Life is an amazing thing. Sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down. Sometimes it feels like a crap shoot, or a game against the one-armed bandit. Pirate, Pirate, ohh, Cherry. No wait, cherry’s wild! But it didn’t turn out that way. Cherry’s not wild. They should just say yep or nope. It was nope. I guess we know it works.
Part of me is relieved, part of me is hopefully disappointed. I’m playing both sides of the street, and it’s interesting to see a glimpse of life you didn’t plan. Sometimes it comes out better that way. I guess we’ll just wait and see.
Happy Christmas. Has it already come and gone? This year I experienced a new kind of Christmas. I don’t know if it was any better or worse, just different. I miss parts of the old, the Christmas cookies, the Jell-O, the Christmas Eve church service and Christmas movie marathon. But I don’t necessarily miss the lack of family, the quiet, the auto-speak. I treasured parts of the new, the family, the activity, the social interaction. But I didn’t warm up to everything, like the lack of relaxation, the stress, the family conflict, the fold up bed in the cold basement with pokey springs. Sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down.
I was intrigued by my in-laws. Family conflict and irritation aside, there were a couple better moments: Discussing jobs and future moves and such with my father-in-law, getting another tour of his in-process house, a place I’d love to own but never could afford. An evening of Scrabble with my brother and sister-in-law. I felt a bit high and mighty when we kicked their butts, but they were good sports and didn’t complain about my slightly prideful display of living-room-level-Scrabble skills. And an afternoon of cracking the whip and forcing my brother-in-law to clean his room. I basically sat on his couch or played on his computer and kept telling him to clean. It was my escape from all the other pre-party duties where I feel inept and in the way. Amazingly he didn’t mind, and he actually got his room clean. I’m not sure how much credit I can really claim, but I appreciated the escape.
On another note, I’m still not comfortable with the term “in-laws.” It makes conversation easier, but it’s no term of endearment.
On another note, today would have been my parents’ 29th (I think) wedding anniversary. Sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down.