Love comes in all forms and from various places. The love that captures my current interest is familial love. I have been raving about how great it is to be with my family here, but I haven't thought about it beyond a certain point. Tonight I felt truly blessed. This is a love that I sincerely wish for everybody to feel. I think if each person could feel the type of love I write of, the world would be a better place. There would be less anger, less hatred, more desire to be kind. As I stared through the rainy windows of the bus on the way home, blurry faces under umbrellas passed me by, and I hoped that each of them had some sort of love in their lives. It's interesting; at that moment, nobody I saw mattered to me. I was satisfied knowing that the people that were sitting around that dinner table 10 minutes ago were mine to call family. My aunt, especially, made me quite sentimental. There was a mysterious roll during dinner and I was hesitant to take an entire one, so I asked to have a bite of hers. "No! That's dirty! You can get AIDS that way. Gosh I hope you don't do this with all of your friends... what if you get AIDS!" lol. Okay so I know she only means the best but it was really cute because I threw a semi-fit and my cousin, sitting next to me, was like "Ah.. she's just not used to doing stuff like that". It's funny, my two families are so different but I love both of them so much.

It is my dad's side that I saw tonight, and they are a storm. Everybody talks of each other's voices across the table, and conversations begin before they end. I sat there and laughed inappropriately as my uncle and cousin whipped out packets and packets of soy sauce and wasabe and proceeded to rip them and empty their contents onto a plate. They then produced a plate of fresh sashimi and plopped it on the lazy susan before our real meal started and said "Dig in!". WTH! It's little antics like this that make me love everybody all the more.

My mom's family on the other side, is much more touchy and affectionate. I lean my head on them, put my arms around them, pinch their butts, and it's all out of love. We take bites out of each other's food and share desserts at midnight. We can be 20 somethings and make snail noises in the park at midnight and not worry about being inappropriate.

Anyway I totally strayed from the point of this. As I spoke a few words to my departed grandpa and said goodbye to my grandma, it crossed my mind that this could very well be the last time I would see her. That's something else entirely and terribly sad too.

My aunt walked me to the bus stop (I don't know why they insist when I know the way.. but it makes me feel less alone so I shouldn't complain) and along the way we chatted so freely. "Hey what do you think about that purse?" "So... you'll be 29 when you're done with school... will you have time to get married!?" It was really nice for lack of a better word. I love her to bits. A side note- She has the most amazing hair, let me tell you. She is 60 years old, has less than 20 white hairs, and her hair is still super black and shiny. Pleeeease let me have her hair genes!! I gave her an awkward hug when my bus came because I guess they don't really do stuff like that either, but I couldn't resist.

The moral of the story is... love and cherish your family because (hopefully) they love you to the end of the world and at the end of the day... they're all you have. It's this love that makes me feel alright with the world.