Sunday brunch with my family...

I have been sick over the last couple of days. I was the recipient of some sort of stomach bug that allowed to me to become more intimate with my toilet than I really should be. But I’m better now and I get to go back to work tomorrow. yippee (imagine the not so joyous tone in my voice.)

I became sick after having a busy weekend. Friday night we celebrated a friend’s 41 st birthday with dinner at a nice Greek restaurant and a drag show. How many people can say that? She did say it was the one of the best birthday’s she has ever had. Saturday was none stop. We got up early and went to the public market with our neighbors. I became packed down with shopping bags like a burrow on a trail ride. After our shopping spree we went off to visit a friend and to buy me a new suit. On the way back we stopped off at my mother’s house. I saw something I thought I would never see, my mother being very open and accepting of my relationship. My BF is like the daughter-in-law she will never have. Swapping recipes, laughing, giggling, trading decorating tips, it was quite a sight. I was so proud.

On Sunday, we had a brunch. The brunch was more of a support group than anything. Among our little group of friends some of us have hit some very rough times. One of my closest friend’s Mothers had died recently of cancer. Another in the past month had a miscarriage. In the past when I lived alone I use to have everyone over to my house every Sunday to do laundry, relax and have brunch. I still joke that when ever I have one of these brunches it was holding a meeting of the U.N. Most of my friends are not of this country. I would have representative of the UK, New Zealand, and Scotland show up for Sunday brunch. It sometimes amazes that we all found each other.

Sadly, I had to stop having our little get togethers because at the time I had lost my job, my grandmother, and was in a not so good relationship at the time. I wasn’t getting any time to myself to process all that was happening. But this brunch needed to happen. We needed to re-connect like the old days, to see that even though we have our own lives now (and in some cases children) that we are still family. And that we are still there for each other no matter what.

We ate, we drank wine, we laughed and we shared our troubles of late with people who, in some cases, know us better than we know ourselves. Even with some new friends, spouses, kids it was almost like time had never passed from the last brunch to this one. As I looked around the room I was very proud and very thankful to have a family like this around me.

I'm thankful for all my friends and I consider all of them my family.