2002-04-01 - 2:05 a.m.

Oh happy day!

Always in a good mood after visiting the family. I don't know what they're like when they're not around me, but when they are, everyone kicks into family mode.

Family mode is weird, 'cause you kick into it, but in one of two ways. The first is wacky, where you just throw a bunch of curveballs and let others deal with them, and the other is appease, where you deal with the curveballs.

I, of course, am an appeaser. Just like my Ma, the queen of appeasement. If my Ma was Churchill, Santa Claus would be speaking German right now (BTW, snuck in an inside joke�he he! It's my BLOG-y, and I'll do what I want to). When I was a kid, I was (of course), a curveballer.

But let's not get into that...

Oddly enough, no curveballers showed up, and it was a very stress-free day.

And I got to wash my red hoodie! Free washing machine! I love that hoodie�I wear it as a jacket, but if I washed it, I'd be wearing nothing but pink.

Played wiffle ball with my brother.

Now that I think of it, maybe I should just delete everything I wrote except for the last sentence.

Played wiffle ball with my brother.

We decided to play some ball after dinner (dinner being at 3:00 in the afternoon, Family Time). The Girlfreind declined.

We got some practice in, and then on to some serious wiffle ball. Blue sky. Suburbs (but still a Boston neighborhood). My brother moved some cars, and the house across from us still hasn't been sold, or moved into, or whatever.

The drainpipe in the invisible neighbor's driveway (facing our house) was the plate. The mound was in front of our house, across the street. Three strikes and three outs per team, and an out was anything cleanly fielded.

A single was anything not foul that got by. Double was the first floor of the house, and a home run hit the second floor or above.

I WAS PLAYING BASEBALL!

The first game was my brother and I against the cousins. Two against three.

Two innings, I fielded one and pitched one.

The two of us combined for a shutout.

Pedro and Ramon.

We won 11-0.

Probably the greatest athletic achievement of my career, and the Girlfriend was sitting in the bleachers to cheer me on.

We played another game afterwards, but I wasn't on my brother's team, so it didn't mean as much. I did pitch 'till my arm came off, and I did hit a towering home run off my roof.

Towering.

The little pussies scampered in after the game to eat some dessert.

I had a really good time. I was amazed that I could still catch a hit ball in mid-air, and that I still remembered the correct pitching and batting stances.

Had some coffee and edited my sister's college grant application. It was a struggle to write, after the way I had abused my arm.

Played some football with the Girlfriend. We pretended we were Kennedys on the compound.

Easter!

Getting ready to go, and with three or four stomachloads of leftovers to take home, I talked to (or rather listened to) my frail grandma on the phone.

I told her that I wished that she had made it over. Other than thanking her for presents, it was perhaps the first thing I had said to her in ten years that wasn't insincere.

Don't blame me too hard for this though�my Ma still hides from her the fact that she smokes.

It�s that kind of family.

Dad drove the Girlfriend and I home. It was a good Easter. Far better than pretending that it was just another Sunday. And I got to see some folks from my Dad's side of the family, which is really, really rare (long story).

So here I am, all relaxed, had a good time, drank some beers, the Girlfriend enjoyed herself, we watched Six Feet Under and Queer as Folk, I washed my red hoodie (but nothing else, and I'll worry 'bout that tomorrow), Glory is on TV right now, I just watched The Green Mile (not very good, but better than I thought), the rain stayed away 'till I got home and now it's doing it's job, cleaning the streets, oh yeah, and OPENING DAY for the SOX is TOMORROW!

Oh yeah!

Oh, yeah, and I played some wiffle ball with my younger brother. The little guy. Who could kick my ass up and down and who is twice as smart as I am.

I love him so much.