A Very Merry Day

ELIZABETH, NJ - What a delight! To be able to spend a day with people who love you, who accept you as you are. No need for pretenses. No holding back. And at the end of the day, to have a bottle of chablis from the motel front desk and a microwaved hot pocket of cheese and ham.
I mean, SHAZAM! It doesn't get any better than that.
I was able to connect with kits, kats, sacks and wives (so to speak). In-laws, blood relatives, kids of kids. Watch a couple of brothers 8 and 9 years old, joke and play. Reminded me a bit of my brother Joe who didn't make it. Only brother I had but who left us when I was 10 and he was 2. I was always envious of guys who had brothers. And a bit disdainful of those who fought and didn't like each other. Connor and Corban didn't fight. They showed playful competition and a wry sense of humor. If I was going to have kids, Connor and Corban Galloway would be them.
A niece, Rachel, and I exchanged photo tips. A brother-in-law, Richard, listened as I cried in the car when he picked me up from the motel this morning. Not crying as in sadness. But crying as in overwhelming emotion, the kind that I don't often feel. My sister Dixie just looked at me and I knew she loved me, that I didn't have to do anything special.
And at 5 o'clock when I was overwhelmed with being around people, I retired to the luxuriously appointed Country Inn and Suites. The Ruby Tuesdays next door was closed for Chistmas Day and I was stuck with what was available at the motel snack bar. But I didn't care. I sat in the breakfast room eating the hot pocket, drinking wine and watching CNN coverage of the bozo who tried to blow up a Delta flight.
And at the end of it all, after a day full of joy and love, I had an itch to have a piece of the Delta story. I watched the reporters in New York and Hawaii and Washington and I had a twinge of regret that I never made a serious run at working for a network or a wire service or a news magazine.
It's been a fabulous day!