I may have an intense dislike of Houston weather, the good-ole-boy network, the rampant bigotry and racism, and the mostly conservative politics  ... but my phamily is here.  And no matter how I like to joke about it , I won't be able to tuck them all in my pocket in 7 years and skip merrily off to my home state.

I love my mother, and I miss her sometimes now that we have had a few years to mend what childhood experiences destroyed.  But aside from her, if I was to move back ... I would basically be starting back at square one. 

Yes, some of my children will be there ( hopefully all of them , but I know better than to honestly expect that ). 

I love my grandmother dearly , but it would take an extreme stroke of fortune to have her still with us in 7 more years.  She is moving into an assisted care facility this week after a full lifetime of total independence.  She is still feisty and quick witted, but she is easily broken and tires swiftly.  She has to walk with a cane.  She was recently in the hospital because she fell and broke her leg/foot/ankle and was unable to get to a phone to call for help. 

I have an aunt and an uncle that I barely know.  They are nice enough folks, but I seriously doubt we would spend much time together if I was to move back.

So where does that leave me ...

The people that I hold dear, the people that I happily spend my days and nights with, the people that care for me, the people who are my phamily through thick and thin ... the majority of them are here ... in Texas.   ( Though I have some fantastic east coast phamily as well - but think of how even farther away they would be if I moved back to Seattle! )

After the Snowflake Brunch I sat back on my couch and looked up at the flurries of snowflakes dangling above me: diverse, quirky, colorful, some delicate and some rather stocky, and universally beautiful.  All of them created with happiness and love and a desire to hold together this circle that has been created over the years.  I cherish every snowflake and the people who crafted them.   I have a tankful of thankful that I get to share my life with them , in regular and sometimes intimate ways. In seven more years i'll be even more vested in this town , it's volunteer & arts scene, it's LGBT communities, it's pagan communities, it's Flipside communities, ..... and the list will go on and on as my life evolves  

My phamily is more important to me than anything else and I can't imagine a life where they are not somewhat close by and easy to hug in person.  Where we can share our lives , our challenges, our triumphs ...

I realized on Sunday that Seattle is my past , and I can love and cherish all the wonderful parts of that city and the state at large, I can miss my mother and my grandmother  ... but , no matter how I try to avoid it for various reasons ... Texas is my home now.  I'm probably not going anywhere and I need to plan accordingly. 

My weekend was so full fo win I am having a hard time putting it to words.  Amazing, Wonderful, Fantastic ... none of those words do it justice.

Friday, I took ,my son to the House of Blues to see Demetri's Rail, Verecity, and the Jud Johnson band.  Not only was Demetri's Rail absolutely smokin' hawt , their lead guitarist was a god damn maniac with the showmanship of win with a capitah Wah.  It was sold out show, we got to hang with the bands plus a local radio personality (Phoenix from 104 KRBE - nice guy! very genuine ), and all is all Jon had the best time possible and enjoyed every last second of it.

Saturday I finished up a peice that is long standing belated Yule gift. It turned out almost perfect , I came really close.  I'm going to re-do it one more time, only this time i'm going to paint in the heavy colors first and see if that makes a difference with the bleed overs. 

While I was finishing up Wes made it into town and shortly afterwards we ran through the Heights attending the open air art market, the artist reception for Sam Li, and had some tastey vegetarian fare at one of the ice-cream / cafe shops on 19th street.  Avacado sandwisches on toasted sourdough are ridiculously great.

Apparently at some point Saturday my cell was disconnected , so by 5 pm or so my home was stormed by people worrying something was seriously amiss as I was off the grid :)  I'm glad they came over , other wise who knows how long it would have been until I figured out my phone was on the outs with me!   Kelsy called me later in the evening to say she felt like it had been " dont talk to Kelsy day" lolz!

Anywasy, the 5 of us ( Wes, Alex, Rook, Elizabeth, and Myself ) piled in together and ran through the Gallery Regina show and the opening reception and party at Summer Street Studios for Skeez 101.  There were Aztec dancers ( which we sadly missed ) a live hand dumming jam ( which we caught and was fucking great ) and then went downstairs to hangout and groove to the tribal dubstep-rave music being thrown near the neon light ice-cream truck and a parking-ticket scooter that had been converted to a mobile torch unit. Very BurningMan-esk. It's massive roof flames kept us warm as the night began to get chilly.  Jim Erickson joined us at Summer Street and we had a wonderful little catch up :)

We left Summer Street to grab some quick noms at La Tapatia, where Stephen and LaShabrielle met up with us... we were at critical mass at this point.  A table full of 8 people, chattering, laughing, and planning muckery for the rest of the evening.  Noms were delish, Rooks, Elizabeth, and I shared a fajita platter that was so tastey that i'm not sure how we still ended up with leftovers.  Just can't quit you marinated and grilled beef!

Back to Alex's place and then my own to do a quick outfit change and we all headed out to Numbers to do the dance-dance-dance of getting 100% sober through straight up cardio on the dance floor :P   By 3am we were all crashed out at Alex's place watching a movie on the 2 story wall-o-movie-goodness.  I called the game on account of boredom & exhaustion sometime around 4am ... the movie was in japanese , it was a very slow plot, and i was too tired to keep trying to read the subtitles.  Besides, I had the Snowflake Brunch to host in a matter of hours.

I woke up all warm and snug on the fancy-pants italian couch ( amazingly comfortable , I guess those designers know what the hell they are doing ) to the sounds and smells of Alex and Rooks making peppermint coffee just a few sweet feet away from me.  You have to love phamily that brings you coffee in bed ( er.. futon .. whateva ! ) And the fact that they had my dragging bootay up and mobile by 8:45 so we could get our ducks in a row, get me home to start getting the place ready for incoming Brunch crowd and them to the grocery store for last minute nom items.

The Brunch deserves a post all it's own ...