Full House Weekend

My family came and stayed with me this weekend. Dad. Mom. Sister. Nephew Patrick. They're pretty fabulous. I spent about a week beforehand cleaning my house, the deep clean—eradicating dust bunnies from vents and wiping three-year’s worth of greasy palm prints from the walls around the light switches.

Upon their arrival, the house was instantly packed, and much relaxing ensued. We sat on my stoop in the sunshine, we ate wood fired pizza, we went for a drive out to Sauvie Island and then a quiet bird-watching walk, we read aloud from The Celery Stalks At Midnight, we drank much of both wine and coffee, and we toured the city neighborhood by neighborhood pondering the roses and wisteria vines.

Now that everyone’s gone, my place seems pretty vacant. Nothing but empty rooms with a few cat-hair tumbleweeds rolling through. I mean, I’m a big girl, but there’s a sadness left over in the space of a newly empty house, you know?

Me and moms at the gelato spot with little man Patrick.