World Colliding and Warm Fuzzies

Man was I tired this morning. At least my internal clock has shifted so I’m not waking up at 5 am anymore. I’m back at a more civilized 6 am. In other news, it looks like this week is shaping up to be my warm fuzzy week. Last night I was on airport pick-up duty. I drove into work which was tortuous - it took half the time of my regular commute and was so more pleasant. I’m soo tempted to go over to the dark side and start driving into work. Funny thing was when I came back to my car after work, I saw this:

My car had a twin. And yup - that’s my car in the background. The one with the darker shade car door. But I still love it, imperfections and all. And just as I was taking this picture, in comes a text, Cece had just landed. For a moment I second guessed my estimate of how long it would take to get to the airport from work and how long it would take her to get through customs. I didn’t need to worry - it took me like 7 minutes, and her about 37 minutes.

Usually, the general rule is you try to avoid airport pick-up requests, right? Luckily I don’t get inundated with them and when I do they’re for people I can’t turn down. This time I didn’t mind one bit. It was good to have her back - she’s always a ball of positive energy. And she was so excited to be back and to get home to her family. It was nice being able to bring loved ones together.

The added bonus I didn’t expect, was hearing about Nick (my brother) and India through her eyes. I visited a few years back and we saw a lot of similar sites so it was strange and funny to hear her take on some of them. Of course, she lambasted me for not making the trip to the Taj. But I’m young still, right? The best part was hearing about her stay with Nick (he lives in Delhi and put her up for a few nights, and then a few nights more when hurricane Irene backed everything up). It’s always strange when my worlds overlap. For some reason I generally keep them fairly separate. I have these friends here, and these friends over here, and more friends in this pile. Rarely do they overlap and when they do it’s just for a moment like at a dinner party - and I’m present.

So to have my best friend hanging out with my little brother was just strange. But I was proud to hear Nick did good and was great at playing the role of host and guide and scam-checker. She mentioned she could see we were brother/sister. We don’t really look too much alike and I think we’re fairly different, Nick handles his filter much better than I do. But after a few days Cece saw it start to slip and noticed we shared a strange sense of humor along with the quirks. Warm fuzzy number 1 - feeling bonded with my brother from 7,000 miles!

Apparently they even discussed the one thing Nick and I can never agree on - how much time to leave for travel. I’d rather get to the airport an hour before my domestic flight - Nick errs more on the cautious side and targets something ridiculous like 4 hours! You can see the challenge we face when we travel together. It was great hearing about all the stories Cec had and being able to relate. When we finally pulled up to her house, Aaron was outside leaning against the garage door, bandaged up from surgery, casually/anxiously waiting for Cec. It was so sweet. Warm fuzzy number 2 - seeing loved ones reuniting!

And as we were chowing down on Chinese, Cec, Aaron, myself and Mary (who had come over to help Aaron during surgery), I realized it’s really nice to have good friends you can just be with and hang out with and not think or worry about anything. You’re you and they’re them and all’s good. Warm fuzzy number 3!

Another good night and I was able to crawl into bed by 10 this time!