I am with Family

After a wonderful 4th of July weekend with my family, it was so hard to get back to my life in Seattle. I realised once again how hard it is to be away from the people I love. Being away from the people in Pakistan is hard enough, now I have to be away from the people in Cali? Especially now that two of my people from Pakistan are in Cali. And even though I have become a space whore (the typical syndrome of living the American way of life) and can generally be highly irritable to any questions or criticism about the way I do things and lead my life and of course loved ones tend to do both (question and criticise), I'd still prefer if they lived in the same town as me. Families are like that I guess. Cant live with them or without them.
Last week I had a mother of all migraines. It was awful and I spent hours trying interhcangebaly to hold down my water and food, to fall asleep and not to cry and yell "make it stop" at the top of my voice. Stop it didn't but I did eventually fall asleep. Usually when this devil takes over your body you do need to go through a full-blown exorcism of sorts to recover from it. For one whole day, I stayed away from sound, light, sun, computer, work, gym, food and most importantly all kinds of smells. I finally recovered long enough to fly to Cali fro the long weekend and enjoy my Friday with M. But lo and behold. Come Saturday morning the devil returns. Of course it didn't help that my three nephews squeal so much. I mean I never realised what a bunch of squealers they are. With each subsequent squeal my brain did a somersault in my skull. Finally my mother came in and offered to give me a head massage. Just like the old times when during my childhood migrainal episodes, Ami used to rub my head and completely exorcised the Devil. I wondered if it will still work. Sure enough, a head rub by Ami and couple of hours long nap, and I woke up headache less ready to enjoy the fireworks. Only mothers can do this :-)
I love 4th of July mainly because its usually the warmest of all the holidays in America and also because I love fireworks. Absolutely, completely and totally loveeeeeeeeeeee fireworks. No surprise that during the display I squealed just as loudly as my little nephews. Before the display they played all the old MJ songs. I danced on Billy Jean with Nephew number 2 on my shoulders. What fun. My oldest Nephew who obviously doesn't take after me on the dancing skills, kept bumping and running into people (mostly me) on purpose. Apparently, that is his dance move. Sighhhh!!!
Sunday was just as fun with a picnic at the beach followed by a Dosa with Papa and M. Yummm.
The highlight of the whole weekend, which made coming back here the hardest was my little angel telling me "Don't go!! This is your home! This is your new home!! Stay here!! This is your Family!!" Being that he isn't the most talkative of kids, this was so amazing and touching. Also amazing is the fact that I didn't start crying and cancel my flight :)