Dinner & Dancing

Have you ever seen the Warner Bros cartoons about the dancing frog? You know, the ones where a guy finds a frog that sings and dances, but the moment the guy shows the frog to another person, it stops dancing and just sits there ribbiting?

That was dinner tonight with my parents, my sister, and Jamie. When I'm with Jamie, it's all Goth and weird behavior. When my parents come along, it's best behavior.

I was really disappointed. He had taken out his labret and lip ring, he wore a shirt with a collar and long sleeves to cover his tattoos, he sat quietly and acted polite. Even my sister ditched her complicated pants and pentagram shirts in favor of a fuzzy sweater and jeans.

I could see my parents were calmed...reassured. Their daughter hadn't taken up with a maniac after all. Just this guy who was kinda quiet and pretty normal. I could imagine their conversation on the car ride home, talking about how I'd overreacted.

Dammit!

The thing is, my sister isn't the same as she was before her separation. She's changed. In their apartment they have all of her artwork, the weird stuff she made when she was depressed, all over the place. She's dressing different, acting different. She's with someone who encourages that instead of being with someone who levels her out. My parents don't know, but it's true.

So now I'm back to my quandry. Do I tell my parents about her behavior? Do I tell them she's engaged? And, more importantly, why do I want to tell them? Part of it is concern, but part of it is so that I'm not in this situation by myself. I want someone to commiserate with, but that's no reason to go running off and being a tattletale. If I tell them, it has to be for the right reasons. And if I keep it to myself, it has to be for the right reasons too.

So that's how dinner went tonight. Not much fun at all.

Spring Break

This week has been my spring break. I've been enjoying it, but it has really gone fast.

On Monday first thing in the morning I called my friend Christie's company to get an interview for a summer job. She really, really wanted me as her aide but they'd been dragging their feet processing my application. We'd been hoping I could have my interview over spring break, but the company informed me that I couldn't interview until summer, since they had to have the interview date and start date both land within 90 days. After I got off the phone I counted and realized that my start date was a mere 78 days away, so they should have interviewed me. I called Christie and let her know that they weren't going to interview me, and she got pretty upset. We planned to go to the company the next day and complain.

On Tuesday I went to the dermatologist to have my excema looked at. I didn't realize until I got there how self-conscious it had made me. Unfortunately I wound up sitting in the waiting room for over an hour, and once I actually did see the doctor he just said, "Yep, it's excema! Here's a script for some cream." Fortunately, it's working well. He predicted that I'll be all back to normal within three weeks, and I'm relieved.

I also had planned to go to the company so we could demand my hiring, but that proved unecessary. Christie called them and complained loudly, so they said they'd grant me an interview on Friday. I was happy because it meant I could start work right away in the summer, instead of waiting for an interview and then starting. Unfortunately, it meant that I had to cancel my plans for Friday afternoon, which were driving to Janesville and visiting my friend Meghan. Now I have this interview on Friday, and I'm both nervous and slightly bitter. I'm not sure how this is going to go. Hopefully Christie's recommendation will be strong enough to just sort of float me through.

Today I went to the grocery store with my sister. We went to a big store in Kenosha that I enjoy since it's cheap as well as large. Her fiance came with as well, and I found out he's not a big fan of long car rides, or confinement. After awhile he started humming, barking, and telling me that he was going to sell me out to the truckers' union. Luckily we found a childrens' coloring/puzzle book at the grocery store, so the ride home was a lot quieter.

I also made lasagna. Well, kind of. It's lazy lasagna. But it's my grandmother's recipe, and everything she made turned out great. Mike ate it, anyway.

Tomorrow: my interview, a vet appointment, and...dun-dun-dun...Mike and I are having dinner with my parents, my sister, and the fiance. She mentioned that she wasn't planning on telling them about their engagement, but who knows. No matter what, it'll be good blog material.

Juneau!

march28
Originally uploaded by Lucky Haskins.

Juneau and Lucky are our most photogenic cats. I've determined this through lots of research, and also lots of yelling, "Sit still, Rusty! I can't take a photo with you running around!"

Anyway, here she's laying on my computer table.

Baby Shower

I forgot one other little point in yesterday’s entry about my sister’s upcoming nuptials. Her divorce isn’t final until April. So right now, according to the state, she’s both married and engaged.

Classy!

Yesterday Mike and I went to a baby shower for my friends Meghan and Ross. It was a surprise shower, and at the time Meghan mentioned to me that she was going to tell me that I didn’t have to come to her shower since she knows I’m baby-phobic. Fortunately, I’m not completely baby-phobic. For future reference, here are the things I’m phobic about:

- shopping in the baby department at most stores
- watching videos of childbirth
- holding actual babies before they’re old enough to sit up by themselves, or before their skulls close (whichever comes first…I can’t remember the order)

I’m not phobic about the following:

- attending baby showers
- looking at pictures of babies
- hearing about or seeing infants that are at a distance of two feet or more

Anyway, it was pretty fun, and I reveled in the one time in our lives where Meghan’s waistline was bigger than mine. Yes, I know she might get pregnant again, but at the rate I’m gaining weight I’ll still have her beat.

On the way home Mike and I naturally talked about our own (far in the future, hypothetical) children. And Mike decided to take that next step to provide a secure, happy future for our children.

He’s going to register them for Gmail accounts before their names are taken.

No, no, don’t nominate us for parents-to-be-of-the-year yet. We’re just doing what’s right.

Big News

So I saw my sister today for the first time in awhile. She came over to get a scratching post I was giving her. I was giving her a tour of my backyard, when I saw a sapphire ring on her ring finger. I thought it was her old engagement ring, but it seemed...different. So I did what any good, sensitive sister would do.

I grabbed her hand, eyed her ring, quirked an eyebrow, and said, "Seriously?"

We're a touchy-feely family. Actually, that's true, because I was feeling several things. Startlement, fear, slight nausea...

She assured me that yes, they were getting married, and I managed a, "Congratulations!" and a hug. They're looking at a wedding in October of 2008.

"Stay away from the 14th!" I said in a mock-scolding voice. "That's my wedding day."

"Oh yeah, we weren't going to do the 14th," she said, with a sideways glance at Jamie.

"We were thinking of Halloween," he said.

"Wow!" I said. It's the all-purpose utterance. I have a hunch I'll be using it a lot. They also said that they were thinking of doing it in a foreign country, somewhere warm, which will be an excellent excuse for me not to go.

Once they left I did the math. I found out about my sister dating this guy on January 28th. At that point they had been dating for about three weeks. They got engaged on Valentine's Day. So they'd been dating for about six weeks when they got engaged.

And I thought I got engaged fast. Four and a half months is an eternity compared to that.

I know that they're planning a wedding next year and far away. But Karen and her ex were going to get married in Florida in November, and that got changed to their backyard in June so Karen could hop on his insurance. So I'm not taking their 10/08 plans too much to heart yet. As soon as Jamie gets great insurance they may be tying the knot earlier than planned.

So yeah.

Yeah.

It's really all I can say.