High Five

I got four hours of sleep Saturday night because the internal chronometer does not know it is the weekend. The plan was to attempt to go back to sleep. In my haze, I cocooned myself in both of my blankets. Now, I don't sleep like normal people. If I start sweating, or get hot, I won't throw the blankets off. I'll just lie there in my unconsciousness, until I jolt awake, sweating and freaked out. This mini-night terror also cancels out the restorative effects of any sleep I may have gotten. After two bouts of this, I just had to wake up and do something, calm down, and try to go to sleep later.

Around 0850 EST, I got a phone call from my mom. "K.T., your half-sister K.V. and your niece K.E.V. are coming around 10:30 or 11:00. Come up and see them." This is the pattern of our relationship. I wasn't getting any more sleep.

Shower, shave, contacts, clothes, hop in the Lady Surfer, subject her to the stresses and struggle of driving up to Baltimore. To my surprise, I made it five minutes before them. (Side note: I'm not lying when I call myself an only child. My dad, L.T. [not either football player], has married twice. I'm the sole scion of the second union. The first produced K.V. (married) and M.T. (single). We didn't grow up together, so I'd only see them every once in a while. Apparently we saw each other much more when I was a baby/toddler, so there's enough recognition that they're family, but not enough that they're familiar.)

K.E.V. is still my niece, and she's still the cutest niece ever. It's strange, I remember holding her as a baby, so tiny, so floppy, so cute. Now, she's seven, tall for her age (I think I wasn't that tall until I was ten or eleven?), really into clothes and online pets. She's one-quarter Asian through my father/her mother, but you can't really tell. It just looks like a tan on her. Look close enough, and you can see some facial features from my father. Mostly in the cheeks; him, me, K.V., M.T., and K.E.V. all dimple when we smile.

Usually, she comes to visit "Chinese Grandpa" around Christmas time, but this time, they were passing through Maryland. So, of course, I scrapped my plans of sleep and errands to see her. I love playing with my niece, though mostly it just consists of me telling stupid jokes and acting like an idiot, while she laughs. Also, destroying toys while I look in horror and cry out "O, the humanity! O, the humanity!" The great thing about this is that she has no idea what it means, and neither do I, but it's still funny.

Now, my mom's plan was to take them out to lunch. Then, since she had to leave at 1:00, she was hoping that if they were still around, I could take them to do something. I would have suggested a nice, long nap to soothing lullabyes.

They come in, we say our hellos, and my mom asks "So, are you ready for lunch?" K.V. says "Oh, we have to be at the airport in twenty minutes, we just dropped by to say hello." I cock my head to the side, and mumble, "I drove up from Virginia for this?" M.T. turns to me and says "You live in Virginia?"

There was some sort of conversation at this juncture, but I mostly sat in the chair, nodding off. Every so often, I'd perk up, crack wise, and fall back asleep.

Twenty minutes passed by, and we all said our goodbyes. Hugs all around, except for me. Another way to show K.E.V. and me are related: when I was young, I hated hugging, period. Had to be prodded and forced. Then again, I also hated everyone. K.E.V. will hug everyone in the room except me. I'm not sure why, but she's shy around me when it comes to saying goodbye.

So we have a different goodbye ritual; it's starting to become our thing. She hugs "Chinese Grandpa." She hugs "Chinese Grandma." She stands in front of me and stares at my shoes. I hold out my hand and say "High five?" We slap hands as if we're still trying to figure out how to coordinate our moves (and one of us actually is). I'm not going to force it. I remember how awkward it was.

I was still tired and cranky (big change, right?), but I don't regret coming up on short notice to see K.E.V. I did make a point that, next time, everyone's driving down to Virginia on three hours' notice.