HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Year's Day was pretty enjoyable. Got a chance to reconnect with my folks. Earlier in the day, I went to visit one of my elder neighbors who used to give me odd jobs for cash back when I was in high school. Her daughter had graduated from Howard before I'd went there, and I hadn't seen her since before I'd left for Japan in March '02. She was happy to see me and we chatted for awhile in her dining room. Amongst other things, we talked about the economy and Bush, which seems to be on everyone's mind these days.

In the afternoon, I went to my grandmother's for the second family gathering since I've been home. I got to chow down and visit with my folks, including one of my aunts and my younger cousin, neither of whom I'd seen in person since I'd gone overseas. My aunt started cooking some dope creole for me, with shrimp, turkey sausage, okra, sauce seaaoned with pepper and bay leaves, but it wasn't ready to eat at the time of dinner. She'd instructed me to take the crock pot home and how to finish cooking it there. I showed my folks the Bob Sapp ice cream wrapper I'd brought back with the picture of him eating bananas, and showed them a video of Capoeira. Both sparked some interesting discussions.

I missed one of my cousins and his family who were on standby waiting for their newest baby to be born. His mom and dad, my aunt and uncle, who were at the gathering, had to leave early when they got the phone call that my cousin's girlfriend had gone into labor. It seemed like less then an hour after they'd left, we got another phone call from them announcing the birth of the latest addition to our family, a New Year's baby girl, and my grandmother's third great-grandchild.

On another note, one of my childhood friends just came in town from LA for her brother's funeral, and came over to visit. Her brother had been found murdered in his apartment the weekend after Christmas. Although the circumstances of her visit were sad, it was good to see her and catch up. We shared some laughs and ate some of my aunt's creole, which had finished cooking while my friend was over. We hooked the creole up with some steamed rice and crackers. It was DELICIOUS!