I arrived at my aunt's home about 45 minutes before she returned from church services with my uncle and Nan. It would give me time to scan about a dozen pictures or so and e-mail them before my visit. I used my key to get in and began my task. No sooner than I sat down on the chair that the phone rang. I checked Caller ID and it was my cousin Florida. Chatted with her and her husband for a few minutes and agreed for me to visit them the following weekend.
Wouldn't you know it, my cell phone rang soon after that call. Only this time it was my friend Trisha in San Francisco wishing me a belated birthday and relating a hilarious story about catching animals in her yard with a trap. She has to be the one to tell it...
Sometimes you just have to get over the embarrassment of scanning pictures of yourself in range from infant to 19 to send out. I have very few pictures of myself during this time so I do treasure what ones I have and prominently display them in my apartment. The pictures were meant for Yummy and later when I spoke to him, he said that he did enjoy them. He sent one of him at age 14 during our call. Of course, he was cute even then! Sickening...
Everyone came home while I was still scanning pictures. My aunt prepared three different Filipino dishes for me as part of my birthday present. (Yes, I am still celebrating.) I enjoyed it immensely and she did too when we shared them. My uncle doesn't like the more exotic Filipino food and neither does Nan so they ate entirely different items. For dessert I had steamed rice muffins flavored with coconut milk and a bit of anise. I took home some more muffins and some of the dishes my aunt made for later in the week.
Today is also my dad's birthday and I ended up e-mailing him a black and white picture of him at 19 and his "cowboy" picture when he was dating my mother, a portrait where he wore western cut clothing and a cowboy hat. He is quite handsome and he was very shocked to see them in his e-mail. We laughed about it when I called him. He's 65, but looks easily 10 years younger. Dad also mentioned that he had been sorting through photos and I had a stack he was sending to me. I hope it is the set of pictures from a particular album which would round out my own collection.
It was fun to look back at pictures today and share them. I'm glad the pictures I sent reminded me of better times. The past can have a way of catching up with us when we least expect it in little innocent messengers such as childhood pictures. I guess the key is to surround and create for ourselves pictures we would like to see...happy ones.
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