Colorado, My Hoooooome!

The title of this blog post is taken from THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN. Just f your i.

I'm sitting in a large, comfy chair in my dad's study in Breckenridge, watching the snow come down outside. This morning, I made an omelet, read MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA (good ol' Hercule Poirot was in top form!), ate some peanut butter cookies, and watched some ski jumping on TV, as the Olympics truly began today. That stuff is NUTS! They are FLYING through the AIR! Ack!

I do love watching the Olympics. I become so unnecessarily invested in sports that I hitherto have had little to no knowledge of. The races are always more difficult for me to watch - oh, man, the swimming during the summer games nearly gives me heart attacks. It'll be just my luck that I'll end up with a bunch of kids who play incredibly competitive sports. What that'll do to my nerves, I dare not think about.

I loved watching the opening ceremonies. All that projector stuff...insaaaane. The whales crossing the stage, and the young guy who did all the flying stunts to Joni Mitchell...so beautiful. And I found the marching in of the athletes from all the different countries very moving. It made me miss many of my friends that are scattered all about the world. Russia. Poland. The Netherlands. Great Britain. Italy. Portugal. Denmark. France. Sweden. Germany. Ireland. New Zealand. I'm blessed to know so many different and wonderful people.

I'm here with my parents, my little bro Aaron, my uncle, and my cousins Josh and Jake. It is a GRAND time we are having! Basically, I'm sitting around being a slob, which is in direct contrast to the way I generally live my life. I love being around my family, and we're all having a good time being lazy bums. While I write this, the boys are all downstairs playing Wii. Jake introduced Aaron and I to ASSASSIN'S CREED II last night, and I hafta tell ya, I can see how people get sucked into this. I wasn't even playing, I was just watching it like a movie. Florence in 14somethingorother - yes, climb that building! Ooh, punch the guy!

Perhaps I'd better go do something slightly improving. Or at least pull out one of the New Yorker Magazines I brought with me to counteract the Agatha Christie I read this morning. Is it sad that I read the book already knowing who the killer was, as I own many installments of David Suchet's POIROT on DVD? Gonna go with noooooo...

I must fly. My parents have just returned from a trip to Wal-Mart (glamorous days here in Breck), where they acquired GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!! Farewell!

Strangers

Last night, my brother Aaron, his boyfriend Michael and I were riding the A home from the restaurant that they work at near South Street Seaport. We got on at Broadway Nassau, and were sitting on one of the shorter benches that only has room for three people. Mikey had just returned from his Christmas/New Year's sojourn in Northern Cali the evening before, and I hadn't seen Aaron since Christmas, so the three of us were chatting and laughing up a storm. Not about anything too special - some exciting news here and there, but mainly just our usual excited jabber. Around Canal or Spring Street, a young man who had been sitting across the aisle and a little bit over from us stood up as if to leave, and then turned to us.
"I'm so sorry," he said, "I don't want to interrupt, but I just have to say that the three of you have such beautiful spirit!"
We were a little taken aback, but said thanks.
He continued, "I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, it's just that I couldn't help but be drawn in by you all. Your energy is so great. I'm working on this album, you see, and I've been doing everything I can to avoid it. And I'm sitting here on the train, trying not to think about it, and then I see the three of you...and you've really inspired me. You're like...it's like the three of you are the same person! It's really beautiful! It's like you're the same person, somehow."
"Well," I said, "They've been together for about four years, and he's my brother."
"Oh!" he said. "Well, that explains - the smile, yeah, you've got the same smile! Yeah, well, if you happen to ever see my face on an album called 'STRANGERS,' y'all will know it was you. Your spirit shines bright!"
At this point the doors opened to the West 4th St station, and he disembarked, wishing us a good night, which we wished him back.
It's strange to explain the incident like that, but especially difficult to convey just how touching it really was. I was quite moved. Those boys are two of the closest people in the world to me, and for someone else to pick up on how much we all care for one another and love being together was really special. I don't ever want to forget that.

I needed a lovely thought to end the day on, so I'm putting that out into the world.