Oddly enough, living in NYC with our roots in Michigan and Guyana, we rarely have out-of-town friends swing by. Which in part made this particular weekend so flipping special. Alainna, Andy and I go waaaaay back – as in, elementary back. Alainna quickly became one of my dearest friends in our school days, and, along with several other friends, all 3 of us rented a house together throughout college.
Many moons later, they now live in Ft. Meyeres, Florida, added Zane to their crew and have a bustling tattoo / art gallery shop – Howl Tattoo Shop. This was one of the best weekends. ever. It started out with picking them up in Newark Airport when my car decided to no longer ‘go’. And then decided to ‘go’, a crazy detour through the ghetto (welcome to NYC, guys!).. a boozy reunion evening followed by an aching day-after, a trip to the Natural History Museum, tooling about NYC, Liberty Landing Marina, enjoying the spring flowers and going from 80° and sunny to 40° and freezing, their art gallery opening (did I mention this was also a bit of a business trip for them, as well?) at the Stephen Romano Gallery in Bushwhack, late night pop-tart snacks cause we didn’t eat dinner in time and all around now-mature-parental shenanigans 🙂
And then there was meeting Zane. This is on the shortlist of highlights from our time together for me. I’ve never met a more confident, kind, thoughtful, compassionate 13-year old boy. And crazy talented. Within a day, my youngest was referring to them as his other ‘family’.. ‘where’s our other family?’, ‘what are we going to do today with our other family’. He misses his ‘other family’. I miss our ‘other family’.
Sigh. I’m now adding Florida to the top of our must-travel-to destinations.! Anyone want to get married in Florida and bring me along? Anyone??
I hope you enjoy this little personal post 🙂
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