Christmas Break

I was only back in LA a few days before I was headed home for Christmas.  Being gone the last few weeks, I didn't do much Christmas shopping until I got home the day before Christmas Eve.  Not a good time for avoiding crowds and traffic.  Christmas went better than Thanksgiving, and we all did get together and have a big meal at the house.  We played a lot of board games, which had become a pretty solid family holiday tradition at that point.  That fact also provided a lot of good options for Christmas presents as well.

I had an interesting talk with my Mom one night that week, and she asked me a lot of questions about whether there were any girls that I was interested in or dating.  That was the first time I mentioned anything about P to her at all, downplaying it as usual, but answering her questions without lying about it.  Fortunately she didn't seem to retain much of that information for long.

I setup to visit a few friends, and do things like that while I was back.  The night before I was to have lunch with Sunshine, I got an unexpected call from Rockstar, asking for a ride home from the train station.  We had dinner on the way back, and had another pretty good talk.  Right before I dropped him off, I mentioned my plans for the next day, and was about to share that I was going to try to encourage her to see things his way (which I agreed with), when I was faced with an unexpected emotional explosion.  That must have just released something within him that had been bottled up over the last few months, and I was the unlucky recipient who he had the faintest excuse to make a target of.  Once I drove away, we didn't talk again for many years.  Ironically that talk the next day was cancelled for other reasons, and never happened until long after it was a moot point.  Although our relationship eventually resumed in a different form, it has definitely not been the same as it was before that conversation took place.  And we have never directly discussed that event either, although I have made reserved efforts to try.  I understand that people who have been deeply hurt have a tendency to lash out at those around them, but that doesn't excuse it when it happens, nor preclude the possibility of an apology.

The camp staff reunion had been an annual affair for many years, a three day retreat shortly after New Years.  That year was the first time one wasn't planned in a long time, so I setup a reunion BBQ instead at my parent’s house instead.  About thirty people showed up, including the executive and program directors for the camp.  We had lots of good food, and played some card games afterwards.  Once the meal was mostly over, P showed up with another friend.  I had invited her to many events in the past, but that was the first time she had taken me up on the offer.  It also allowed her see where I grew up, and meet my parents, who were never out at camp.  I heard her introduce herself to my mom by name, which got my attention after our recent talk.  But my mom obviously didn't make the connection at all, otherwise her next line certainly would have been “Oh, it’s nice to meet you, Mike has told me so much about you.”  (Regardless of the fact that that wasn't really true, it’s just how she talks.)  It had happened before, in other situations where I was far less concerned about how my perspective was perceived, and it was still really awkward later.  Instead things went smoothly, and we all hung out as a group playing Apples-to-Apples.  A pretty good party all around, and then it was back to work in LA, to edit the footage we had just finished shooting in the South.