Interesting development...

I had a really damn good day.

When I got into work this morning, I was just homesick. I had called my folks the other day and yapped away about everyone and everything back home...but it wasn't enough. I really do miss everyone a lot, and fortunately we will be coming home for a visit very soon -- but it wasn't that.

I really missed being a member of the Bates family. Of course, I understand that I am building my own little Bates family out here, but I miss being the younger son to Steve and Jeannette and the brother of John, Shane, Stephen, Stanley, Pamela, Stephanie, Tiffany, and whoever the hell happens to be my new brother/sister via adoption. (this changes weekly, trust me)

So I decided to call my uncle, Thomas. He's the cool uncle every kid should have. He's the guy who's younger than your old man, does something cool (in this case he's an engineer like myself) and does something even cooler for fun (He played guitar). Tom loves music and really did motivate me to pick up the guitar when I was younger. I was told that we have a pretty good run with musicians in this family, you should stick to it. I did, and while I attribute Stevie Ray Vaughn as my main musical influence...it was my uncle Tom who made me think I could pull it off.

So he's doing great. The last time I saw him he was so happy to have finally finished his private campgrounds, so we discussed having Kay's parents park their new RV there (he installed all the hookups for that). We also got to talking about my amazing cousins, Melissa and Kevin. To say he is proud of his children is a gross understatement, and it's always cool to see the look in his eyes or the sound of his voice when he talks about them. I nabbed their telephone numbers from him and decided I needed to give em both a buzz.

Melissa, is newly engaged so I had to call her first. The fiancées name is Chris, and while he may have a few more piercings and tattoo's than Tom would like, he couldn't stop praising him for actually taking the time to ask my uncle for his blessing. "I thought guys had dropped that a long time ago, man. That was cool".

I could tell that I completely shocked Melissa when I called her. I haven't exactly been the greatest when it comes to keeping in touch with my family. Chalk it up to just being plain lazy about it, or whatever, I just never write or send birthday cards, really. I think this is something I will have to change, because after having kids of my own I find myself running a little thin on relatives to introduce my kids to when they get older. People I want them to look up to. People who can teach them about their heritage. These are the most important people in their lives -- family.

Now, I haven't really had a lot of communication with two of my siblings, either. Stephen and Stephanie both live in Austin and over the course of a lot of very personal family stuff -- we just haven't really kept in touch.

I've decided to change that.

Over the course of the last few years I have been trying to dig up as much on these two as I could. I have very wonderful people in my family who have been generous enough to keep me up to date regarding the important developments. I prod and press people for more information, but usually it always comes down to "Why don't you ask so-and-so for their number and call?"

I've done this and more a few times, only to chicken out or fail miserably.

I don't really know why. Maybe it's because I feel so damn guilty for not making the effort to reach out and contact them? Maybe it's because I'm a little pissed at them for not doing the same? Who knows? All I do know is that I have a brother and a sister out there who I don't really know much about after their teenage years. I want this to change.

Tom told me Melissa would have their new numbers, so I called her. We have a lovely little chat, but lo and behold, she didn't have the numbers on her. "You should try my mother, she would have them." So after I got some e-mail addresses and said my goodbyes, I called my aunt Vanessa.

Now this always cracks me up. When I was talking to Tom earlier in the day, he gave me Vanessa's (his ex) telephone number, after he gave the numbers for Kevin and Melissa. "Here's the number for 'the beast' by the way". I didn't quite catch what he meant by that...assuming it was some nickname for Kevin or something. Only once Melissa read out the number for her mother to me, did I noticed I already had it jotted down under that "beast" listing.

That's probably only funny to people who know them...

Okay, back to all this -- So I just called Vanessa and she'll be returning my call shortly. All this calling family has me a little jumpy. I'm terribly excited at the idea of finally talking to a sister I haven't spoken to in over 9 years, and a brother I haven't spoken to in well over 13 years.

I'll just get back to work till then.