Family things

We just got back from my parents' house in Los Angeles. papertigers gets a gold star for:

- Helping me go through more than 40 boxes
- Impressing my friend Matt by being smart and funny and making me happy
- Playing with my godchildren
- Impressing (and frightening!) my baby sister by standing up to my father
- Allowing me to escort her into the ocean despite the frequent high waves
- Holding my hand (and sometimes considerably more of me) on two airplanes

Overall, this was a successful trip. I got to walk down Memory Lane. papertigers got to see my baby pictures and coo over baby-me (and even grown-up me). I regret (somewhat) having been pressured into giving up my Star Trek action figures, but I still have my big Star Trek books and my many communicators, as well as part of the Commander Riker costume we made for my dad for one of my high school father-daughter dances. (I went to a girls' school, and every year there was a father-daughter dance and a mother-daughter picnic.)

My U2 scrapbook I regret rather less; after all, I have all the albums, and the music is what's important.

I did away entirely with my Jodie Foster stuff and my Clintonabilia. I was nostalgic for Bill Clinton *before he was ever elected.* And I was only 15 at the time.

My godsons are getting huge, and are so good and cute and funny. I wish I lived close enough to them to see them more often. I love Southern California, but I'm happy where I am. Still - babies grow up too fast.

And I love my girlfriend for any one of a million reasons. Everything is more fun when she's there.