the best and worst of spring break

My spring break has been pretty good, as breaks go. I've visited with Jared, stayed with Zoey's family, shopped with my mom, chilled with the siblings, and just today, completed my financial aid junk for next school year. Plus, I've whooped my dad at cribbage more times than I can count. But the best part of my break has definitely been the last two days, especially today (and not just because I completed both the CSS Profile and the FAFSA). Yesterday I met my dad out half-way between here and Trout Lake, on Laurel, for his lunch break. We busted out the cribbage board and shared lunch. I made him a mocha, he gave me doughnuts; I gave him MnMs and he gave me Reeses Peanut Butter Cups; I gave him Salsa Verde Doritos and he gave me four cheese rice. It was sweet. Plus I skunked him at cribbage - beat him bad! Then we listened to Paul Harvey (twice), read a few verses from Hosea, 2 Kings, Hebrews and Psalm 85, and split. Today I met him in the other direction, out on Lakeside Road, and today was even better. We didn't do the little gift exchange (though I did bring him another mocha), we only listened to Paul Harvey once, and he even gave me a run for my money at crib (though of course, I championed). However, instead of coming home straight away, I spend the next hour and half crammed in his grader cab, watching him work. We listened to the beginning of a sermon on "Friendly Fire" from within the Christian community, but mostly we just talked and spent time together. See, he grades all the gravel roads around Glenwood, keeping them safe and more or less smooth. I've always wanted to get a little run-down on some of that big equipment, but never got the chance because dad was always worried he'd get in too much trouble. Now, he'd still get in trouble if we got caught, but we didn't. You'll just have to imagine the smug look on my face. It was a lot of fun. Plus, having just read Marx [again] for my Politics and Religion class a few weeks ago, and thinking a lot about workers getting no satisfaction from a job well done, no finished product by which to identify their time and labor--it was good to see the hard labor and finished product on my dad's part. I drove on the road to get out there, and it was completely different when he'd finished with it and I was driving back. You'll also have to imagine the pride on face right now. Plus, as an added bonus to the story sharing, learning, and all that warm, fuzzy stuff, we were bebopping back and forth in the grader as dad worked and I saw a bobcat. I asked my dad what "that" was, and we stopped, backed up, and my dad thought it might be a dog. He looked a little longer and corrected himself, "It's a cougar... or a bobcat maybe. You know how to find out for sure?" So we drove a few dozen meters up the side road I'd spotted it on, waiting to check out its tail when it spooked. We didn't get very close or anything, but it bounced a way (no tail). It was a lot bigger than the only other bobcat I saw--two or three feet high anyway. It was beautiful. Then dad and I finished and I drove home and here I am. I'm just about to head off to visit my friends in Goldenale, Catherine and Kari Stout. If I had pictures, you'd get to see them too. Maybe I should work on that...
As for the low of my break, it would be my aunt Laura and my uncle Rick getting a divorce. I love them both so much you see, and it's tearing me up to see their family loose cohesion. Rick's two kids are living with his first ex-wife, and that whole situation just sort of stinks. The younger of the two, Jeff, has a great heart, and the pressure tearing him in two completely different directions just sucks. It sucks bad. And Brian, who has always been one of my favorite cousins, just doesn't seem to be making the best choices. Not that Brian is bad off or anything, or "heading down the wrong path", I just wish he understood things a little better, or maybe just had more respect. I can't judge or anything, respect has always been a place that I've seen the need for great improvement in myself, but the whole situation just stinks for those two. Laura's oldest, Jessica, is my age and she seems fine. Her and Rick get along real well and she is a pillar in all of this. Shawn also seemed well, though I hardly got to see him when I went and visited them all on Saturday. Brittney on the other hand, Laura's youngest, isn't doing well. I'm worried sick about her, praying all the time. I might disagree with decisions she's making, or decisions Rick and Laura made - that doesn't even matter, I just love them all to death. Seeing the pain and the devestation in all of their lives, I don't even have any breath left to place blame or judge, thank God. All I can do is try and pick up the pieces of my heart and hope there is something left of each of theirs. What an ugly business: divorce. Part of me expects I'll understand when I'm older; most of me hopes I never ever have any clue what it's like. All I have to say is, all of you unmarried pups, make damn sure you can commit before you marry; do it for the right reasons and be smart about it. He or she ain't worth the lifetime or lifestyle of heartache. Please please please, you can't always foresee the curve balls you'll get thrown, but try and anticipate would ya? Sometimes things happen anyway, like with Rick and Laura, and maybe it is unavoidable (it happens to the best of us), but at least think. And as for you, Brian, Jeff, Brittney, Shawn, Jessica, Rick, Laura--you are all foremost in my mind and on my prayers. I love you guys. God be with you.