Late fees
It is a good thing that LiveJournal does not operate on the library principle, because this post is way overdue...
Life continues to happen. I attended GenCon in August and the new school year has begun. Apparently my sister apollosdtr and her husband and son also attended GenCon, but we did not see each other there. Was that a failing on my part or their part? I'm not entirely sure. They had posted something on Facebook asking if family was interested and going and doing the TrueDungeon thing, but I am not on Facebook, so if my other siblings hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known. On the other hand, I didn't try to inform them that I was going to GenCon either...
My sister's relationship with my family is somewhat... strained, I guess? She believes that my parents were abusive and the rest of my siblings don't see it. Thus, my older brother plays the "bad cop" and says and does thing specifically to irritate and annoy her. cguthrie00 , on the other hand, sort of plays the "good cop" and is the intermediary or lifeline that lets her know when important things are happening in the family.
And then there's me... I tend to keep a low profile and sort of fly under the radar sometimes... We don't talk much, and it seems like most of the time when we do, it's because I initiated the conversation and it usually comes across as a sort of "Checking in, are you still alive? Good" on each other's parts. I almost feel like she hasn't realized that I am a mature adult, and would rather treat me as the baby of the older set of kids. It sometimes feels like I get along better with my brother-in-law than with her.
And that's rather a shame... Cguthrie and I were discussing some things this evening. The thing is, our aunts and uncles seem to have picked up on the tension between her and my parents. Now, they've listened to what my other siblings have had to say, and some of her actions do sometimes come across as, well, somewhat crackpot.
Anyhow, our Grandma passed Saturday morning (not unexpected, she was ready to go and I think most of us were ready for her to go too [in the good way - she had lived a long, full and worthwhile life]) Anyhow, the wake was yesterday and the funeral today. It was pretty much a family reunion and while the occasion was somber, spirits felt lively. It seemed more a celebration of my Grandma's life than a mourning of her death (and that celebration is the way I want my funeral to be). We even laughed when the priest's cell phone rang during the homily.
So, as I said, Cguthrie and I were talking this evening, and we got to wondering how much apollo had talked with our aunts and uncles in the last two days. We kind of thought that she may have isolated herself from the relatives, and that was mostly by her choice and actions, but that that was kind of a shame....
Life continues to happen. I attended GenCon in August and the new school year has begun. Apparently my sister apollosdtr and her husband and son also attended GenCon, but we did not see each other there. Was that a failing on my part or their part? I'm not entirely sure. They had posted something on Facebook asking if family was interested and going and doing the TrueDungeon thing, but I am not on Facebook, so if my other siblings hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known. On the other hand, I didn't try to inform them that I was going to GenCon either...
My sister's relationship with my family is somewhat... strained, I guess? She believes that my parents were abusive and the rest of my siblings don't see it. Thus, my older brother plays the "bad cop" and says and does thing specifically to irritate and annoy her. cguthrie00 , on the other hand, sort of plays the "good cop" and is the intermediary or lifeline that lets her know when important things are happening in the family.
And then there's me... I tend to keep a low profile and sort of fly under the radar sometimes... We don't talk much, and it seems like most of the time when we do, it's because I initiated the conversation and it usually comes across as a sort of "Checking in, are you still alive? Good" on each other's parts. I almost feel like she hasn't realized that I am a mature adult, and would rather treat me as the baby of the older set of kids. It sometimes feels like I get along better with my brother-in-law than with her.
And that's rather a shame... Cguthrie and I were discussing some things this evening. The thing is, our aunts and uncles seem to have picked up on the tension between her and my parents. Now, they've listened to what my other siblings have had to say, and some of her actions do sometimes come across as, well, somewhat crackpot.
Anyhow, our Grandma passed Saturday morning (not unexpected, she was ready to go and I think most of us were ready for her to go too [in the good way - she had lived a long, full and worthwhile life]) Anyhow, the wake was yesterday and the funeral today. It was pretty much a family reunion and while the occasion was somber, spirits felt lively. It seemed more a celebration of my Grandma's life than a mourning of her death (and that celebration is the way I want my funeral to be). We even laughed when the priest's cell phone rang during the homily.
So, as I said, Cguthrie and I were talking this evening, and we got to wondering how much apollo had talked with our aunts and uncles in the last two days. We kind of thought that she may have isolated herself from the relatives, and that was mostly by her choice and actions, but that that was kind of a shame....