It's day three of staying at my parents' house, and I've had a really great time. Thursday night I hung out with my parents for a little while until they headed off to catch their plane, and then my siblings and I got to spend some time together. Michelle drove and we went to the gas station, Target, Whole Foods, and had dinner at Las Palmas. Then Ian and I watched part of A Bug's Life. He went to bed and Michelle and I watched Sweeney Todd.

On Friday, I woke up early and took Ian to the YMCA. (Michelle left at six in the morning to go to her Jesus camp.) I had a great time in spin class (in no small part owing to the fact I could see myself in the mirror from the side--very cool when I am contracting all of my muscles on a bike ride--and also because at this YMCA we pedal towards the kiddie pool instead of a mirror). Ian said he had a good time with the Y kids, and I took him to Starbucks, where he bought a marble loaf. We headed to Kroger to stock up on vegan food (of which there is a pronounced lack in this house), and then saw Wall E, which was adorable. We came back and watched Mr. Magnorium's Emporium, and went to sleep.

Saturday, we chilled out and watched a lot of Star Wars and I napped. That evening, we ate at Moe's and checked out some books at Borders. I think I found what I am going to give Ian for his birthday there. Mom said that she had a lot of fun at the concert, but her stomach is acting up. She is about to go through menopause and apparently that is not treating her well. Also, Mom and Dad have been walking quite a lot around Vegas, and neither one of them are used to moving around that much. Dad's phone went swimming in the toilet the first night they got there, so a large chunk of their Friday was spent perusing phones at the AT&T store. Apparently we are all of the end of our two year contracts, and Mom, Dad and I all got new phones. Also, the woman that was helping them said the reason why I can never transfer data on my phone (get pictures, download ringtones, etc) is because my SIM card was really old and didn't support those functions. So now I can get much better ringtones, which is pretty exciting.

Today was another low-key day. Ian and I lounged around until noon, when Ashley got here. My cousin grew up in Atlanta and has since moved to Nashville, and as such, she has a very different view of what transpired after her mom moved away from Memphis. I learned some disturbing dirty-laundry stuff about our family that I sort of want to ask my parents about; they've hinted at it, but I thought their hints meant it didn't really happen. Now I think they just didn't want to eleborate. But other than that, we had really good conversations about her experiences in college and how her wreck helped her to grow up and take responsibilty for her life. I finally got to tell her about being attracted to women, which always makes me feel more comfortable because I don't have to change pronouns or make up stuff, which I really hate doing for obvious reasons. She was pretty cool about it (I talked about my sex life in my previous relationship) despite saying that she wasn't totally comfortable with homosexuality. We talked about relationships, our parents, where we want to be, with whom we want to be, our freshman years in college, all kinds of stuff. Now that I've moved out, I kinda feel like we're on similar levels in our life. She's twenty-six and has experienced more life than I have, but I think we've both grown a lot from the experiences we have had. We talked about Matthew, my brother who died after my mom carried him for six months, and it was interesting to see how that had affected the other part of my family as well.

I won't be too disappointed if I don't return home for a few days. I've been living off my parents' money and seeing lots of family and friends. I am pretty happy here.