Birmingham Pt. 1 : Family

I am from Birmingham.  Birmingham is where my friends and family live.  I love them all.  My mom and dad will probably live here for the rest of their lives.

I think they like it here I think, but I don't really know if they can remember living anywhere else.  My mom grew up in Pittsburgh until she moved to Alabama and met my father when she was in college.  They married kind of young which my mother has now recently advised me against, but I think it turned out for the best.   My two younger brothers still live in Birmingham but that won't last for long.

Jacob is going to Auburn for college in a few months.  Hopefully he'll enjoy his "college" experience and make it out unscathed.  He's going to join a frat.  I know nothing about that side of college except that most of the frat guys were scumbags.  I just hope he'll have the common sense to not turn out like another cookie cuter drone.  Andrew just got a ridiculous internship and hopefully he'll be making some bank this summer.  He just passed his insurance sales exam so he's well on his way to success.  Pops doesn't think the idea of being an insurance salesman is too useful, but Andrew has enough people skills to move some policies out the door.  Apparently the last intern made $90,000, which is uncommon, but I think Andrew is going to do pretty good for himself.     My grandparents are getting old.  They raised 5 kids here and will be leaving lasting legacy.

   

 My grandfather was a dentist for ACIPCO when he first started working in Birmingham, and eventually he opened his own practice in Brookwood.  My grandmother taught children to read in the inner city until she retired.  Now my grandfather is retired.  I know they will both be gone soon, and I am going to miss them.  I guess it helps to accept that they don't have much time left.  My mimi has been struggling with Parkinson disease and cancer for the past 10 years, and my grandfather isn't in the best health anymore either.  I don't really know what to do except spend time with them and try to preserve their stories.  My Yiayia ( Greek for grandmother ) on my mothers side live here too.

   Yiayia is greek.  100% greek.  Her mom came straight off the boat from the old country.  She makes the most delicious food I've ever tasted, and I will miss it when I move....realllllly miss it.  At every family gathering she would prepare a feast that was more delicious than the last.  My absolute favorite thing she makes is macaroni and cheese.  It not too salty and it not too cheesy.  Its the best, and hopefully one of these days she'll teach me how to make it.   I being a recent college graduate have a new goal to get the flying fuck out of town.

Hopefully my plans to work on an oil rig and see the world will pan out and I'll get to see the world finally.  I could potentially be working a month on followed by a month of vacation in which I'd travel the world, but I'm not sure how feasible that really is.  I'd like not to have an apartment and just live out of a backpack and do it up proper.  I guess we'll see what happens in the next few months.