Cecelia and her Anti-Dirty-Hippy Lover

"That's how I'm addressing your Christmas card next year - Cecelia and the Dirty Hippy Hater."
~Brandy, laughing at Rob's comment (and the title above was her doing too incidentally)

So this post had to get split into two pieces, since it was so long. This is the personal bit about Rob's visit, and I'll post the career bit about job interviews tomorrow.

Rob came out to visit for a week, and it was a really really great visit, except for not getting enough quality us time. But that wasn't really the purpose of the visit and we both knew it so it was no big deal. He came in the afternoon of the 31st, and we had lunch at my aunt's, dinner with Sister #2 and family, which was very enjoyable, and then went to Brandy and Josh's New Years party. They had a Yankee Swap at the party, although they didn't call it that, where everybody brings a small gift and you pick one from the middle and steal from each other and so on. Rob ended up with a set of Orange County Chopper mugs which he thought was awesome, and I ended up w/ the book Emma, which I thought was great. Rob had been up since 4am Central time, but he gamely agreed to stick it out until Midnight, and performed quite well at Darts. He was up for 20+ hours that day! We stayed at my sister's place that night, had a leisurely morning, and then went to my extended family gathering (Dad's side) which he described as "overwhelming." If he thinks my Dad's family is overwhelming, I'm not sure how he'll survive a full Luth clan gathering! (Mom's side, and it's about 4 times as big.) Still I think he made a fairly good impression, at least on my godfather.

Monday we went to Kansas City with my Mom and Dad and visited the Arabia Steamboat museum, which displayed the cargo of a sunken steamboat five regular joes dug up and turned into a museum. It was pretty interesting, particularly the displays showing how steam engines turned the great paddle wheels. Rob really seemed to enjoy all the big mechanical parts and explained to me how it all worked, which I found interesting too. Then we had dinner w/ Sister #1 and family and a couple cousins that live in the area. While I was busy playing ball w/ my nephew in the kitchen Rob was having very adult conversation with my father and brother-in-law about taxes, which I found quite impressive. Rob really was so much more talkative this trip than he has been in the past when meeting my friends. It seems like he's becoming less shy, actually. Tuesday it was off to St. Louis to see sister #3,and my car broke down and had to have a $600 repair job, which the dealer got done in under 3 hours from the time I dropped the car off until time I had the keys back in my hand - pretty amazing. We stayed at my aunt's and the next day visited the Anheiser Bush Brewery and headed back to Columbia to have dinner w/ a bunch of my highschool friends, which was also just a lot of fun. Rob had Brandy cracking up laughing a lot of the night, which I found to be a particularly good sign, because Brandy tends to expect a lot out of guys that date her friends, and also her political views are the most opposite of Rob's. So if he's up to snuff w/ the toughest critic . . . It was nice to see him blending in so well to the group. Thursday we visited my Grandma, and Dad showed Rob around the farm a bit and explained to him all the different machinary and even let him drive the tractor. That evening we celebrated my birthday early. The next day I drove back to St. Louis (for the third time in a week) to take him to the airport, but we went by the Arch first so he could take some pictures. And that was the whirlwind week.

It's odd how used to being near each other Rob and I have gotten; well not odd, just . . . noticeable. We were only apart for a week, then together a whole week, and we'll be apart for another week before I'm back in Ithaca. NOt really that much separation. But both of us were commenting on how we miss each other - not desperately miserably or anything, it is only temporary and of short duration - but still . . . it will be really nice to be back close together. It was so good though to have him here, fitting so well with this part of my life. It felt very natural. I think this is part of what has been missing for me. We spend so much time in my "other" life, and with his family, in the world where he grew up . . . and it's my world too, now. I realized that more than ever this time home, as I find that I am very slowly, little by little, beginning to identify myself as a "New Yorker" of some sort. I have lived there for the better part of 6 years now - a quarter of my life, and almost all of my adult life. But even though that's my present and my future, at least my immediate future, my Missouri life will always be a big part of me, and everything feels more right when he comes back to share it with me, even for just a bit.