I don't travel often. You may recall my anxieties around traveling from earlier posts. Its just stressful until i get there. This time i'm going the furthest ever in my life. My family and I are going to england and ireland.
First, I want to say this is a dream come true. I was an English major, so this is like returning to the motherland. It's also nice to get away from work with a real vacation and spend time with my family, which as I talked about a few blogs ago I don't do as often anymore. That sad thing is leaving Tenshi behind as well as missing out on things like Heavy Spy's birthday, Summercamp reunions, and most of Spotty Sisters visit. But then again its a trip to Europe.
I do have an adventure to talk about tonight but I figure in light of the fact I'm going to spending two weeks with them, I'd talk a little bit about my family. I've discussed Jules Drewe Yorke, my younger brother a bit before. He is almost 4 years my younger and studying business in school. He's probably one of the funniest people I know and as we've gotten older we've gotten a lot closer too. He'll come to my parties and knows several of my friends pretty well, and recently I made it out to his 21st birthday bash and it was touching to hear his friends say I've heard so much about you. I think I talk about my brother a fair amount but compared to how much it sounded like I'd been discussed, I do my brother injustice. We've always had a lot in common. We share a lot of the same interests in music, video games, usually if he likes a movie so do I. We can talk about a lot of things too, something we never used to be able to do. As an older brother, I never asked for help or advice from my siblings (I have trouble asking for help in general) but they come to me. And when people open up to me I'm more apt to do the same, so our relationships as brothers has continued to flourish. And we still stay up late playing video games or watching TV (this post is so late because he got me hooked on The Office, watching season 2 the season I missed between watching one and three with Tenshi). And there's always teasing Cheeky Monkey.
My sister is the shortest of the three of us, the youngest (6 years younger than me) the cutest and in many senses the wisest. She is the best judge of character and really understands people, relationships, and most importantly to a fail older brother like me, fashion sense. She tells it like it is but is also pretty sensative, unless you're her brother. Then she's brutally blunt. It's only fair because I tease her endlessly too, though I'd like to think I have a balance between a teasing brother and one looking out for his sister. A cute story about my sister, the first thing I can ever remember praying for was a little sister. I used to pray every night to have one, as I already had a brother. God granted me that prayer and I truly have a blessed life because of it. I love both my siblings but I have a special place for each of them in my heart, especially my little sister. She and Jules are closer (2 years apart) and they went through high school together, have mutual friends, and tell each other a lot more. They also look at me as the older brother who is more like a parent than a peer, which unfortunately I sometimes take that role. Lately though I've been more of the peacekeeper between my siblings and each other, and between them and our parents. We all have firey tempers from our mix of York and Latino blood, which gives us a great stubborn streak too. But of the three of us, I have the most patience and my line of work involves counseling and translating feelings a lot, so I guess its natural.
I love my parents. Not just like the normal love you have for your parents but I mean I actually get along with and enjoy their company. My dad is the smartest guy I know. He is practical, alert, and logical to a fault. He is patient and understanding. I see a lot of him in myself and I am proud of that. He is the person I look up to and want to be like as a parent. Sure nobody's perfect and I've learned about about his faults, like being difficult to debate with because of that stubborn streak and his challenges in being patient with us when we don't understand something as fast as he does. But he loves us so much and works so hard to provide for us still. The sacrifices he made to send us to Catholic school, help us live comfortably, and now even to take this trip are things I will never fully know. He is a strong, firm, but fun loving dad who I think on this trip we are all going to see in a new, more adult light, again because we have gotten older. His drive and will to succeed are traits I want to emulate. He started his own business for goodness sake, taking his engineering background to public relations and is very successful. From him I get my public speaking abilities, my practical approaches, my patience, and my comfortability when called to lead. Whenever I have a problem with like say getting lost, or a question on my car or money or job decisions etc, I call my dad first. He has the wisdom and experience that I trust to never lead me astray. I thank God for him. I really do.
My mom is also the best. She the mom that all your friends like, not because she's trying super hard to be cool, but because she treats everyone with respect, dignity, and understanding as equals not as just my son's friends. All my cousins love her the best for this reason too. I'm sure my sister may disagree with some of these assessments, but thats because she's living at home and they fight almost daily. Latin tempers. But my mom is the person I go to for social advice, relationships, family drama, whatever. She has the eye and the ear to really understand people and guide them to things maybe they don't get themselves. Sure this means she butts into her children's lives a little more, but what mom doesn't want her kids to be happy and know whats going on with them. From my mom I received my love for reading, my understanding, my yearning to get other people's points of view, and my passion for education. She is an administrative assistant, but as a mother, she is a life educator through and through.
It's also been great getting to know my parents as I've gotten older. One funny story before I move on. We got my parents a Wii for Christmas. We wrapped it a put it out for Christmas morning, leaving half eaten cookies and milk, and footprints made out of baking soda as if Santa came in from the snow and dropped the present off. Just as they had done to us when we were little. They loved it and loved the Wii too. Now they play the games almost daily and sometimes they are too busy to talk to me on the phone because they are playing games. My how the tables have turned!
So wish me luck with them in the UK and Ireland. I'm sure we'll be sick of each other after a bit but I anticipate a blast. My dad knows Ireland well because his business is based out there and Brock gave us tips for London (he lived there for a year). Clark says I'd make a good adventurer and explorer, so we shall see. I may not have a blog update next week, but if I can get internet, I will be sure to post.
And now the adventure I promised you:
So El Bandito, Heavy Spy and Dungeon Daddy came by to play Brawl the other night. It was a night of Smashed Smash and after El Bandito passed out we decided to stop. Dungeon Daddy left for some Jack in the Box and the night was over. I went to bed. Just before falling asleep, around 2am, Dungeon Daddy (I'm going to call him DD for the remainder of the post) calls me. His car had died at Jack and he needed a jump. I hop in my car and drive the 3 miles to his location. We try to jump his car, which has been pushed to a back alley. However, his cables don't fit in my car. Whoever designed my car put the battery under the washer fluid container (yea that makes sense) and his cables couldn't reach the nodes. We were already a little fuzzy on how to jump a car and I've never been the car that was in good condition. I've always needed the jumping. But we figure that if we remove the washer fluid container, we can reach the battery and jump his car.
I drive back to my place, get my tools and drive back to him. 30 minutes later we take my car apart and finally, barely reach the battery. If you know anything about jumper cables, you have to connect them in the right order and theres a good change you can get electrocuted. That's in ideal conditions. Right before we did this it started to mist as a heavy fog rolled in. Great. Well, we've done this much work we had to try, even though I half expected to die from electrocution we connect the cars and try to jump it. Nothing happens. Not a sound comes from DD's car. So we concede and call a tow truck, who says he'll come in 45 minutes. It's already 4am by this point but I wait with DD in my warmer car, after of course reassembling my washer fluid (which even more useless, doesn't even work. I almost left it out of the car completely) An hour goes by and we call again. 10 minutes off. 20 minutes later. He is 10 minutes off again. Serious ETA fail.
Finally at 545 the tow truck arrives. I move my car to make space then walk out to see if DD needs anything else. Its so late its early and I'm tired and have work the next day. In the time it took me to move my car out of the way, the tow truck drive had jiggled some connections on the battery and the car was running! Less than 2 minutes!! He said next time troubleshoot before calling him! Nobody that we called thought to tell us to try that?? For all you car noobs like us, if you try to start a car and it makes no sounds at all, try jiggling the battery connectors. Something might have come loose. If there is sound but no start, then you may need a jump. Too bad we learned this the hard way. We almost died to get that knowledge.
This lead us to believe that if cars were computers, we wouldn't have had this problem. We know how to troubleshoot computers at the basic level. And if not, we could ask someone who could describe basic troubleshooting pointers. No insurance company is going to tell their customer to play around with the battery wires. But adjusting firewall settings or granting administrative permissions to address a computer problem, that's easy! Well at least we aren't dead.
But that leaves me with my last point. 6am is the worst our of the day. If you are getting up at 6am you are like ug its so early. Why am I up this early? For school work whatever. Terrible time to have to get up. If you stay up that late, you are like what did I do with my whole night?? I wasted it! 4 am is a good party. 5 is something got your attention, like youtube videos or games, or a blog or something. But 6, that's just ridiculous. The only reason that's good is you get to see the sunrise. And the sunrise is usually prettier at 7 anyway.
And on that note, I sleep. On the air mattress here at my home. Because there is no bed here for me. Oh and did I mention in my haste to come here, I left my passport back at my apartment. So I have to drive back home tomorrow anyway? Oh fail. I better sleep before that drive. Goodnight friends! See you upon my return :)
Listening to: Something by the Beatles. Jules and I want to see Abbey Road during our tour and any other classic rock landmarks.
Playing: I picked up Mario Galaxy 2 to finish it off.
Reading: Got a few books lined up for the trip. I'll be sure to tell you about the two Wind books next time.
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