Everybody Knows It Hurts to Grow Up
Thank you Ben Folds, for supplying such a fitting title.
The other day I went to my cousin's fiance's baby shower. I drove my mom, aunt, and grandma to Buffalo for the occasion, where I have never driven to before. The cousin referred to in the first sentence, Cory, lives in Buffalo, and I hadn't seen him in probably 3 years or so.
Cory was a very close cousin to me growing up. Since he lived pretty far from Geneva, when he would visit he would stay with my family, sometimes for a few weeks at a time. He became like an older brother to me, and we did some of the most fun things together growing up. I remember one year when I was about 6 and he came for a little while in the summer. I was obsessed with WWF wrestling at the time (seriously obsessed, I was in love with Marty Janetti), and we formed a "Smash and Crush Club". My dad had lots of tools lying around all the time so we fashioned a sign meant to scare people that said Smash and Crush in nails. We basically did nothing in our club, but it was fun making the sign!
Also, we had two barns in the backyard, and one was pretty giant. We didn't have a farm, so it was just this big open space for us to play in as kids. There was a rope swing attached to the extremely high ceiling, and my parents told us explicitly not to swing off of the loft on the swing. BUT...I had seen a picture of my parents and my grandma swinging on it, so I knew it was safe. Cory and I finally built up the courage to swing from the loft one day, and it was AMAZING as a kid. The thing would swing pretty much across the whole barn, and the loft was at least 8 feet high. We ended up swinging on it every day after that.
Cory's dad (his mom is one of my dad's sisters) died one year when I was a bit older (about 12) and he came to stay with us that summer. He brought lots of movies, and we would stay up talking until about 4am every night about plots of films and Dennis Leary (he loved Dennis Leary) and Metallica and other randomness. I remember this so well to this day. I'm not sure why, other than the fact that my girl friends didn't want to talk about that kind of stuff and I felt like I had a movie critic partner. One night he told me the ENTIRE plot to The Usual Suspects, twist and everything. I saw the film right after that and still loved it enough for it to be my favorite movie to this day.
Over the years we saw each other less and less, but every time we saw each other we would go over the movies we loved at the time and make promises to see each other more often.
So getting back to present time, I saw him last Sunday for the first time in 3 years. It felt really good to see him, but I thought I was alone in my nostalgia. Apparently not, because after saying hello to his fiance and mom he came directly over to me, gave me a giant bear hug, and told me he missed me about a thousand times. I only got to see him for about an hour at most, and couldn't talk to him for most of that time (he did hug me about 6 more times), but I was glad that he remembered our good times as much as I did.
It's so weird when things like that happen. I'm not sure about other people, but my cousins were my best friends growing up. Cory was my closest guy cousin, but I was very close with others as well, and having so many of them just sets it up for lots of great experiences. I promised Cory I would go back up to Buffalo to see him (and I will, I swear!) but it made me sad to think that I will just move further and further away from those great memories.
Oh if you're interested (which I'm sure most of you aren't but I'll throw it out there anyway), the picture from a few posts ago of me sleeping on the floor with a boy when I was little was from one of the summers he stayed with us (probably the rope swing summer).
The other day I went to my cousin's fiance's baby shower. I drove my mom, aunt, and grandma to Buffalo for the occasion, where I have never driven to before. The cousin referred to in the first sentence, Cory, lives in Buffalo, and I hadn't seen him in probably 3 years or so.
Cory was a very close cousin to me growing up. Since he lived pretty far from Geneva, when he would visit he would stay with my family, sometimes for a few weeks at a time. He became like an older brother to me, and we did some of the most fun things together growing up. I remember one year when I was about 6 and he came for a little while in the summer. I was obsessed with WWF wrestling at the time (seriously obsessed, I was in love with Marty Janetti), and we formed a "Smash and Crush Club". My dad had lots of tools lying around all the time so we fashioned a sign meant to scare people that said Smash and Crush in nails. We basically did nothing in our club, but it was fun making the sign!
Also, we had two barns in the backyard, and one was pretty giant. We didn't have a farm, so it was just this big open space for us to play in as kids. There was a rope swing attached to the extremely high ceiling, and my parents told us explicitly not to swing off of the loft on the swing. BUT...I had seen a picture of my parents and my grandma swinging on it, so I knew it was safe. Cory and I finally built up the courage to swing from the loft one day, and it was AMAZING as a kid. The thing would swing pretty much across the whole barn, and the loft was at least 8 feet high. We ended up swinging on it every day after that.
Cory's dad (his mom is one of my dad's sisters) died one year when I was a bit older (about 12) and he came to stay with us that summer. He brought lots of movies, and we would stay up talking until about 4am every night about plots of films and Dennis Leary (he loved Dennis Leary) and Metallica and other randomness. I remember this so well to this day. I'm not sure why, other than the fact that my girl friends didn't want to talk about that kind of stuff and I felt like I had a movie critic partner. One night he told me the ENTIRE plot to The Usual Suspects, twist and everything. I saw the film right after that and still loved it enough for it to be my favorite movie to this day.
Over the years we saw each other less and less, but every time we saw each other we would go over the movies we loved at the time and make promises to see each other more often.
So getting back to present time, I saw him last Sunday for the first time in 3 years. It felt really good to see him, but I thought I was alone in my nostalgia. Apparently not, because after saying hello to his fiance and mom he came directly over to me, gave me a giant bear hug, and told me he missed me about a thousand times. I only got to see him for about an hour at most, and couldn't talk to him for most of that time (he did hug me about 6 more times), but I was glad that he remembered our good times as much as I did.
It's so weird when things like that happen. I'm not sure about other people, but my cousins were my best friends growing up. Cory was my closest guy cousin, but I was very close with others as well, and having so many of them just sets it up for lots of great experiences. I promised Cory I would go back up to Buffalo to see him (and I will, I swear!) but it made me sad to think that I will just move further and further away from those great memories.
Oh if you're interested (which I'm sure most of you aren't but I'll throw it out there anyway), the picture from a few posts ago of me sleeping on the floor with a boy when I was little was from one of the summers he stayed with us (probably the rope swing summer).
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