Sunday, November 29, 2009

Where's Emily Post When You Need Her?

I've been fortunate enough in my life that I haven't had any real close encounters with sad deaths ... only the old and/or sick have left my life. And I don't know if that's the reason, but I really never know what to say to the bereaved. I usually stick with Sorry and then something about prayers for their family. Which, while appropriate, seems inadequate.

And now the new etiquette of Facebook. The past few months have been hard on the loved ones of my friends -- most recently losing a six-month-old child and a father-in-law. Do you express sympathy online? Do you write on the Wall? Send a personal message? Say nothing, knowing that whatever you say online will be even lamer than it would be in person? Does it make a difference if your FB friend is some distance away and you don't see them in person?

Sometimes I say something. Sometimes I don't. Always I pray and send good thoughts. Hoping that's enough. Or as much as it can be.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Since I've been engaged, people have been asking me if I plan to have kids, if I plan to keep my job when I do, how many I plan to have, what names I like, etc. So here's how it apparently goes ... when will you get a boyfriend? When are you getting married? Kids? What's after that -- when will I retire?

But anyway ... On Wednesday, Thursday and a little bit of Friday, a friend of mine had a 31-hour labor. Then they gave her a C-section. This after what seems to the casual observer to have been an unpleasant-all-around nine months.

Friday night, Sister left Nephew in my care for the night. And Nephew decided to have a screaming fit (one hour, then an hour after that ended there was another two hours of fun). He got a nap the next day. Guess who didn't?

So, no, I may never have kids.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Woe Was My Childhood

The Christmas season is coming. And apparently other people have already decorated. Decor is big around here because Boyfriend wants to get "that special Christmas feeling in my heart." So he will decorate. He will.

My tolerance for decorating is about 20 minutes. Maybe. On a good day. This weekend I am heading back to Hometown to help my mom prep her House of Fun (which has a purpose, but I think really the purpose is so she has somewhere to display all the decor shit she has accumulated through the years). And all that accumulated stuff is why I don't decorate. Spent too much time hanging stuff right in the exact spot ... nope, a little to the left ... no, higher ... maybe back to where it was. And the discussion -- would this look better? How about if it were a little darker? Maybe taller?

This is also why I hate planning the wedding. I think I ODed on this type of thing when I was younger. But the advantage is that I am willing to do the grunt work (less discussion).

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

On Becoming a Grown-Up

On Friday morning it was time to go to work. So I went out to my car, started it and put it in reverse to back out of my spot.

And I went forward.

Because I am extremely observant, I quickly surmised that this was bad. Fortunately I park in the yard, so going forward doesn't equal breaking anything. However, going forward instead of reverse does mean my car is broken. Eventually it meant that I needed some shaft in the transmission fixed.

And car trouble is not new to me. What was new is how I reacted. Instead of calling my parents (who, as you'll remember, live like 300 miles away) to bitch/cry at them (because I know the can't fix it), I called Boyfriend. And he helped me solve the problem. My parents didn't even hear about it until way later.

So now, at the age of 29, I am apparently over relying on my parents to fix my problems. Most of them, anyway.