the habit of being

Oh I am tired. I’ve been crammed into too small a space for too long a time. No leg room is a horrible thing when one has legs as long as mine are. No leg room is a horrible thing regardless.

I just got home from Atlanta.

Shortly after I typed my list of Christmas gifts (below), my family and I loaded up our Volvo station wagon and drove to Marshallville, where my step-father’s grandmother’s house is and all his relatives were meeting for Christmas.

Ray’s family is nice. They’re about as different than my mom and I as possible though. I tend to be afraid of them. They’re short and simple. Nice though. Especially Ray’s sister, Terry. I like her a lot. The Johnsons may have a hard time remembering my name, age, and grade level, but they never forget to give me money. I get more holiday cash from them than from my own family. This year about $130 in all.

We got there and ate some food on disposable plates. There was some good spicy stuff with green rice. The rest of the meal was forgetable, I suppose, since I seem to have forgotten it. The caramel cake my mother brought was a big hit. Point for the weirdoes (us)!

Uncomfortable “relax” time. I answered about ten inquiries regarding school and what I plan to do in the future.

“I’m a junior… yeah, just one more year, I can’t wait… I don’t know… Whatever school will take me, I guess… I’m eligible for National Merit but I don’t know what will come of that… I’m not really sure yet… I don’t know… uh huh, 11th… I’m a junior…”

The Thing To Do at Johnson family events is play Skip-Bo. This is a religious-type thing with them, maybe. I’d never even heard of Skip-Bo until my first Christmas in Marshallville experience. It’s a card game made by the same people who make Uno. Easy to learn and easy to play. Good for groups of multiple ages. If you can count, you can play Skip-Bo. It’s not terribly boring either, in comparison to just sitting around feeling like a Black fellow at a Klan meeting. We played two games. Mom won the first and Ray’s mother won the second.

Before much longer Mom and I decided to announce our coming escape. People brought us Christmas gifts. I got a day planner with Teddy bears on the cover and some Vanilla Fields perfume. Oh, and that $130. Mom got two of the most hideous shirts ever to hit the shelves of Wal-Mart. She did an excellent job acting like she loved them. The woman has talent.

We left. Okay here comes the part where we actually get to Atlanta. I’ll write about that tomorrow. I’m about to fall asleep.

Night..