The Usual Fare
For those of you who don't know, I'm in San Antonio. I am living in my grandparents house while they are in another part of the country for the rest of the year. Along with the house comes guardianship of my 17 year old cousin.
It's very strange to be in this house, treating it as my own. I see where my penchant for clutter came from, that's apparently genetic. As is the propensity of houseplants, mismatched dishes, stocked pantry and acres of knick knackery.
I must remind myself every day that this is not actually my house, thus I cannot rip up the linoleum and apply ceramic tile, nor can I throw out the strange clutter or change the decor in any permanent way.
I feel like I had a 17 year old. Things are not bad, but I must remind myself hourly that I am not her parent, so I can't tell her what to do. If I start telling her what to do, then I must accept responsibility for her, and all I really want to be is her roommate/friend. I don't want to have to demand her part of the bills, or chauffer her, or make her go to school/work. I love her, but I am not her parent. Speaking of whom- her dad talks to me regularly to see how things are going, and he knows the score as well as she does: if she doesn't have gainful employment by the end of next week, she goes back to live with her dad. Her mother.. ugh. The one time I spoke with her (last night at the Mudvayne concert) she was very demanding: 'Are you making her go to school? Are you keeping her in line?' etc... I wanted to say, "Listen Aunt J, I am NOT her parent. I have ZERO responsibility for her because I don't have legal guardianship, and if I did I'd be claiming her on my taxes next year, because she's fucking expensive and I've paid for all of her household bills for this month and the only person who reimbursed me was her dad- who knows if he'll be able to do the same for next month, so if you want someone to parent her around, you'd better cough up the documents so I can get some state aid because I do NOT make enough for 3 people to live off." But I didn't. I said, "She's fine." several times and handed the phone back to my cousin.
For your viewing pleasure...
Me, holding my newest nephew Benjamin. He makes my boobs ache for another baby.
My family is in two businesses- Taxidermy, and Restaurant. This is my Uncle Jack's work at his place an hour away. My day job working at my grands' shop is with fish & fish replicas. I'll get pics of those later.
More of my Uncle Jack's work. He's my cousin's dad, BTW.
Ben, from Breaking Benjamin. He is way hotter than this pic shows. If he looked at me twice I'd lap him up. /drool
Yours truly as of this writing, just home from an SCA meeting and too lazy to change clothes.
Hmm. New Buffy from NetFlix. I am off to fall asleep to the sounds of the undead getting beat down. W00t!
It's very strange to be in this house, treating it as my own. I see where my penchant for clutter came from, that's apparently genetic. As is the propensity of houseplants, mismatched dishes, stocked pantry and acres of knick knackery.
I must remind myself every day that this is not actually my house, thus I cannot rip up the linoleum and apply ceramic tile, nor can I throw out the strange clutter or change the decor in any permanent way.
I feel like I had a 17 year old. Things are not bad, but I must remind myself hourly that I am not her parent, so I can't tell her what to do. If I start telling her what to do, then I must accept responsibility for her, and all I really want to be is her roommate/friend. I don't want to have to demand her part of the bills, or chauffer her, or make her go to school/work. I love her, but I am not her parent. Speaking of whom- her dad talks to me regularly to see how things are going, and he knows the score as well as she does: if she doesn't have gainful employment by the end of next week, she goes back to live with her dad. Her mother.. ugh. The one time I spoke with her (last night at the Mudvayne concert) she was very demanding: 'Are you making her go to school? Are you keeping her in line?' etc... I wanted to say, "Listen Aunt J, I am NOT her parent. I have ZERO responsibility for her because I don't have legal guardianship, and if I did I'd be claiming her on my taxes next year, because she's fucking expensive and I've paid for all of her household bills for this month and the only person who reimbursed me was her dad- who knows if he'll be able to do the same for next month, so if you want someone to parent her around, you'd better cough up the documents so I can get some state aid because I do NOT make enough for 3 people to live off." But I didn't. I said, "She's fine." several times and handed the phone back to my cousin.
For your viewing pleasure...
Me, holding my newest nephew Benjamin. He makes my boobs ache for another baby.
My family is in two businesses- Taxidermy, and Restaurant. This is my Uncle Jack's work at his place an hour away. My day job working at my grands' shop is with fish & fish replicas. I'll get pics of those later.
More of my Uncle Jack's work. He's my cousin's dad, BTW.
Ben, from Breaking Benjamin. He is way hotter than this pic shows. If he looked at me twice I'd lap him up. /drool
Yours truly as of this writing, just home from an SCA meeting and too lazy to change clothes.
Hmm. New Buffy from NetFlix. I am off to fall asleep to the sounds of the undead getting beat down. W00t!