it snowed a few weeks ago, which surprised us all, then out of nowhere it snowed some more, a lot more. more than i ever would have thought it would snow here, which disrupted plans to go home. i'd never experienced holiday travel like this and i'm not sure i want to ever again; i cried and thought that i was going to have to either spend christmas in the airport, waiting for the snow to stop, or at my apartment, cold and with no food. it snowed that much. we managed to find the one shuttle driver ballsy enough to drive through 11 inches of snow (as well as sleet) at speeds i would rather not disclose to my family. by way of miracle, my plane was one of five to make it out of the airport that day (and after many re-bookings and cancellations nicho made it out as well). i flew over the ocean and walked into long beach, sunny and warm, and spent the week with my family, comfortable and pleasant, and baked several kinds of cookies (most notably, buttery marionberry jam cookies with fresh ginger), and i spent a lot of time playing with pup-o. everything looked different to me, since i'd never been away for that long, and since i live in such a starkly, strikingly, different-looking place. i hadn't seen the sun in months; i hadn't walked barefoot (other than to and from the shower) in i don't know how long; i even spent an entire day in shorts and a t-shirt. nicho and i skyped, which was silly and awkward, i made tamales and brought tons back, along with my nana's salsa, and i slept on my brother's bed in my old bedroom. something was off though, we didn't get to play the games we usually do, and i was well aware of the effort made to keep some thing concealed.
i came back, made friends with the woman sitting next to me on the plane who gave me her card in case i ever need anything ("as one californian to another"), i arrived to forty degree temperature and a grey sky, and nicholas met me at my gate the way i always hope someone will surprise and meet us, and we walked outside and a man with a hat was holding a sign with my name on it and he took our bags and opened up the door and drove us home in a limo. we shared our christmas gifts and things that we found in extra boxes of ours at our old homes and the next day was the last day of the year; we got our champagne, got ready and went to north portland, and witnessed what was probably the first car accident of the night. the whole group of us took the max to downtown and matteo met up with us and we found a small hole in the wall bar in the alley behind berbati's that had a jazz band playing; it was perfect inside, we even got tables. we drank, we danced to soul, ben disappeared and then reappeared with a box full of voodoo doughnuts, we danced some more, keith did the fake fall during the walk back to the max, we had our picture taken by a stranger and then took a picture of him and keith serenaded a girl on the max (and then the entire train starting singing along with him), he met a nineteen year old girl from corvallis during the walk back to the house and invited her over; he very untactfully kicked her out and the first argument of the year was had; it was over and the dance party was in motion before we even realized it, and it was 5 am by the time we went to bed. we slept on an air mattress in the living room, resulting in the worst neck and shoulder ache i can ever remember, we had black eyed peas at brunch, developed some film, bought more things for our home and for our kitty. we picked up our newly adopted cat, sammy from his former home and brought him to his new one, the house is perfect, the year is going well, and samburger and nicholas are sleeping on the bed right next to me.