We All Made It Through the Day!

I feel like all we did was eat and eat and eat. And go to church that one time and eat some more. Whew, it’s a lot of family togetherness.

I was all convinced last week that I was going to make a quilt. But I realized last night that I was fretting over the quilt, like it was giving me something to do, a purpose to focus on while they were here. I think, instead, I’ll focus on finishing the quilt in my attic. When the time comes. No need to use the quilt as a way to avoid the novel.

Anyway, I think it went pretty well. The brothers seemed to like their Yee Haw industries calendars. Mom was delighted with her magnets and cacti. And Dad only complained the obligatory amount about his CD. The Butcher got me a set of blue dishes, which I am so tickled by. I like that our dishes kind of just have a “cobalt blue” theme so that, when we need dishes, as long as they have some blue, they look right. My parents got me glass doors for the fire place.

Ha, this is funny, because it is so typical of them. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate some glass doors for the fire place. I always wonder when the fire is out but the coals are obviously still red and I’m ready to go to bed, is it safe to close the flue? I think not. Those coals are obviously doing something in there that could be putting off a chemical that would kill me. So, being able to close the glass instead will be nice.

But it’s not something I asked for or even really thought “Gosh, I need that.”

But my dad had become convinced that my power bill was outrageous in the winter and that this would help bring it back into a reasonable state.

Which I know sounds plausible, right?

Except that my dad has no idea what my utility bills are.

See?

It’s weird.

But whatever. It’s been like that my whole life and I assumed I was the crazy person. I still may be a crazy person, but having a little space is good for the realization that some shit you’ve been taking as true–like how much people can know about you–is just made up and has, weirdly, nothing to do with you, but is about their need to soothe themselves.

Especially in this case, where my dad was feeling guilty for buying my brothers’ presents for everyone.

But seriously, like I told him before about the money shit–I don’t care. Waiting around for the Big Get-Even (as Tom Petty so artfully said) is a way for people to remain too tied to each other in too fucked-up ways.