letter to corey

At the beginning of this summer, my niece Corey embarked on an awesome adventure to Nicaragua, just to save the world and stuff. Knowing that letters would take ages to make their way to the teeny little village where she was being hosted, I took great pains to time mine exactly so that it would arrive just as she was packing to leave. We were both blissfully unaware of the drama that was about to unfold at the time when I wrote this letter, and it was all safely behind our young heroine by the time she received it. Welcome home, Corey! You rock my socks.

July 15, 2013

Hello, Corey darling!

I am a complete and utter tool for not getting this out sooner, my only excuse is that I’m a complete and utter tool.  Please someday tell me that this arrived at the perfect time (perfect includes any time you are still on Nicaraguan soil). I saw your photo on facebook playing pin the tail on the donkey, and I’ve gotta say, Corey, from where I sit it looks like you NAILED IT. I’m so proud of you! I mean, for the work you’re doing and for taking this brave step on your own and for being so generally smart and cool and awesome, but mostly for pinning the tail on that donkey. 

I hope you are writing and writing and that one day when you’re home we will all have the chance to enjoy a peek into the day to day life you are living this summer. It is so far away, so completely foreign and different, but you look beautiful and proud and happy. I imagine it’s a matter of finding common ground wherever you stand. We all recognize family, love, laughter, faith, service.  So by being where you are and doing what you’re doing, you’ve become familiar to the strangers who by now are your extended family.  I’m so proud of you!

We are getting ready to take a trip back East where we’ll see many of your family members. I am so sad that we won’t get to see YOU, because really, you’re the best one. Don’t tell anyone I said that. But on the bright side, you will be happy not to join your brothers and my son for the return drive to Chicago. I promise that is going to smell really bad and will also be noisy and confusing. 

Things are much less impressive around here. Jimbo finished 8^th grade and is enjoying a really boring, lazy summer that seems to be all he wants in this world. He is nervous/excited about high school but he’ll never admit it. School is a challenge for him and I just hope we’ve found the right place where he can develop a sense of value about his education.  Or at least stay out of juvie, either way is cool.  He likes riding his longboard and walking the dog, he has a couple of good friends that make him happy. He won’t really let me take his photo lately, but here’s a nice one of the back of his head with bonus footage of bill’s head and the westy! And a surfboard that was trying to decapitate me and clara. 

Clara is going into 7^th grade and is just a busy, loud little bee.  She nevereverever stops talking, and she asks a million questions about everything. It’s easy to get annoyed by the sheer energy of this relentless curiosity, but we find pleasure in knowing that she really wants to figure things out, and we try to help her look inside (read: THINK) sometimes before asking for explanations as a default response.  She puts lots of weird stuff on instagram but it otherwise an awfully nice girl.

 

Moki is still fat. She’s really just the best dog, though. Her personality is irresistible and no matter what  drama is waiting for me when I walk into my house, Moki  demands an immediate greeting and is like: “helllLOOOO? I can’t possibly wag any harder! Please acknowledge me before I die of the love.” It’s very good for my self esteem.

Bill is off for the summer, which makes me hate him a tiny bit but mostly I love him very much, which is a good thing since we’re married. We went to a fancy benefit yesterday at this place:

That was pretty awesome. It would be really good to get invited to more fancy stuff.  We’re all so very proud of you, Cor. I hope you are soaking up every second and that even the challenges feel good because you know they are making you stronger and smarter and – if humanly possible – even more awesome. Be safe, be happy. I love you!

Aunt Jacquie