Mama Bear, Sissy Bear

"Oh, I'm just gonna squeeze you and kiss you all over!!" My mother squealed on the other end of my office phone. I rolled my eyes, then tried to hold back giggles. In reality I wanted to tell her that not only was I super excited to be seeing her, but that all my love would probably come pouring out and I would cry and grab her and hug her and throw her through the wall.

This is how we love in my family. So big, that it hurts.

My sister is also coming this weekend. "Sister" always seems like such a plain choice of words for her. She's more like my esophagus....or my spine. She's like the nuclei to every cell in my body. My sister is me...only older and probably much wiser. But only slightly cuter.

When they visited me in New York I could hardly muster up the energy to show them all the wonderful amazing things the city had to offer. Here in Houston, aside from the ridiculously shamefully wide range of eateries and the "who shot John" cockroaches....we're kind of left with the main components; hot weather and miles of sky and time to talk.

The best part of seeing them, under any circumstance is that it's a refresher course in who I am. Seeing my mother's wide shy smile and hearing my sisters mountainous laugh. These are the things that are more a part of me than anything else I've become recently. Underneath it all, even when I'm far away and even though I'm not all that high (yet)... they keep me grounded.