Things that made me cry today

1. The first bite of this:

 

My Aunt Deb passed away in October. The last time I talked to her was over three years ago when I came out to her. It didn't feel like the conversation went that well. And since it was the last time we spoke, I think that assessment was fair. But now she's gone and I'm still struggling to wrap my head around it. 

I've spent the past two and a half months making every recipe of hers I have. Each bite has transported me back to happier times. I've been holding off on this recipe because it's my favorite. I jotted it down while I was in college. Sitting on a stool in her kitchen, and between bites of the simple red stuff, I wrote each ingredient as she called it off, her reading glasses sliding off the tip of her nose as she read her own recipe aloud.

I miss her in the strangest of ways. And that first bite of her hot sauce today brought tears so quickly that I couldn't swallow. It was unmistakably familiar and comforting and haunting and just like hers. 

2. These dudes.
Jonathan & Dwayne | A story about love. from Celia Hilton on Vimeo.

3. The fact that my beloved Encyclopedia Jordannica is currently IN LABOR. And before the day ends, Henry will arrive and explode his parents' hearts with bigger love than either one of them has ever fathomed.

(May 2010) Merritt eyes the woman he eventually comes to call "Aunt Georgian."

4. Jumping frog squats.

5. This stupid setlist out of Tacoma last night:

Not only did the Indigo Girls play "Three County Highway" and "Dairy Queen" and "Land of Canaan" in the same show, but Brandi Carlile joined them for five songs. 137 MILES FROM MY HOUSE.