i feel better now, thanks...

...now that i got my rant out of my system, let me catch up on the past week's events.

...my various out-of-town family members on my dad's side descended upon chicago over the weekend for a big reunion. my cousin jeannie and her boyfriend erik stayed with us. on thursday, we went to millenium park with our cousins casey and his brother ike (from austin,TX) for a special chic-a-go-go taping at the pritzker pavillion. thax douglas, chicago's rock 'n' roll poet laureate, read a poem as part of one of his last readings in chicago before he moves to new york city.

...saturday night was the big party at my eldest uncle jae's (all 3 of my dad's brothers in chicago are uncle jaes). jeannie's younger sister jessica, also from santa barbara, and my cousin inho, who's going to grad school in arcata,CA were also there. the only cousin missing was yonju's brother seunggi who happened to be in LA for the weekend. it's been 20 years since we were all in the same house, and as you can imagine, things were pretty loud with all the catching up going on.

...it was great spending time with my cousin jeannie and her boyfriend eric. cadence had fun playing with them, and i have to admit it was nice having two other people around to read to her and play catch with her and shower her with attention. eric will be going to school at the school of the art institute in january, so i hope to see lots more of them soon.

...all in all it was a long, tiring weekend, but we had lots of fun. we are still recovering from the lack of sleep, and i am already looking forward to this weekend so i can get some more relaxing in.

...i have to say, cadence really loves being with the big extended family. for some reason, when she's at a large family function, she just wanders around playing happily by herself, especially if whoever's house we're at has stairs. if she needs a little attention, she just grabs the nearest adult, and there is never a shortage of grownups delighted to pick her up or give her some fruit to graze on.

...now we're back to the reality of our little family...it's not as loud (except when cadence is screaming) and there's not as much drinking going on (although there is plenty, with ted's beers and all)...i just hope our next get-together happens before another 20 years have elapsed...