ONE

Image © Jose & MidJourney

Started the New Year with family in Seattle, 6 adults and two kids. These folks are what I call addition family, not origin family, meaning we don’t share the same blood. But then we might say, who cares. While I disagree with so many things they say, we don’t seem to align on many values and beliefs, and we fight it out or gracefully avoid doing so depending on so many things, that is not too different from blood family, right? In some ways, better, no one want to be upset and stay upset with your Mother, but with an addition family member… For reasons I am not able to explain, it feels different, not better or worse, just different.

11:30pm on the 31st, we are all forcefully dancing and smiling, while looking at our phones or anything that will surreptitiously disclose the time and distract us from acknowledging we are bored and really want to go to bed. But the champagne bottles are out, and we are supposed to stay up, so we stay up. One of the adults insists on pool party videos with babes in swimsuits all parading in a virtual visual orgy, not porn, not erotic, just flesh. Women in the room grumbling, growing louder in discontent, but we keep dancing. My wife suddenly says “I’m going to put on my bathing suit”, I said “great idea, I’ll do the same”.

We go up to the room and then come down, sunglasses and everything, in style. We make an entrance, and we parade, and if that was not enough, we go to the outside patio, the designated ‘pool’ area. The party reignites, we are complimented as much on our idea as on the bravery or exposing ourselves and going into the cold. The music changes, no one is looking at the TV anymore, we become the life of the party. No one else does the same, and thy all has swimsuits. We dance, celebrate, drink the champagne, and laugh out loud, on our swimsuits on the 31st of December in Seattle.