So I’m back up in Marquette now, Erick and I arrived here yesterday evening.  I’m sad I couldn’t spend more time visiting the family due to work.  My roommates should be arriving some time later tonight.   I was going to write at my house when I was home, and I actually only got one entry in, the night I got home.  So I guess I will sum the rest of the trip up in this entry. 

Everything went so much better than I initially thought.  I was excited to go home, but afraid Erick wouldn’t like my family, or they wouldn’t like him, and I’d be left there on my “vacation” stressing out and feeling stupid.  But it wasn’t anything like that.  The first morning I was home my dad took all of us out to a little breakfast place in town that I used to work at.  It was nice going there, that was my very first job when I was 15 working there.  My dad and Erick talked a lot, and seemed to get along great.  GREAT?!  That never happens with my dad.  My mom kept commenting on how nice he was, and how everyone seemed to like him pretty well.  Especially my dad, SHOCKING. 

My dad was testing him with levels of conversation, I could tell.  It started out with “Hi, name, where you live, family”, then thorough out  the trip it reached the next level, “Tax laws (Erick’s specialty), business junk”, I think my dad was impressed that Erick was so smart, so kind, sociable, and had a lot of the same beliefs/ theories as my dad.  They are both hard workers, and both intelligent business men.  Then I heard them talking about things like politics.  POLITICS!  My dad was so testing him.  He kept passing, and passing, until the conversation led to politics.  It was great.  There hasn’t been a boyfriend I’ve had, or any of my sisters had that hit it off so well with my dad.  Erick told me that he really liked my dad, that he thought he was great, and so intelligent.  *sigh* That was good to hear.

Thanksgiving day was fun.  I ate so much food it wasn’t funny.  My dad is the best cook.  Everything was de-lish!  My aunt Shirley came, my grandparents, my Uncle and his wife, My sister Katie, her husband, and Leah; my brother from CMU, the place was packed!  There were 15 of us total.  Erick kept smirking and looking at me when my family said and did certain things I warned him about.  I told him my aunt Lena would be wearing her blue/greenish sweatshirt with a turkey on the front, and tell the story of how she got the shirt (for the 10^th year in a row), I told him how Emily would snicker and laugh at random things she finds funny like someone saying the word “delightful”, about how if he wants to get on my grandma’s good side all he has to do is sit there and smile as she tells the 30 minute story on the time there was a bull running towards them at a fair and how my grandpa left her in it’s path to jump behind a car, how Brandon would talk about cars, cars, and more cars…exct……. And the funny thing is every single one of those things occurred.  I know those people like the back of my hand.  So predictable.  Plenty of funny little things happened to embarrass me…. Like my 6 year and sister Sara sitting on Erick’s lap and farting, my dog hopping on top of his chair and licking his bald head, my Aunt Shirley walking in with 3 butterfly clips randomly placed around her head, I could go on, but I’d rather not reminisce those moments. 

I did get a little time to show Erick the town.  We went to the mall, so I could show him what a really mall is suppose to look like.  I showed him my lake, my schools, my old house…… being back there felt great.  I miss it already. My mom was such a sweetheart.  She let me fill up a bag of groceries, and gave me a little care package full of little needed things that will help me out.  I was so thankful, because December is a tight month for me.  She even gave me a pair of mittens she knit- she said that she made them for herself, but felt a little guilty every time she wore then because they were so warm she thought I should have them living up here.  She saw that they matched my coat, and made a little string to keep them together for me J

One thing I do regret is not seeing my friend Ryan.  He and I had talked about me going home for like a month.  I really wanted to see him, but on the times I could he was working.  It didn’t help that I didn’t have a car.  I couldn’t leave Erick at my house while I took his car to go visit him.  I tried to work something out, like going to see him on his lunch break, but then I found out Erick had to be checked out of his hotel by then………. Ug, it was just bad.  He and I were both really disappointed.  I felt like such a bad friend.  He called me as Erick and I were driving back home.  He called at a bad time, I was sad and crying because we just hit the road, and I was emotional.  He said that when I come home during Christmas, we will have to get together for a coffee then.  We will for sure, I have a book I want to give him too.  So that was the only downfall of the trip. 

On the upside though, I feel like my relationship with Erick has gotten even better.  I feel so much closer to him now that he had seen all the people I talk about, seen all the places I have described………. Now he knows where I come from- and it hasn’t scared him away J!