SA post-SA

Since returning from South America, I have spent about a month in San Antonio. I wish I could remember everything that's happened since then, but... I can't. Funny, because I think I could probably repeat every single day of my Peru trip, yet right now I'm having a hard time even thinking of three or four big things to blog about. I guess I'll just have to do my best.

So, I'm not sure whether I've yet confirmed this or not, but my brother is definitely getting married. His fiancée is wonderful and we're all very glad to be welcoming her into our family soon. I guess in terms of things worth mentioning, our family has met for a few events with hers. About two weeks after I got back, the two families had a dinner at Sunny's house- it was alright; we ate fajita tacos and played guitar hero, and it was a decent time really. Then, last weekend, we had a big 'engagement party' at mom's house. That was fun as well, but it turned out to be a big to-do in the classic style, with over a hundred guests, barbecue, tents and a whole lot of work for mom and me. It turned out to be a really nice time, though, and my cousin Josh was back from Drum Corps, having lost over 40 lbs and gained a lot of independence that we haven't really seen out of him before, which was cool.

Um...what else...I really loved the movie Julie and Julia, which I saw with Mayra. Meryl Streep was so good as Julia Child (though the whole 'Julie' side of the story bored me a bit). Mayra and I have also played tennis, which was good, I think, because we're pretty evenly matched, as neither of us is especially good, nor are we terrible. Another nice thing that I almost feel badly about mentioning is that Mayra, as an employee, has a 50% discount at Banana Republic, which I've used to buy a new bag that I could never justify buying at full price. But we had some fun shopping and lunching at Paloma Blanca, which might be one of the best Tex-Mex restaurants in the city, even if it's so expensive that only cash-laden tourists seem to eat there. 

I should maybe say something about my job real quick- the McNay was the first museum that I ever visited as a kid, and so it's been kind of wonderful to be able to work there. While I wish that I had gotten the chance to do curatorial interning this summer, or to work with the director, which is what would've happened in Monterrey, it was nevertheless really illuminating to work in the development department. I hadn't given much thought before to that side of museum work. I'm not so silly that I believed museums just sort of ran themselves financially, or off of admission sales, even. But I didn't fully appreciate the amount of momentum that has to come from the development office just to keep the institution alive. This job also gave me some insights into a similar job that I did at the Red Cross the year before- I almost wish that I could go back, now, and bring the RC some of the tools that the museum has, since I think they would really help the Red Cross out a great deal. 

The highlight of the San Antonio leg of my trip, without a doubt, was the Los Campesinos! concert in Austin. Damn...there's not really anything like seeing a band that you really, really like play a show. I mean, I've been to other shows where I ended up liking the band by the end, but LC! is probably the one group I've most wanted to see live, and for whatever reason I've tried but it's never worked out before. Leni and I had quite a time with Carl and Pooneh seeing this thing. In some ways, it reminded me of what high school was like, not because we were acting like dumb babies or whatever but because the kind of lax, hanging out and sleeping on couches and watching movies late at night and driving around and all that is more HS for me than college. Even if I do waste plenty of time at Yale. I don't know... I'm not really expressing too well. But I found myself falling into internal habits as well, emotional habits that I had forgotten about. It's something like this knack (for better or worse) that I have for taking a small moment and trying to imagine it stretching to eternity- asking myself, 'can we go on this way forever'? This is something that I used to do alot, junior year most of all, and it's funny to me that I'm doing it again now that I'm going to be a junior. Last time, the answer was, 'no', this time, I hope to skip the huge upset that I caused me but we'll see. Mostly, this has to do with love I think. But by now I should know better than to fall in love with a few nice hours.

I'm worried that this will seem cryptic. What it boils down to is that I used to be in love, and then I it was over, and now I'm not so sure. But rather than falling in love with a person, I've fallen in love with a time of my life, I think (though this time is sort of best epitomized by a person) and I ask myself whether loving the person will make the time last forever... and the best way to ensure that it won't is not to be loved back. So there it is, plain as day.

Sheesh, San Antonio is rough on me.