are notoriously late) was greeted with a tremendous cheer as they walked through the door. It was hilarious. Being the best of friends -- we all stood up in eachother's weddings -- we talked for hours catching up and telling old war stories. Before we knew it we’d drank pitchers of margaritas and the restaurant was closing.

Despite one having a flight out to Saudi Arabia, another with a newborn child, another with a husband waiting, and myself having to have breakfast with my old next-door neighbor, we carried on elsewhere. First to see Val at Cocktail, then to Side Tracks, then, eventually, to Roscoe’s where it was just Anthony and me. We then met up with others before finishing off the night at Hydrate. UGH I think I got to be around 6 am -- I haven’t done THAT for a while. The rest of the day was rough. Though I’d originally had a late-night flight home, I took the 1pm flight back to New York, crawled into bed, and slept for 12 hours.

What a visit.

Pictures to come.