Tuesday, Sept. 05, 2006 - 7:28 p.m.
It's a strange thing when you're writing about things that happened a while back. It's not completely clear, but enough is still there if you think it's important. It feels important to me to continue catching up. So, catching up part 2.
***
First, something I wrote on paper. November 11, 2005.
After an especially long, hard day dealing with far more than should be expected from a new job (I believe I was referring to being treated badly for questioning their desire for access into my personal records), my friend DudleyIM'd me to cheer me up.
Dudley, who's age gap has always made him more like an older relative you seek advice from/mentor than someone of equal footing (as in he's above me). This kind of relationship usually guarantees different senses of humor, but he had me laughing. I wish I had saved the short exchange. He just randomly wrote Vin Diesel "facts" and when I answered with "?" he kept going.
They were absurd. Then I said, "I'm confused." and he said "about Vin Diesel?"
It's not like him to not answer or be direct and somehow that made that funnier. Eventually he explained that he's thought the forward to be so stupid it was funny and wanted to brighten my day with it. Sweet.
It is good to have people like that in my life.
***
Second, the lead up to the holidays and a big talk.
Last year (the end of 2004) I spent the holidays with Jairo's family, which pretty much consists of him, his mom, his mom's boyfriend, and his brother sometimes. It was awkward and uncomfortable but at the time I felt honored to be there. (I actually feel less welcome at family stuff now that it's been longer ironically).
So, I started thinking of the holidays, and I decided that I really wanted and needed to be around my family for some of it. When I mentioned that to Jairo and invited him to come, he said he'd have to think about and see which one he could do. In the end, he didn't opt for any of them. And this bothered me a lot.
Things had been kind of tense anyway for a while.
So it all came down to a huge talk. One of those horrible ones that makes you feel like nothing is good and you've just made it all worse. I told him, basically, that it bothered me that we weren't thinking of holidays as a couple at all. He said he was sorry. In the end, it was resolved.
Shortly after this, at the end of September, I got dragged along to go see a house with him and his mom. His mom was thinking of buying one upstate. She was looking for a 3 bedroom house....so that her sons would have a bedroom each. This furthered a realization that she never wants to let go of her kids. Who buys a house, looking for rooms for their adult kids?
In October, I started writing with a friend of mine, Danny. We are trying to write a sitcom. This has since taken a back burner way too often, but I think in the end, we'll be a great writing team.
Around October 13th, my friend Dennis found out he'd be the new artist on X-Factor and asked me to be his model for Wolfsbane. For the next few months this proved to be pretty fun and it was neat to see my image in comics.
October 23 I got to see the MOMA for the first time (and Van Gogh's Starry Night with my own eyes) with Brad, Julia, Krista, and Brendan. That was nice.
Same day, I found out my father was moving back to Chapel Hill, where my mom lives. I anticipated annoyance and drama by them interferring with each other's lives. thankfully, this has not happened.
And then, Halloween.
Dennis and Kristin held a halloween party. This was great and a hassle at the same time. I did not think of a costume soon enough to actually do a good job of it, so I resorted to one I'd bought quickly for a job once - a cheerleader. Jairo went as Superboy.
Brad and Julia did a fantastic job as a janitor and lunch lady. Dennis and Kristin were a dead bride and groom. Deirdre was Raven from Teen Titans and Jason was a cowboy. All in all, it was really neat.
