716 miles

Meet Jay. He's my adorable (almost) 10 year old nephew.




I'm his adorable aunt, whom he lovingly calls Titi.




We're close. Emotionally, not physically. And that's because I moved 716 miles away from home and we're working our butts off to keep things as close to the way they used to be. Jay teaches me patience, forgiveness, acceptance, love, freedom, discipline, and -- all the things one needs to take care of themselves and someone else. And I teach him (hopefully all of these same things, too) along with how to be a good boy. It's kind of easy for him though.

Don't get the wrong idea, though. We're far from perfect. But the best thing about our relationship is that we're friends. Of course I love him. But I actually really like him, too. And that's why I invited him to spend the summer in Boston. Jay had a rough time in the third grade and I want to get him up to speed for next year. Maybe I'm being completely unrealistic, but my plan is for this to be a joint effort for the both of us. Jay needs to work on his writing skills and I think blogging about his first summer away from home would be an exciting project and serve as a way for us both to chronicle our time together and our time apart. Sadly, Jay's going back home at the end of the summer and since he's not the most talkative kid, unless he's talking about WWE, Raw or Smackdown, this can also serve as a way for us to stay connected with each other when there are 716 miles between us.

And "the wonder that's keeping the stars apart" -- taken from e.e. cummings' [i carry your heart with me] -- Simply put...that's us.