Christmas, And Cousin Dylan Arrives

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Okay, so it's a couple of days late, but Sapphire has been too busy to help me with the pictures in this post until today.   Sapphire's family came to stay with us for the holidays, and the house has been jumping with activity.   It's great!  Everyone's been in a really good mood and we're all having lots of fun.  I think Sapphire's grandmother might have a small crush on me, which is kind of cute.   She likes the others too, but I think I'm her favourite.

We had a couple of holiday trees in the house this year, which was pretty fun.   And of course we all got presents.    I got a tent.  I can hardly wait for spring to come, so Michael and I can go camping.   Michael and Rommie gave each other skates.  At least they can use their presents now.   They said Sini and I can borrow their skates some time, so I can teach Sini how it's done.  No one ever invented skating on Sini's world, probably because there are only a few places on the whole planet that get enough ice that it'd even be possible to skate on.  

Here's a photo Sapphire took of some of our holiday decorations.  Michael and Rommie were exchanging gifts here.

 Here is  one of Michael and Rommie's holiday photos:

An exciting thing that's happened during the holidays is that our cousin, Dylan Brightman, arrived, and is going to be moving into the house with us.   Back in October we heard that he might be coming, but I said that I wouldn't believe it until it actually happened.  Well, it happened, and I'm pretty stoked that he's going to be sticking around.

Dylan is one of our first cousins on our father's side of the family.   He's just a year older than Michael and me, and he practically grew up with us.   I'd have to say Dylan was my best friend growing up.   He's still my best guy friend.

Dylan is a shy, quiet guy.   He thinks a lot and is into all kinds of academic stuff like philosophy, psychology, computers and math.   He's studying to be a psychologist, and he'll be transferring to our local university when the new semester starts in January.  That means he'll be going to school with Michael and me.   

I guess I've never mentioned that before, have I?  Michael and I are finishing our undergraduate degrees, and we'll be graduating this coming spring.    We're both doing double majors.  Michael's are history and anthropology, and mine are history and sociology.   Michael plans to become an archaeologist.  I want be a lawyer.   I've already been accepted for law school next fall, and I'm beyond excited about that.  Dylan says that if I were any more excited, someone would probably have to peel me off the ceiling.   Sometimes, when I think about it, I really do feel happy enough to float up there.

Anyway, I was telling you about my cousin Dylan.   This is him:

I'll post more later.  I'm getting hungry and I think there's some plum pudding left.   I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the holidays! 

The Usual Suspects

Anyone who knows me would probably describe me as a people person.   I like to think I'm an easygoing guy, and I get along well with most of the people I meet.   There are, however, exceptions.  Here is one of them:

 

That smug underage drinker you're looking at is Rommie's younger brother, Xander.   It's hard to believe Xander and Rommie were raised by the same parents.   Rommie is a lovely person.  She's kind and generous, and she's a great listener, and she has loads of common sense.   Xander., on the other hand, is an idiot. 

Okay, that's not really fair.   Xander isn't stupid.   He's actually quite clever, but he's also an obnoxious pain in the ass.   One of his greatest pleasures in life seems to be tormenting me as often as possible.   He likes to hide things from me or move the furniture around so I'll bump into it.  He makes fun of me all the time and generally just seems to enjoy having a laugh at my expense.   I've tried everything I can think of to make him stop.   I've even told Sapphire what's going on, although I'm not usually a tattle-tale.   She's had a few chats with him, but nothing much ever seems to penetrate.   Xander does what he wants. 

Xander is 18, so he's younger than me.  He's definitely less mature than me.   I know I shouldn't let his teasing and his stupid pranks get to me but, the truth is, being ridiculed like that really hurts. 

I talk to Sapphire about it sometimes, when I'm feeling really bad.   She gets it.  People at her school made fun of her because of her disability when she was a kid, and she knows how much it hurts.   She says there are always going to be people like Xander out there, but that I shouldn't believe the hurtful things they say about me, because none of it is true.   I really try to follow that advice.  I like who I am and I accept that I'm different, but it's hard to ignore somebody who's constantly pointing out just how different I am. 

I like Sini's opinion on the subject.   "We are all different," she says.  "Every being is unique." 

Sini doesn't consider my blindness as a disability.  She calls it a variation.    To her, my blindness is no more or less significant than the fact that I have curly hair.   It's just part of the total package.  Maybe that's one of the reasons I feel so safe with Sini.   I have nothing to prove to her., no barriers to break through.  She loves and accepts me exactly as I am.  

Ironically enough, another person I don't have to try hard to impress is Xander's best friend, Radek.   This is him:

Radek is from the Czech Republic.   He's only 16 years old, but I think he's mature for his age.  He's really smart and speaks four languages fluently.   He really likes languages, so Sapphire has been teaching him French, and Sini has been trying to teach him her native language, too.  At the rate he's going, he'll be the only Erisan-speaking human in existence.  If that doesn't help to earn him a Ph.D. some day, nothing will. 

Radek is a nice kid.   Sometimes, I worry about him hanging around with Xander, because i think Xander is a decidedly bad influence on him.   Sapphire says I shouldn't worry about that.  Radek is intelligent enough to know right from wrong, and he's mature enough to make up his own mind.   I guess Sapphire is right, but it's hard not to be concerned.   I don't want to end up living with another version of Xander.   I'm pretty sure I'm not prepared to deal with that.

It's Official

I'm a brother-in-law. 

We had a wedding this past weekend.   Michael and Rommie finally said 'I do' on Saturday in the park.   Sapphire took lots of pictures, and we all had a big celebration afterwards.   Some of us were pretty hung over today.  Embarrassing, really. 

Anyway, here are some of Sapphire's photos of the happy couple.  She says they look nice.  I'll have to take her word for it.

 

 

 

Sapphire says that if you're a member of Den of Angels and you want to see more of Rommie and Michael's wedding photos, you can click this link.

Guardian Angel

Not all the important people in my life are people.  One of them is a horse.   It's time I introduced you to my wonderful friend, Guardian Angel.

 

I've loved horses ever since I was a kid.   Michael and I both had riding lessons from the time we were old enough to sit in the saddle.  We had a really great instructor who wasn't afraid of the challenge of teaching a blind boy to ride.   Obviously, I'd never race or compete in equestrian events, but that's always been fine with me.   I've always been happy with the things my horse and I can do together.  I don't focus on the things we can't do. 

Our riding instructor said that I should never ride alone.   As smart as horses are, she said, they still need humans to guide them and tell them where to go.   I guess she thought that because I can't see, I'd automatically get myself and my horse lost somewhere and that I'd be unable to figure out how to get us home.    I always obeyed the 'no riding alone' edict when I was a kid, but now that I'm grown up, I'm less concerned with other people's rules.   Don't get me wrong.  I'm not dumb enough to think that I could never get lost, and I really have to pay attention to my surroundings when I'm riding by myself, but I don't think I need constant supervision.   Besides, my former riding instructor didn't know Guardian.  I think he's smarter than the average horse.   Even if I'm a little off course sometimes, Guardian always seems to know exactly how to get us home.  Michael jokingly refers to him as my 'guide horse'.   I don't think my brother realizes just how true that is. 

Guardian was my parents' present to me on my sixteenth birthday.   Some kids get a car, but since I'll never be able to drive, I got a horse.   Personally, I'd rather have a horse than a car anyway, even if I could drive.  Cars don't love you the way horses do.   My parents gave me something far more valuable than a means of transportation.  They introduced me to an incredibly special companion. 

Guardian is a rescue horse, although his story isn't nearly as tragic as one might expect.   Although he did end up at a horse sanctuary, he'd never been abused or mistreated in any way by his previous owner.   The lady who'd owned him before me loved him as much as I do, but she had to give him up because she got cancer and was too ill to ride him and look after him any more.   She sent him to the horse sanctuary and asked them to find him a new home, and that's where my parents discovered him. 

When my parents told me their plans for my birthday, I think I must've looked like I was going to pass out or something, because my mother demanded to know if I was okay, and my father said anxiously, "But we thought you wanted your own horse, Tyler."  

"I do!" I said, and I think I was probably hyperventilating a little at that point.  "It's just, like....awesome!  You're actually buying me a horse for my birthday!"

"Well, your brother's getting a used car," my dad said.  "We thought it was only fair."  

It was better than fair in my opinion, but I didn't tell my father that I thought I was getting a better sixteenth birthday present than my twin brother.  Horses cost more than used cars, and they have a lot more ongoing expenses too.  I knew I'd have to pay for my horse's upkeep on my own eventually, but my parents were being more than generous at the time. 

I had to meet Guardian before my parents made any kind of commitment to buy him.  There was always the possibility that we wouldn't be compatible, after all.   I could barely contain my excitement on the way to the sanctuary to meet him for the first time, and my mother kept pleading with me to calm down.   Michael was making fun of me and saying that I was trembling so much that I'd probably fall out of the saddle and make an idiot of myself.   Dad told Michael to stop picking on me, which only prompted Michael to tease me more.  He can be such a jackass sometimes.  

When we got to the horse sanctuary, I finally did calm down.  There was this incredible peace about the place.  Joelle, the lady who ran the sanctuary talked to us for a while and asked me a bunch of questions about how much experience I had with horses, how many years I'd been riding, and whether I could look after a horse of my own.    She asked me what kind of horses I'd been working with at the riding school, and I said old and docile ones.   That made her laugh.  Guardian Angel was only four, she said, and definitely not docile.  She described him as gentle and intelligent, but said that he had a lot of 'go' in him.  My dad commented that Joelle's description of Guardian could very well be a description of me.  That was pretty embarrassing, I have to say.   'Gentle and intelligent' is not a descriptive phrase that a teenaged guy really wants to hear his father apply to him.  

Anyway, after our interview, Joelle took us out to the stable to see my horse.  For some reason, I'd already started to think of him as mine, even though I had no idea if we'd even get along.     Maybe it was intuition on my part.   

From the first moment we met, Guardian and I connected.  Even though I was a total stranger to him, he didn't seem nervous around me at all.   He took the apple I offered him and made a lot of sloppy, crunchy noises while I listened with satisfaction.  He let me touch him right away, and didn't seem to mind one bit when I ran my hands all over him.   I asked Joelle what colour he was, and she said he was grey.  

"He looks white to me," said my mother, who really doesn't know much about horses. 

My dad, the horse guy, launched into some rambling lecture about how true white horses are rare, and how most horses that look white are actually grey, and that you can tell the difference between a grey horse and a true white one because greys have dark skin and eyes.  I tuned most of that stuff out.   Dad is pedantic and likes trivia.   We've all learned to ignore him when he goes into lecture mode. 

Joelle let me saddle Guardian by myself.  I think she was curious to know how I'd manage it.   I was used to having an audience at the riding school, so I didn't mind Joelle and my parents and Michael watching me get Guardian ready.    That was the easy part.   What I really wanted was for Joelle to lead us out to the paddock and for everyone to watch me actually riding.   I wanted this lady to know that I had real horse skills and that I wasn't that pitiful blind kid who just sat in the saddle and let the horse - or the trainer, gods forbid - do all the work.   

I think Guardian knew that I couldn't see him, just like some of the horses at the riding school knew, but Guardian didn't use the fact to his own advantage.  He stood perfectly still while I saddled him.  One of the school's horses had a nasty habit of moving away from me just at the point when I was about to place the saddle on her back.   Somehow, I knew Guardian would never do that to me.   

Our 'test ride'  in the paddock was a huge success.   Joelle led us around twice, and then I said I wanted Guardian and me to try making the circuit without her.   My mother raised a mild protest at that, but Michael redeemed himself from his earlier ignominy by piping up with, "Don't be so uptight, Mum.  He does it all the time on the track at the riding school." 

Our first trip around the paddock without Joelle was at a sedate walking pace, with Michael calling out "Corner!" each time we got close to one.   On our second trip around, I decided we should trot.  Michael told me later that our mother looked like she was going to cry when she saw that.   He said she looked totally panicked.   Dad was pleased, though.   Needless to say, he agreed that Guardian Angel was the horse for me.  

The rest, as they say, is history.  

Here's another photo of us.  Sometimes I like to ride bareback.  Don't tell my mother.

 

Our Surprise Blessing

Now that I've introduced you to my wonderful Sini, I think I should also tell you about our daughter, Skyla Blue.   We call her our surprise blessing because she was certainly unexpected, but definitely not unwelcome.   Skyla should be a scientific impossibility - an alien-human hybrid - yet she's here despite all odds and we love her more than anything.

Here's our Skyla:

I don't think I have to explain to any of you how babies are made, but to understand how Skyla got here, there are a few things you really should know about the culture of Sini's home world.   Erisans don't have the same kind of taboos we have in a lot of Earth cultures.   Nudity - even public nudity - is apparently a non-issue on Eris.    We discovered this fact pretty early on, and it created an awkward situation which Rommie and Hunter did their best to address.  Sini didn't quite understand why we thought it was improper for her to wander around the house with nothing on, but at least she agreed to stay clothed whenever there were other people around to see her.

Sini took Hunter and Rommie's instructions literally, I guess, because she didn't include me in the list of people she had to remain clothed for.   Her rationale was that I can't see her, so it shouldn't matter.   Obviously, she missed the point of what Rommie and Hunter tried to explain.    I'd be sitting on the couch, listening to one of my audiobooks or something, and Sini would curl up next to me, and it'd take me about two seconds to realize she was au nauturel.   After several failed attempts to communicate all the reasons why this was not  a good thing, I finally gave up trying.   My elegant solution was to keep a blanket on the couch that I could wrap around her whenever she didn't feel like being dressed.   Maybe that wasn't the best solution, but it was better than nothing.

Not only do they lack rules about personal privacy,  Sini's people also don't have the same kind of societal rules about physical contact that we do.    They have social boundaries that keep them from touching people without permission, but once somebody gives his or her consent to be touched, evidently, pretty much all superficial surface contact is okay.    It took way more patience than I thought I possessed to make Sini understand this isn't the way things are on Earth.  You can't just touch people anywhere, even if they do happen to give their permission for you to touch them.   Sini didn't seem to feel it was necessary to include me in her application of that Earth custom, either.

If you're getting the idea that Eris is a fast and loose planet, don't worry, because you're not alone.  I'll confess I was beginning to think that too.  As it turns out, though, Erisans form exclusive life partnerships with each other.   Thankfully, that meant I didn't have to explain to Sini why it would be inappropriate for her to kiss, cuddle or otherwise get up close and personal with Michael, Radek and Xander.

Xander and Radek did a pretty good job of telling her why she shouldn't touch them. They informed her outright that they don't like being touched by girls, full stop.   Unfortunately, that created another layer of culture shock for her.  Apparently, there aren't any strictly gay Erisans, or strictly straight ones for that matter.   They're all bisexual.   Those Erisan life partnerships?  Most of the time they're a trio of people, and occasionally a quartet.

I have to say, learning that particular fact created some culture shock for me.  I wanted to make sure that we would not, under any circumstances, be including a third person in our partnership.  To my surprise, Sini was perfectly okay with that.   While three-person arrangements are the usual thing for her people, two-person partnerships are common enough not to be considered out of the ordinary. 

This post was supposed to have been about Skyla, wasn't it?   By now, I'm sure you've figured out where I'm going with all this, anyway.   I'm a red-blooded young guy with a life partner who has a decidedly lax attitude about propriety and, you know, there's only so much temptation a guy can endure before he gives in.

It was probably stupid of us to be so naive, but honestly, neither Sini nor I ever considered the possibility that we could have a baby together.    I guess we figured our DNA was too different for that even to be possible.    Needless to say, we were wrong.   When Sini told me that she thought she was expecting a child, you could've knocked me over with a feather.    I was shocked, excited and terrified all at once.   If I hadn't already been sitting down when she told me, I'm not sure what might've happened to me.

Sini's pregnancy wasn't fun for anybody in the house, least of all Sini herself.   My sweet, funny and playful partner transformed into a person who cried nearly every day and couldn't be consoled.   She was very sick and didn't even leave our bed on some days.  The worst part of it for me was that there was really nothing I could do to make things better, and I hated feeling so helpless.   I asked her if what she was going through was normal for women from her world, and she told me that some of her people suffer a lot while carrying a child and some don't.   Poor Sini happened to be one of the unlucky ones.

The story has a happy ending, though.  Our daughter arrived healthy and beautiful, and once Sini started to feel better, she returned to her happy and curious self.

We decided to name our little girl Skyla because the name reminds us of the sky, and because it sort of sounds like a combination of both our names.    Sini chose 'Blue' as Skyla's second name.   When I asked her what colour Skyla was, she told me that our daughter is pale, like me, but then surprised me by adding, "But she could be blue."

I have to say, that confused me quite a lot.   I said, "What do you mean, she could be blue?"

"Blue," Sini repeated.  "Your custom is to give children two familiar names.  You are Tyler James."

"Yeah, that's right."

"Skyla's second name could be Blue."

"Now I get it," I said. "Skyla Blue Brightman, but why 'Blue'?"

She gave me a mischievous smile then.  I could hear it in her voice when she said, "Do you not like blue?"

"I love blue," I said, laughing.   And so our new addition was named. 

Every day with Skyla is an adventure for us.   Sini and I would be  the first to admit that we weren't ready to be parents, but now, we wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Learning how to take care of Skyla is an ongoing challenge, but we always have lots of help from Michael and Rommie, and with such a full house, we have plenty of live-in baby sitters if we ever need a break.   We know we're young, and we're probably the most unlikely couple ever, but we love the little family we've created. 

Sini

I have solid proof there is life on other planets.

Here's the post where I introduce you to my soulmate, Sini Iloa.  For the story I'm about to tell, you may have to suspend your disbelief. I know I still have to sometimes, and this is my life.

For those of you who are wondering, Sini rhymes with 'teeny'.   Sini always laughs when I tell people that.   My response?  It could be worse.  I could say that it rhymes with 'meanie'.   Of course, I would never really say that.  I don't think she has a mean bone in her body.

This is Sini:

Sini is from a planet called Eris.   She says her world is about the same size as Earth, although it has more water and less land mass.  The average planetary temperature of her world is slightly warmer than Earth's as well, she says, and there are lots of rainforests.   I try to imagine what it's like sometimes, but I can't quite get a mental picture of it.  I've never been to a rainforest on this planet.   I'll bet it'd be warmer than I like, though.   Sini is from a part of her world where the climate is more temperate.  She says it snows there occasionally, but as much as it snows here where we live.

Another thing that's different about Sini's home world is that it's more technologically advanced than ours.   She thinks our laptops, digital cameras and cell phones are quaint, and she laughed outright at Sapphire's microwave and Keurig coffee maker.   She thinks cars are positively primitive and that they're killing our planet by degrees.   I suppose for somebody from a world where they've developed clean, safe energy and faster-than-light travel would naturally think that way.   I think Eris must be a very beautiful world.

Faster-than-light travel, incidentally, is how Sini got here.  Her people have been exploring outer space since long before we even sent our first rocket to the moon.   They've been aware of us - and a few other 'alien' races, apparently - for quite some time.   Sini was one of the communications specialists on a starship that was sent from her world to observe ours.  They were preparing for eventual first contact with humans, but our first contact came a little sooner than any of us expected.

Sini was vague on the details when she told me what happened to her ship, but I think that was because she wasn't really certain what happened, herself.   All she could say was that there'd been some sort of massive malfunction on board the starship..  All the members of the crew sealed themselves into life pods and ejected from the ship.  They barely managed to escape from it before it was destroyed.    Sini said the pods were supposed to have been launched into space, where they would have remained floating in the vacuum until another ship came to rescue them.  Somehow, though - she wasn't sure how - her pod must've been launched toward our planet instead.    This all sounds like something straight out of Star Trek, doesn't it?  I told you that you'd have to suspend your disbelief.   Anyway,  this is how Earth received its first Erisan visitor.  Ready or not, there she was. 

Of course, I didn't know any of that stuff on the day Sini and I met.  All I knew at the time was that a stranger had crash-landed in our back yard.

 Michael and I were just hanging out on the deck when we first noticed Sini and her pod.   I noticed it first, actually.   I told Michael that I smelled something weird, like scorched plastic.  He said I was crazy.  He didn't smell anything.   He was kicking his stupid soccer ball around.  It accidentally rolled off the deck, and when he went to get it, he saw what was left of the pod in the bushes. 

"Hey Tyler, check this out!" he shouted to me.

"You're pointing, aren't you?" I said.

"Sorry," he said, and then I heard him running back to me.  He grabbed me by the hand and almost dragged me off the deck.  "Seriously, you gotta see this.  It's the weirdest thing."

Michael is the only person in the world who can get away with taking my hand and pulling me along like that.  I don't like to be led around.  I'll accept being guided, but I prefer taking my guide's arm instead.  I feel safer that way.

We stopped at a spot not too far from the deck, and Michael told me what he saw.   He said the thing was shaped like a bullet and that it was about as long as we were tall.   It looked burned on one end, Michael said, and conceded that I was right about the scorched plastic smell.    I went forward to touch the thing, but just as I was putting my hand out, Michael yelled at me to stop.

"What's the matter?" I said.

"What if it's radioactive or something?"

"Is it glowing?"

"It doesn't have to be glowing to be radioactive, you idiot," Michael said.  "Anyway, it's all burnt up.  It might be still hot."  

"Should we tell Sapphire?" I said.

"Yeah, we should probably--"

He didn't finish the sentence because, I presumed, he'd also heard what I'd just heard.  Someone, or something, was rustling around in the bushes.

"What's that?" I whispered.

For a moment, Michael didn't say anything, and then he stammered, "It's...uh, blue and...naked...and staring at us."

"What?"

"It's a girl," Michael said.  "A blue girl."

"You've lost your mind," I said.  "A blue girl?"

"I'm not kidding," he said, and he sounded genuinely scared. "We should get out of here."

"This is our yard."

"Yeah, and there's a naked blue girl in it!" Michael practically yelled at me.  "We have to do something."

"Like what?"

"Okay, listen," my brother said. "I know this is having no effect on you, because you can't see her, but this is the freakiest thing I've ever seen.  We should definitely tell Sapphire, or maybe the police...or somebody."

"If the girl isn't wearing anything, maybe we should find her some clothes, first," I suggested.

"Yeah," Michael said. "You know what?  I'll do that.   You can come with me or stay here. It's up to you, but I'd suggest coming with me.  You know, for safety."

"Your safety, or mine?  I think I'll stay here."

"I'll be back," Michael said, and took off running for the house before I could get another word in.

I stood there for a while, not really knowing what to do.   My brother's rambling about a nude blue girl sounded like a total load of crap.  It'd be just like him to play a dumb practical joke on me.  On the other hand, he seemed honestly scared and freaked out by what he told me he'd seen.   Maybe there was a blue girl, as impossible as that sounded.   Maybe somebody else was playing around, and maybe the joke was on Michael.

Whatever was going on, there was definitely somebody near me in the bushes.  That part, at least, was true.   Finally, I took a deep breath and decided to say something.

"Hello," I said.

Our visitor echoed, "Hello."

"Where are you from?"

"Where are you from?" said the girl.

There was definitely something different about the way she spoke.  She had an accent I couldn't place, and her tone was lilting, almost as if she were singing.  I'd never heard a voice quite like it.  It wasn't...normal.  

Judging by the direction of her voice, she was either very short or she was sitting on the ground.  I knelt down so that we'd be on the same level.    I wondered if her responses to me were genuine conversation, or if she was mimicking me.   I have to confess, I assumed she was simply repeating what I'd just said, but that didn't stop me from taking one more stab at communication.  I pointed to myself and said, "I'm Tyler." 

The response I received definitely wasn't the response I'd expected.   My effort to communicate was met with the most musical laughter I'd ever heard.   This strange person was laughing at me, when all I wanted to do was introduce myself.  

"What?" I demanded.

"Tarzan," she said.  "I have seen the films."

I must've looked completely astonished at that point.  I just blurted out, "Wait a second!  You speak English?"

"I could not study you without knowing your language.  Are you interested in knowing what I am called...Tyler?"  She said my name hesitantly, as if she was trying it out, making sure she was getting it right.

"Yeah," I said. "What's your name?"

"Sini Iloa," she said. "You may use my familiar name.  Sini."

"Nice to meet you, Sini."

"Nice to meet you, Tyler."

"Uh...are you really blue?" I said, and then immediately felt stupid for asking.

"Many people are blue on my world."

"Your world?"

"Eris.  The world I am from.  You asked where I am from.  Are you from here?"

"Earth?"

She laughed again.  "I know you are from Earth.  I meant here."

"Yeah, this is where I live."

"Now I will answer your question," she said.  "I think I am blue, but some of my people are green, if I have gotten your colour names correct."

"I'm not sure," I admitted.  "The sky is blue.  Grass and leaves are green."

"Yes, green," she said.  "Some of my people are green, but I am blue."

"That's interesting," I said, because I wasn't sure how else to respond.  I know certain things are certain colours, but I've never seen green, blue or any other colours.  Just then, I couldn't imagine blue and green people.  

Both of us went quiet after that.  I'm not usually a shy person, but for some reason I just couldn't think of anything to say.  Maybe I was stunned into silence or something.  I mean, I was sitting there with a real, live alien.

Just when things were starting to get awkward and I was wishing desperately for my brother to hurry up and come back, Sini said softly, "You cannot see me, can you?"

"No," I told her. "I can't." 

Before I even realized what was happening, I felt something cool and smooth brushing against my fingers.  The next thing I knew, my hand was in hers.  She lifted my hand and, to my surprise, she placed my fingers against her face.   I'd heard about things like this; the horrible stereotype of blind people in movies who 'look' at others by feeling their faces.  Up to that point in my life, I never would've pictured myself doing that.  In hindsight, though, if Sini's information about our culture came from movies, I can understand why she might've thought that sort of thing would be appropriate.

In any case, I did something I'd never done before and 'looked' at her with my sense of touch.   I discovered that she's like us in a lot of ways, but her ears gave me a bit of a shock.  I guess I'd been disarmed by her more or less human face, so when I reached those beautiful pointed ears, they caught me off guard.   It was probably forward of me, but I couldn't help running my fingertips over the pointed part more than once.

I must've tickled her, because she started laughing again, and then she asked if she could touch me.

That's what we were doing when Michael finally came back; feeling each other's ears..  My brother is usually pretty quick with sarcastic comments but, to his credit, he didn't say anything about the weird ear-touching ritual Sini and I were performing on one another.   He really ought to have been congratulated for keeping his thoughts inside.  I mean, Michael isn't known for his self-restraint, and there was his brother kneeling on the ground and stroking the ears of a naked blue girl, right in front of his eyes.  It had to have taken a lot of will power for him to stay silent in the face of that.

Anyway, Michael brought some of Rommie's clothes for Sini to wear.  We turned our backs while Sini dressed, although she said we didn't have to.    Michael told us that Sapphire wanted to know what was going on,  so when Sini was ready, we took her into the house.

Predictably, after Sapphire had heard Sini's story, she decided Sini should stay with us.   Sapphire's house, in case you don't already know, has gained a reputation as a sanctuary for wayfaring strangers of all descriptions.   Sini seemed overwhelmed and a little confused, but she agreed to stay for a while, at least until others from her world figured out what happened to her ship and came looking for her and anyone else from the ship who might've survived.

 At first, Sini spent every night outside.  Michael said she'd lie in the middle of the yard and stare up at the stars.  She couldn't have seen a ship from that distance, but I guess maybe it comforted her to look anyway.    One night, Sapphire said that someone should go out and try to convince Sini to sleep inside with the rest of us.   I decided I'd go, since I was the only one she ever really spoke to.   I took a blanket and went out to find her.

You might already have guessed that I didn't convince Sini to sleep inside that night.  I ended up staying out there all night with her.   With just the two of us out there alone in the dark, n the middle of the yard, she opened up to me.  She told me all about her family, her friends and her home, and the things that matter to her.   Then, I told her about me and my life.   We talked all night.  In the morning, when the sun came up, Sini described the sunrise to me without my even asking her to.

"I knew it would be something you would like," she said.

I fell in love with her that night.   Maybe I really started to fall in love with her on the very first day, but that night we spent in the yard together sealed it in my mind.   It doesn't matter to me that we're physically or culturally different.  Fundamentally, in our minds and hearts, we're very much the same.

Gradually, as time went on, Sini stopped sleeping outside.  She stopped wandering around like a lost soul and started interacting with everyone.   Once she started getting to know everybody in the house, it didn't take long for her to become part of our patchwork family.  We all tried to help her adjust to living on our world and we did our best to teach her about our strange ways.  It's an ongoing process.  She still asks me questions about things she's too embarrassed to ask anyone else.   I do my best to help her figure things out.

I know she still misses her own people and her home, but she's settled in with us now and is making a new life for herself here.  She says she has no intention of leaving us any time soon, and that suits me just fine.

The Mind's Eye

"To the person with imagination, the vision of the mind's eye is never dim and the voice of the spirit is never silent." 

I'd love to take credit for that quotation, but it was actually made up by Sapphire.  She's much better with words than I am.

This past weekend, Sapphire went to visit her parents and she brought me along.  It was a great adventure.  I got to play outside a lot, and I think Sapphire's grandmother is now my number one fan.   We went to visit some elderly folks in a long term care home, and they were very nice.   I slept in a room that Sapphire's mother seems to have converted into a closet, which was a unique experience all on its own.

The best part of the trip was our visit to the beach.   The Atlantic Ocean is spectacular.  The sounds and scents and textures were breathtaking,  and part of me never wanted to leave.  Sapphire told me that she and her brother spent practically every day on this very beach in the summer when they were children.    She took some pictures while I was exploring.  I think maybe the pictures will tell the story better than I can.

I just wanted to stand there forever.  I could feel the sun on my face, smell the salty air, and hear a dozen different sounds I'd never heard before.

Sapphire showed me this piece of driftwood that she found:

I discovered a lot of interesting rocks:

This sea shell was fascinating.  The edges were all jagged and it was rough to the touch.  It smelled like salt and seawater.  Sapphire said it'd probably been broken by a seagull dropping it onto the rocks.  The seagulls like to eat periwinkles, and they have an ingenious way of getting the shellfish out of the shell.   Who says birds aren't smart?

It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited.  I hope we can go back there again.

Allow Me To Introduce Myself

Hi there!  My name is Tyler James Brightman.  (Please don't call me Ty.  I don't like nicknames, especially that one.)  I'm 22 years old and I live on Prince Edward Island.  For those of you who don't know, that's in Canada.   My birthday is 16th December, and in case anyone's interested, that means my astrological sign is Sagittarius.   Sagittarians are supposed to be wanderers and truth-seekers, which I think describes me well.  I love to travel to new places, meet new people and learn new things.   We're also supposed to be optimistic, good-tempered and smart.   I think I'm an easygoing guy, but I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not I'm smart. 

Currently, I live in a pretty full house.  First of all, there's Sapphire.  She owns the house we all live in, and she's kind of like the den mother to us all.   There's also Sapphire's dog Grace, and of course there's me, my family and our friends.   You'll be seeing a lot more of them as time goes on.  For now,  I'll just tell you the basics.   I have a fraternal twin brother, Michael.  His fiancée is Andromeda (we call her Rommie) and they have two children, Cleo and Jack.   My partner Sini lives here, and we have a daughter called Skyla Blue.   Some people think Sini and I are an odd couple, and maybe we are, but we're perfectly happy with one another.    What other people think of our relationship really doesn't matter to us.  Sini is the best and most beautiful person, and I'm thankful for her every day.   The story of how Sini and I met is one that I might decide to tell all of you some day.   Our household also includes several friends, namely Cassie, Radek, and Hunter. There's also Rommie's brother Xander who, I'm sorry to say, I don't get along with. 

So...about me?  I guess the most important thing for you to know about me is that I'm blind.  Before you start feeling sad about that, let me reassure you that just because I can't see it doesn't mean that I have an unhappy or boring life.  Sure, I have to do things differently than other people, but there's always a way to do what I want to do.  I help take care of my daughter, niece and nephew, and I help with the household chores sometimes.  I play the guitar and I love making music with friends.   I like to explore, play outside, work in the garden, read, and just hang out with the crew around here.   The nice thing about living with Sapphire is that she understands what it's like, not to be able to see.  Although she's not totally blind, like me, she is visually impaired.  I'm sure at this point you're wondering how, if she's legally blind, she manages to take all these photos.  She says you should visit her flickr account, and maybe send her a message.   She'll happily chat with  you about it.

Anyway, here is a photo of me:

take care!