I’ve started writing personal essays again, using Tinyletter. Here is my most recent one.
Last week I went to a hockey game with my cousin. He was in town for a conference, knew we both liked hockey (we’ll go with “like” even though it’s vastly inadequate), and thought he’d be able to get tickets. I had kind of given up on going to the World Cup of Hockey, so I was glad to be asked and we made plans. I hadn’t seen this particular cousin in ages (the kind of ages where you have to say it like a groan when you’re telling people – “in aaaaaages”) and was excited to catch up with him.
We fell into an easy conversation – partly hockey, partly exchanging news on mutual family members. There are a LOT of mutual family members, so I’m sure that could have lasted us at least a period or two, but the game was exciting and there was lots to discuss, including when exactly we had seen each other last. If you’d asked me before the game I would have squinted and then gone with, “I guess like 7… 8 years maybe? Gosh, maybe 10.” A decently long time for cousins, I thought. We spent a while trying to piece together what event could have seen us in the same place at the same time.
“Oh, the last time I came out east was 1995.”