ghost town.

richmond's a ghost town.

everyone's traveling home for the holiday.

my family is meeting an hour away from here, so i have nowhere to be until tomorrow morning. which is nice because ... let's be honest, most of the folks who ARE traveling are stuck in traffic. hooray for not straying too far from home.

the few of us stragglers left in town are going out tonight to ipanema. there's a weird feeling in the air.. like we've got the whole town to ourselves, like we might get into some trouble. this is the same impulse that made me want to park in the no-parking zone right in front of the apartment. really.. who's gonna tow me on the night before thanksgiving?

fortunately, cool heads prevailed and i parked in a legally-sanctioned parking spot.

cool heads will also prevail later tonight when i undoubtedly decide to go home around midnight-ish in order to not be a hungover mess on thanksgiving.

tomorrow is going to be pretty awesome. i am excited to see my family. spending time with the family has taken on a different meaning lately. i think there's an awareness that my grandmother isn't going to be around forever and that each moment is important, so i always try to spend some one-on-one time with her. my cousins, who were once small children, are now finishing up high school and going off to college and it's amazing to see them as adults. i'm taken aback by how totally COOL all of them are. i don't know... i think of myself at that age and how i didn't have a clue about what i was doing and how insecure i was. these girls totally have their shit together. it's amazing. i've also experienced this weird transition from feeling like a kid around my aunts to feeling like more of a peer. i've had a few really cool one-on-one moments with some of my aunts this year and it was really nice. i randomly called my aunt sarah to come out and see jens lekman in williamsburg a month ago and she was totally into the idea and came out. that's pretty awesome.

i'm also really stoked to see mom and dad of course. the accident and the months of recovery afterward were this incredible reminder of how lucky i am to have a supportive loving family. i think of what my recovery would have been like without the total and complete support of my family - from driving me back and forth to the hospital, to the many many late nights when i was in pain and my mom helping me with my medication, to making calls to doctors and the insurance company. i could write pages and pages on this topic. suffice it to say, i am grateful beyond words for their support.

so yeah. i didn't intend this to go on as long as it did. i have a lot to be thankful for.

happy thanksgiving, everybody.

if you're still in richmond, come find me! shouldn't be too hard!