Blatherings of an Extroverted Bookworm

If I cringe internally at every other thing my mother says to my sister-in-law in regards to my nephew, then my SIL must be ready to commit mother-in-law-cide. Oy vey. Even though I usually agree with what my mom tells her, sometimes most of the time you need to know when to keep your mouth shut! Especially when it comes to your in-laws.

I realize this is possibly TMI, but the first day after my period is always a wonderful thing. I'd been feeling so physically gross and a bit on the emotionally fragile side since Sat night. This morning, I feel reborn! Huzzah!! Stupid hormones.
 
fings and I went to see The Curse of the Were-Rabbit last night, that was a really cute movie, it was a good time. Went nuts and had Arby's for dinner. A chicken sandwich and curly fries were delicious forbidden foods. I don't even want to think about how much fat I consumed, I hate that I had a poopy gallbladder. But damn, those fries were tasty.

So trying to think of good things to report from relatively recent past that I hadn't talked about before cause I was too busy bitching in my journal or posting goofy memes. Um, my glasses were repaired last month, the gentleman who has helped out my parents at Cohen's Optical for the past several years was kind enough (and I guess a little lucky, too?) to replace the arm that had fallen off my glasses in August. The match is fairly close to my glasses, when I am wearing them no one is the wiser. I also think they will be able to last me good bit longer (knock on wood), and if they can last until I can afford a new pair I will be very happy. We shall see. I had really missed my glasses. Watching tv and looking at a computer monitor through semi-squinty eyes is for the birds.

fings and I both survived visits with each other's families. At the end of August (oof, this is going back a little) he was brave enough to drive down to visit my sister S.'s family with my parents in tow! My nephew G. was kind enough to drive us all down to Howell. We all ate way too much (mmm, pork; mmmm, cannolis), fings finally met my brother-in-law and their youngest son (he'd met my sister and her daughter and oldest son the day after my gallbladder surgery in July), spent some time in their lovely pool, and played games with the kids. The boys loved him for bringing Katamari Damacy. We went down at the end of last month to visit his parents and brother. We had lunch at a diner, I got a great tour of a museum local to his parents that they volunteer for, and went back to his parents house for some friendly chatting, a tour of their property and a nice diner. All went fairly smoothly both visits, whew.

My nephew amr302 will be starting school soon, he'll be going to automotive school, I'm really excited for him. His experiences with college were rocky, and I believe this will be a really great move for him. He's had a particular passion for cars since he was a very small boys (most little boys enjoy playing with Fast Wheels and such, but you could tell it really was love with him from the get go) and I wish him all the best.

My older brother will be starting a new job on Monday, thank goodness. He was working at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital and it was killing him. Between the commute from Bayonne, his highly irregular hospital schedule and having a 2 year old son to care for, he was getting horrible sleep. My dad has been a manager for a commercial property for a little over 20 years, and his bosses needed a manager for another property and he suggested my brother, huzzah! It'll be such an improvement in pay and better insurance, plus 401k. And having to commute to the city next door to where he lives, bonus!

Ok, enough good things for now. Hope people are having good days out there :).

Sniff, my nephew amr302 turned 21 today! He came over for dinner and cake and brought his girlfriend with him, whom I had yet to meet. A very nice girl, they make a handsome couple. He's a of legal age, sniff, I can't believe those years went by as fast as they did. I love my baby very much.

I am weary of the Tyranny of Family.

I'm not sure how many things on this list apply to Hispanics of a non-Carribean descent outside of the NYC metro area, but hoo-boy, strikes many funny chords here!  The things that apply directly to my life are highlighted.


( You Know You're Hispanic When.... )

My little nephew J. is almost 22 months old. He isn't speaking much yet, but he impressed my yesterday with 2 new words he's mastered (new to me, at least). He's very chatty, unfortunately most of his speech is only understood by himself! That will change very soon at the rate he is going. For now his vocabulary as far as I know consists of:

Mama
Papa
nene (little boy) which refers to himself
cats
ducks
bird
dog
book
bear
banana
oh, man!
oh, brother!
Mets (as in NY Mets, he is being indoctrinated to Mets fandom already, muahaha)
water
flower
mano (hand)

His exclamations of "Oh, man!" and "Oh, brother!" are my favorites. He'll say these things whenever he falls, drops something or is somehow stymied. That kid is just so adorable. He used to call me Tata when he was smaller (that's how he interpreted "Titi", the spanish equivelent of "Auntie") but now he calls me Mama. My heart does a little jump whenever he calls me Mama, or gives me one of his heartfelt hugs/kisses. I think when I'm a mother my heart will simply explode from love, it's hard to imagine loving a child anymore than I love him. Wow.

You are a Bavarian.


What's your Inner European?
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I spent most of the weekend feeling guilty that I wasn't around to help my dad shovel the snow like I usually am when storms hit (both at home and the sidewalks in front of his workplace that he's responsible for keeping clear). I called my younger brother and oldest nephew and berated them to help. My brother helped for a while this morning and my nephew not at all. What pissed me off the most was feeling that if I didn't call them it would not have even ocurred to either of them to call my dad and see if he needed help. My father is a wonderful and far too generous man. We all owe him a lot and I hate to think that if I'm the only one that he can depend on for help, and that if I'm not around he's on his own. He couldn't even bring himself to ask for help because that's just how he is. fings said that I can't live my dad's life for him and he's right. Unfortunately, I was raised in a family where eveyone's business was/is everyone else's business. It's hard to not fret over the things I can't help make better. Especially when it comes to my dad, whom I adore. Sigh. And maybe part of my fretting was due in part that I knew he'd somehow get all done without me, it was a strange feeling. I suppose I've gotten used to him depending on me for a helping hand and being appreciative of it. But I also worried because though he's in good health, he's going to be 61 next Sunday. Certainly not old, but not getting any younger.

So, spent Thanksgiving with fings and his family in "the wilds of Hunterdon County" (as he puts it, haha) and thankfully it all went smoothly. Everybody was very nice and made me feel welcome (I got a big kick out of his Uncle Carl). Met his parents and an assortment of uncles, aunts and cousins (I'd already met his brother on Election Day). I'm not sure how I managed to not be nauseous from nerves at the prospect, but I'm glad I wasn't. In fact, I was more of a wreck when I had him meet my parents over dinner back in August. Anyway, after Thanksgiving lunch, we spent some time at his aunt & uncle's place, then we spent a little while at his parent's place before they drove us to the train station. Got to drive by their farm and see the room that was his when he was growing up. Oh, and according to the growth lines his mom penciled over the years on one of the walls, he was a couple of inches taller than I am now on 11/29/76, when he was 11 1/2 and I was 2 1/2. Damn, I'm short. And I was shown various and sundry photos. What a chubby, blond, adorable baby he was, awwwww!!

I finally finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Sigh. When I put it down, I have to admit to being a little teary eyed. I was/am a bit heartbroken. The last 2 books of the series were self-indulgent claptrap! I can't believe I waited half my life too see this series end in the manner it did. He wrote in his afterword things like "hey, if you don't like how it's ended, don't blame me I'm just the messenger, it might not the ended I expected but it's the *right* ending, blahblahblahblah". Yeah, right. It was crap. You can tell he just gave up, he'd lost his passion for it. No sense of humour. And the *bitterness*, whoo! So bitter at his fans for actually wanting some closure. So bitter than we actually breathlessly anticipated the series living up to all of the promises of the first few books. Accusing us of basically being poopy-heads that were so focused on the ending, we did not enjoy the journey of the tale. King can *Bite Me*. I enjoyed the journey just fine, until he started writing a pile of BS.

The mounting for the lighting fixture in my living room has looked suspicious for a while. Well, now it's hanging about 3/4 off the ceiling! My dad is trying to search for someone to come replace the area, possibly the whole ceiling. Peachy! Well, I guess it's all ok as long as the ceiling doesn't crash down on my head. Or the computer.

OK, so I got some sleep and ate some food and am no longer feeling rageful. Perhaps a certain amount of emotional exhaustion, but that's nothing new I suppose. It's my own damn fault anyway. I inherited much of my father's temperment; I'll get in emotional tizzies the way he does and do stupid things like actually care about the asshat things others do, meanwhile the people in our family blithely do whatever the hell they want without giving a damn about anyone else (or at least, that's how it damn well seems 90% of the time). Thank goodness the other people in my life aren't like that....and hence do not have to be on the receiving end of the Wrath of Yolen, yargh!! Hahaha.