the trip 3

THE PEOPLE

we saw lots of people on our trip. mostly it was family we saw. it's the main reason we go to texas. all my family is there.

my aunt blanca and her husband adan came down from san antonio on thursday and they took us out to eat. my aunt Mine wanted to take us to el agape cafe (which has the best tacos you'll find anywhere). so we all went. i hadn't seen my aunt in more than a year. she couldnt' make it for christmas, so we missed her then. i'm glad she and adan could make the 3 hour trip south to see us.

we met up with mike perez. he and i worked at the paper in alice until i left. we've remained friends. we lost touch shortly after hurricane katrina and only started talking again soon after new year's this year. we picked up where we left off. he's a good guy and we went out to eat at charro's in alice. we'd not been there since we left for michigan. again, we caught up and it's all good. for those who enter my kitchen and look at the picture of three crazy mexicans dressed as cholos, mike's the one on the far right.

my grandparents, aunt gloria, uncle frank, cousin lynn, her baby tres and my uncle amado and aunt anita and cousin virgie we all got to see in one fell swoop in benavides. tres kept us entertained. once he silence broke, he was good to go. it was good to see them all. amado and anita i hadn't seen for more than four years.

and what can i say about my brother and sister. it's always good to see them. it's strange seeing my sister linda as a mom. she's my little sister for god's sake. but she's doing a fine job. my brother robert i got to see quite a bit, something that doesn't happen often because of his job. we had some good conversations and he even said, "take care and i love you" before we hung up that last night (he was at a job several hours away at the time).

and there were various other aunts and uncles i saw again. my godparents rodolfo and elva were there the first day we arrived. it was hard seeing them struggling to walk with walkers and canes. also my uncle rene was there during the week and we chatted for a bit.

as time goes by, i see more of my family and a lot less of friends who live down there. it's very hard to divide my time. maybe i just do a bad job of it. or maybe i just want to spend time with my folks.