Home alone

[aadler]

 
So, it goes like this:

First Cut — Household

My son is on a mission trip to Mexico over spring break, and so this week I’m house-sitting with a dog and two cats. Susan would have preferred to take them with us to our place, but honestly, I’d rather spend the week apart from her than subject a rental home to that menagerie. When I set to remarry her, I understood that she loved animals and would always want at least one around; understood it, accepted it, reconciled myself to the necessity of dealing with the bother and complication. That doesn’t mean I won’t do my best to keep said bother to a minimum.

Close First Cut

Second Cut — Travel

With this latest trip, my son has moved the family into a new category. We were already world travelers, in a sense: me through the Army, the others for various missions and pilgrimages. Now, however,

1.	we’ve all been in multiple countries (i.e., three or more),
2.	each of us has done foreign travel both with and without another family member,
3.	each of us has traveled to at least two countries that none of the others have been to, and
4.	there’s no country outside the U.S. that we’ve all visited.

I’m the only one who’s been to the Middle East. Susan is the only one to go to Africa. sroni is the only one who’s been to Asia (though her brother will do a college trip to China this summer). And finally, my son is the only one to travel south of the border.

Susan and I are thinking of visiting Costa Rica around October. Would that qualify as part of South America? If so, it would mean my immediate family will have set foot on every continent except Antarctica.

Close Second Cut

Third Cut — Fanfic and Buffy stuff

One advantage of having the week to ‘myself’ is that I can focus on finishing my remix story. I don’t think I’ve done a word since the last time I mentioned it, but the story hasn’t gotten any more complicated. I know where I’m going, where I’ll wind up, and how I’ll get there. I know the things that will inform the journey, punctuate it, delay and resolve it. I knew all those things before I started. I just haven’t written it yet.

I’ve read through #12 of Buffy Season 8, and through #3 of Angel “After the Fall” (I have #5 as well, but won’t read it until I can acquire a copy of #4). I’m willing to accept the Buffy run as canonical — Joss said so, after all — but I think I’ll have to stay independent of post-A:tS Angel. The storyline itself is interesting and entertaining, but in my own writings it’s just too weird to deal with a reality where Los Angeles has been shunted into a hell dimension. Yes, I recognize a certain arbitrariness and even inconsistency in this attitude; still, it’s where I stand. Further than that would be too far outside my comfort zone.

Close Third Cut

Fourth Cut — Final note

Six or seven years ago, during the time that I not only was divorced but had received an official church finding of nullity regarding the marriage, I consulted with a priest in the northwest part of the state (where I lived then and do now) about the possibility of me going to seminary. At that time there were still four years before my son reached the age of eighteen, and — even though his mother had full custody — I was ineligible while any of my children remained potentially dependent.

In the time since, I found myself in the Army instead, and married again to the same woman, and eminently satisfied with the alternate track my life had taken. Now that same priest is a monsignor, in the central part of the state (where my son still lives), and my son is the one consulting with him as to the advisability of priesthood.

Life is a wheel.

Close Fourth Cut

Comments

[trinfaneb.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the Angel comics yet, but feel much the same way after reading some spoilers.

And yeah, its interesting how life works out sometimes :)

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I think we all find the lines to draw to create our own stories. I see Mr. Whedon's vision as a springboard, not a bible. Especially as he played fast and lose with his own canon when it suited his story. I look forward to reading your remix.

I wish your son well in choosing his spiritual path. Those are some difficult decisions coming up.