Thankful Friday

Taking a cue from Cindy, I’m doing a Thankful Friday post today.

I made it to San Diego yesterday with zero problems. Not even any motion-sickness which is just a joy when it comes to me and any kind of movement. I was met at the airport by Stephie and my new cousin to be, Toni.

We headed straight to the salon to get our nails done. *Shellac is cool ya’ll! This grey/blue color is also cool.* The nail tech asked how long we’d known each other and we laughed and said, “Oh about twenty minutes, in real life” and she was very confused.

Bless her heart.

It’s another relationship cultivated over the interwebs.

You guys, she’s so stinkin cute. And to see her with my cousin Patrick…oh lord. I could cry. I’ve held it together like a trooper in the emotion category, but let’s be realistic. I’ve not even been here a full day. It’ll happen.

Rehearsal dinner was so good last night, about 30 people, all gathered with the same intention in their heart, to celebrate Patrick and Toni, combined with laughter, wine, delicious food, some manic photo op’s and OH MAN, my heart was full.

Steph, Jerome and I posted up at the end of a table and we talked and talked. Missing my sister, and our Texas cousins in a real, real way, we talked of “Cousin Trips” and how it’s just so fun when we’re together. I said, “I love being grownup together! I had no idea it would be this fun!”

How great is it to be with family, and love them with your whole heart?

When you add in the bonus of actually really really liking them and having them as a real friend in your life…

Listening to my dad and aunt talk about their cousins, the ones we all used to reunion with every summer when they were probably the age us “kids” are today, I saw how easy it is to get fractured, to let a connection like that dissolve. Life moves fast, change comes in the form of different jobs, living locations, children and grandchildren. It’s easy to take for granted that it will always be the way it was.

It takes work.

This morning, as we are all getting around, and having our coffee, and adjusting to the time zones, (I from the Central, Jerome from the Brooklyn)  I am thankful for this gorgeous beautiful place that I’m in. I am thankful. I am thankful for family. I am thankful for friends. I am thankful that for me, right now, those are one in the same.

I leave you with a recipe for MeMe’s Grape Salad.

This. This is how we roll upinhere, yo.

Grape Salad.

green grapes -2lb-cut up or small

purple grapes-2lb-cut up or small

8oz  creme cheese

8oz sour creme

healthy half a cup of good brown sugar.

Slurry all together and be thankful for your tastebuds.

Happy Thankful Friday!