The River

Yesterday we drove down to Richmond, rather, to the Rappahanick. My cousins have a house down by the river and so we drove down to the "shack." It was a surprise for my mom's 50th, and she didn't know that Gompa and Beppa (my grandparents) or Uncle Doc (my uncle, her brother) were going to be there, and so she was completely surprised. It was very funny. We stayed up late last night and went out to dinner at a restaurant that Aunt Sarah's sister owns and opened. It was delicious! And everyone was drinking wine and laughing, but I was so dead on my feet I couldn't even keep track of what I was eating. Alex kept leaning over and whispering in my ear about how immature Jake was being and saying "watch, watch, look at him!" It was very funny because truth be told Alex was being pretty immature too! :). But Jake was acting extremely obnoxious, and then his stomach was bothering him in the extreme... and Alex was describing some graphic images of the boys bathroom... and the noises coming from it. It was hilarious. After we got home from the restaurant we went into the family room and Uncle Cha-cha popped a bottle of champagne (like they needed more alcohol) and Alex picked it up from across the room and chucked it at his dad, who was laughing and doing funny impersonations of stupid voices.
"I'm your father, don't ya be thowin' things at me!" Uncle Cha-cha,
but Alex, being Alex, completely ignored this and chucked it into his face. He caught it. "Alright, you have three seconds. One-" and then in rapid recession, "two, three!" And he chucked the cork at Alex's back as Alex tried to dive behind the couch. He got up and there was huge welt on his back. Uncle Cha-cha was laughing and Alex was withering in mock pain on the floor, like a dead fish. It was funny. The champagne was poured into nice crystal glasses and mom said "I don't even want to drink from them, they are so pretty." Then she accidently flung her hand back and the glass spilled all over the place and the glass bounced, but didn't break. Aunt Sarah, me, Uncle Doc, and Uncle Cha-cha were laughing hilariously as she was laughing and muttering to herself. She walked all haughtily, while laughing, to the sink and grabbed a roll of paper towels.
"Don't everyone get up and help me! It's my birthday ya no." Mom.
"You can handle it." Uncle Cha-cha. So she cleaned it all up and then Uncle Cha-cha was making fun of her the whole time and he chucked the cork at her butt and she turned around and started hitting her with the soaking wet champagne paper towels, and everyone was laughing because she was acting immature on purpose. And then she went over and finished cleaning up the mess and Uncle Chacha said something totally obnoxious or something, but she took the harmonica sitting on the table and chucked it backwards at him without looking. It clambered into the table right next to his chair and almost hit his champagne, it was literally this close. And that just got everyone hollering with laughter because he kept telling her just how close she had come to taking his glass down and spilling two of them in less than a minute. So then she chucked the rags at him and sat down all dramatic.
"I was so close!" She said and then laughed.
Uncle Chacha picked up the harmonica and started to play a real sad tune and Uncle Doc told him to play something happy, but he just kept getting more and more obnoxious with loud and sad until Aunt Sarah told him to 'stop being depressing.'
Vadeem and Anna were already in bed and everyone was fading, but Uncle Cha-cha wanted to play charades, I really think, even now after being reassured, that they were a tad bit tipsy. So all the kids crashed onto the floor and the parents couldn't keep up with us because we were so good, and Alex is physic and kept guessing what Jake was going to do right as he got up to start, which in turn made Jake mad and then Alex and him started punching and shoving each other.
"Hey, now, what did I say. No shoving." Uncle Cha-cha said but he was only playing around and when Jake fell into his lap he shoved him hard back into Alex.
"I thought you said no pushing!" Jake yelled, laughing as Alex got shoved by Uncle Cha-cha.
"My rules." He said and laughed at the face Jake pulled.
Jake came over and sat on my lap and told me he was tired and I agreed, so we all went into the small bunk room, (it's a one level house). There were two mattresses taking up the whole floor area and I was top bunk, which was nice because that way stinky dog Rocky couldn't get to my clean linens. So everyone was almost asleep until Jake got bored and started a game of truth or dare. The first truth Jake wanted to know out of Alex was, "Are you gay?" Which, really, what kind of truth was that!? Boys are stupid. Meghan dared Jake to wake me up and he stood over me for all of a second before I opened my eyes and stared creepily at him.
"JESUS!" He screamed and fell back onto the mattress below him, freaking out. "She was awake, staring right at me!" He shrieked and I started laughing so hard.
"Good thing you fell, Jake. I was three seconds from letting hand fry without looking." Which just sent everyone into crazy fits of laughter.

This morning Jake thought it would be hilarious to set the alarm clock for 9:30 on a Sunday morning, and everyone laid there talking until well after 10:30, where we got up to have breakfast. I talked for a long while with Uncle Doc about Country music; he is the only other family member that actually admits to listening to country music. Then Conner (Jake and Alexs cousin from Aunt Sarah's side) came in her gulf cart and Jake said he would follow in his dad's car, so I drove and we took his little car down the long drive to the dock, where we threw out a couple of lines, but nothing was biting and Jake got bored quickly. Go figure. The rest of the group then came down and we played tag on the two gulf carts, which is actually really fun and probably very dangerous and then Jake called it quits because we were tearing up the front yard. But there yard is all this great land and there are three smaller houses and then a short drive down through the woods to the dock that goes out into a beautiful part of the river. It's great with all the reeds bending in the muggy wind and their were fish jumping all in the shallower parts of the water. Just as we were getting ready to head back to the house, right up the drive, it started to rain and the parents and Anna and Vadeem, and even the "fat dog" came prancing down the drive, screaming as the rain started to fall harder and harder onto every one's head, and the music was going in the car and it was good 'ol country and we were all singing and the wipers were going fast. All the kids piled into the back of the three set thing and we drove it down to the edge of the dock and the parents came up from behind and we stood under only three little umbrellas as the rain made puddles at our feet and the river became murky and unsettled with millions of ripples. It smelled fresh, the heat and the rain sticking to you skin, our hair was all plastered to our foreheads and everything was really silent except for the rain and the laughter from farther away, Jake stealing Alex's hat. I just kept thinking to myself, "this could be me. I could live here, this could be my life, with fields on either side of us, the gulf carts, the river right in reach of a dock and a good set of fishing poles. Children screaming down the lane, running towards us, one after another emerging from the foggy tree's covered in morning dew, the fat dog leaping after them, thirteen year olds driving beat up fords down an old dirt road, the gravel flying out beneath them." I guess you just have to take what life gives you and I have another small piece of family here, even if we aren't blood related, that I can come and see anytime I want. And it makes me so happy, because they don't live in Hong Kong anymore, and Uncle Doc was talking about moving down here to be with the rest of us, in our little corner of the world, with a river running it's way through our lives.