Sometimes home seems so close I can smell it. It smells damp and sweet like honeydew. It's summer. I can hear the birds chirping when I wake up in the morning and feel the humidity brewing in the early dawn of day. The lazy morning floats by with television and sunbathing. Everyone in the house has their own agenda for the day but it all seems to be for the same purpose.
One of my sisters stays upstairs listening to music. The other goes downstairs to use the computer. Sometimes they switch and sometimes they join me in watching the television. My father is off at the gym. There is always something to be done at the gym. My mother is either cooking or off running some sort of errands that we never know about. Often times, the errands are really garage sales that she needs to get to early to see the good stuff.
Sometimes I read instead of watching the television. Sometimes I do both. The mornings pass fast and there is always a sense of meaning or purpose in our actions or lack-there-of. The days seems to be building towards a climax, a climax that we are all involved in. Dinner.
Lunch will usually be something quick, a hot dog or hamburger on the grill. Some leftovers. But dinner, dinner is always something a bit bigger. A salad, a steak and some maccaroni salad. Maybe a baked potatoe. Maybe some yellow rice with gondules, or salchicha.
Dinner is the uniting force. It's the climax of the summer days in my home. After dinner we all head in different directions; We all go our own ways. But for those moments where we are eating, the phone does not get answered the girls don't stay on the computer or in their room and we all eat together at the table. Most of the time we don't say much to each other, that is not what it's about. It's about us being there as a unit. Weare united in our eating endeavors.
I never understood this when I was growing up. My father would always be upset with me if i wasn't therefore dinner. I always thought that he was just trying to give me a hard time because that was what he did. I thought it was kind of his purpose in life to make me miserable, to keep me from hanging out with my friends as much as possible. But now I see that it was just his way of trying to keep things together. It wouldn't be long before I'd go off to school and become a man and these moments would be left as a treasure.
One of my sisters stays upstairs listening to music. The other goes downstairs to use the computer. Sometimes they switch and sometimes they join me in watching the television. My father is off at the gym. There is always something to be done at the gym. My mother is either cooking or off running some sort of errands that we never know about. Often times, the errands are really garage sales that she needs to get to early to see the good stuff.
Sometimes I read instead of watching the television. Sometimes I do both. The mornings pass fast and there is always a sense of meaning or purpose in our actions or lack-there-of. The days seems to be building towards a climax, a climax that we are all involved in. Dinner.
Lunch will usually be something quick, a hot dog or hamburger on the grill. Some leftovers. But dinner, dinner is always something a bit bigger. A salad, a steak and some maccaroni salad. Maybe a baked potatoe. Maybe some yellow rice with gondules, or salchicha.
Dinner is the uniting force. It's the climax of the summer days in my home. After dinner we all head in different directions; We all go our own ways. But for those moments where we are eating, the phone does not get answered the girls don't stay on the computer or in their room and we all eat together at the table. Most of the time we don't say much to each other, that is not what it's about. It's about us being there as a unit. Weare united in our eating endeavors.
I never understood this when I was growing up. My father would always be upset with me if i wasn't therefore dinner. I always thought that he was just trying to give me a hard time because that was what he did. I thought it was kind of his purpose in life to make me miserable, to keep me from hanging out with my friends as much as possible. But now I see that it was just his way of trying to keep things together. It wouldn't be long before I'd go off to school and become a man and these moments would be left as a treasure.
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