Lubbock Mariachis

Episode № 74 takes you to my grandmother's birthday party in Lubbock, Texas. Updates are minimal otherwise.

Show notes & transcripts are free for all! Visit LadyJupiterPodcast.wordpress.com.

Transcript

Episode № 74 Lubbock Mariachis

Welcome back everybody!

Lady Jupiter Podcast is the audio accompaniment to LadyJupiter.com a lifestyle blog where I write about my family’s military life, our home life, and other tiny details that I just like to share. I’m happy that you’re here with me.

In this episode I’ll share an update on our life as affected by the U.S. military then continue with a blog update, and wrap up with something domestic.

Today in our military-affected lives I have nothing significant to update.

We continue to watch Ukraine. And we are watching other countries consider NATO membership. Otherwise, Mister Jupiter’s work just keeps him busy. We were able to squeeze in a very brief drive to our hometown Lubbock, Texas between two TDYs.

I drove down to Texas with Kid Jupiter, and Mister Jupiter flew in to join us, because he needed to work on the days we needed to travel (Kid Jupiter and I could have also flown, but driving ourselves really is easier - it’s just time consuming). We were in our hometown for two sleeps, and we forgot to pick up tortillas when we were outside of Dyess Air Force Base on the drive back to Little Rock. We got back home just in time to do some laundry, and for Mister Jupiter to pack his bags for another trip.

We are now in the last few weeks of this class. If by chance you are listening now and you or your partner will be a future student in Mister Jupiter’s program - I want you to know that the students don’t travel nearly as much as Mister Jupiter does. So if you listen back and think “gosh, he sure does go out of town a lot” that is correct. That is because he is Squadron Dad, the students have different priorities, and while they do certainly travel, the pace is less frequent (but I know that the students are plenty busy).

For today’s LadyJupiter.com update…I have nothing significant to share. The site is still up and running, just like my toddler.

And lastly I wanted to catch you up on what happened last weekend just because I feel like sharing it.

One of my grandmothers had a birthday party! My local cousins started organizing it a few months ago, and they happened to choose the only weekend this month that was medium convenient for the Jupiter Family! I did have to cancel some things, and needed to board the dogs, but since we had the date in advance there were no penalties, and everything went very smoothly.

It was a lot of fun. About 75 to 100 people got together to celebrate my grandmother, and it was almost a full reunion for all of her grandchildren.

Growing up I was one of 15 cousins on that side of my family (I have four more on the other side)- we grew up together. We were literally always in each other‘s homes, each others lives, and sometimes even at each other‘s throats.

One summer day in the mid 90s, my personal estimate is 1995 (because of my haircut but I don’t actually know) a photo was taken of all of that grandmother‘s grandchildren. At that time there were 15 of us total. Since that original cousin photo, we have tried to re-create it a few times, but it is impossible to get so many people in the same place the same time, especially since were all adults now with big complicated lives.

Last weekend we tried to re-create the cousin photo again, this time there were 13 cousins present, but we were actually missing five. Two from the original 15 weren’t there, and three cousins have been added to the family since that photo in the 90s.

Anyway. It was a great weekend. Us cousins chipped in and even hired Mariachi Mexico Lindo to visit and play for the birthday girl. They are a six piece mariachi group, both men and women. Most of them even took turns singing - they were a blast. You’ll hear some of their performance…right now!

I took over the projector and I made a slideshow of family photos that displayed during the party. Mister Jupiter finally got to meet more of my family (because until last weekend he had only met three cousins from that side, and we’ll be celebrating our eighth anniversary later this year). Meanwhile Kid Jupiter got to run and play with the kids in a lawless gang - much like the one I experienced as a child.

Mister Jupiter and I -both- got to see our parents, but otherwise we didn’t tell anybody that we would be in town because we wouldn’t have time to see anybody else - so big apologies to any hometown friends who thought that they saw us driving in Lubbock. The matte black Tesla is pretty unique, and yes - that was us!

Our return drive back to Arkansas was good. We joked outside of Abilene about how I guess we’re ready to PCS to Dyess, but truly…we’re not. At least, I’m not. Even though I am super allergic to grass, trees, and weeds - I love how green Central Arkansas is. I love the rolling hills, and I even like the humidity sometimes. I am not too eager to be back in the Plains.

But don’t worry - I’m not hinting about anything. We don’t know where we’ll be stationed next, Mister Jupiter and I are just being realistic because Dyess is a place we could go to, which happens to be near our families…and paradoxically is an Air Force base that he’s never been assigned to (which is a surprise to most people in our community).

And that’s it for today’s episode.

Show notes and transcript are available online. Visit LadyJupiter.com/podcast.
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I will talk to you when I can record next - bye for now!