Like two ships, passing in the night
I saw my sister, for what was probably the last time for quite some time, last night. I really wanted her to meet Glitch__ before she left for parts more tropical, or perhaps I wanted him to meet her, not really sure on that one, actually. Either way I was definitely happy that they met, and happier still that they didn't seem to hate each other. This isn't to say that I thought they would hate each other, but just because I didn't think it would work out that way doesn't mean that I wasn't terrified that it would. It's certainly happened often enough in the past to give one pause, and it's never pleasant. You see, no matter how much or how little we have in common, even when they piss me off, which certainly does happen, they're my family, and I love them. Even more than that, I like them, and I want the people in my life to like them too.
Of the bunch of them, Kalinda is the one most like myself, she's bitchy, and sarcastic, and she looks at all this hippie stuff that the rest of that part of my family subscribe to with what I consider to be a very healthy combination of amused detachment, humor, tolerance, and intolerance. This tends to make her, at least initially, the easiest of them to get along with for the majority of my friends. The fact that she's very verbose about her relative disdain for the hippie ways of the rest of them also tends to make people more comfortable with the rest of them, because they can at least realize that everybody has a sense of humor about the whole thing.
I'm sad that she's leaving, but happy for her.
I have a sunburn right now, and I mentioned this to her last night. She got the sweet bitchy look on her face that I know so well, and replied in her most conceited tone: "I don't have to worry about sunburns," which is quite true, and annoys me to no end. I'm horribly jealous of her dark skin, and burnproofness, which she knows, and has always loved taunting me about, and so, without giving a thought to the comfort levels of the rest of the folks at the table (Kalinda's Fiance, Brendan was there as well) I retorted with "Well, I don't have to worry about racial discrimination." To their credit, the boys didn't actually gasp aloud, but the silence coming from that side of the table, as they waited, I assume, to see if she would claw my eyes out, was palatable. It honestly didn't even occur to me that it could be construed as offensive until I noticed the way the boys were behaving, and Kalinda was wholly unfazed, but she's used to taking this sort of abuse from me.
See? See how cool she is? Who else on the planet could I say that to, and emerge unscathed? There's certainly nobody else I'd feel comfortable enough with that not only might a comment such as this just slip out, but also that I wouldn't feel the need to instantly start apologizing for it having slipped out.
I have faith that Kalinda can give as good as she gets, and I know that there isn't a thing I could say to her that she wouldn't forgive me for, and she knows the same is true for me. We haven't always gotten along well, in fact, once upon a time our relationship was a little.... Not quite antagonistic, but we've certainly been known to fight a lot. When we were younger, we both took this verbal abuse more seriously, and it even escalated to physical confrontations once or twice. Kalinda is the only person I've ever fought with physically. And damned if that girl didn't beat me up. It's not that she was so tough, it's just that I'm a wimp. She had these horrific fingernails, and she liked to dig them into my arms. I still have scars. (I'm probably lying about the scars. I have a couple of little scars on my arms, in roughly the areas where she's been known to stab me, but I honestly don't know if they're really from her)
I don't really know where I'm going with all this, I guess it's just my way of saying goodbye.
Of the bunch of them, Kalinda is the one most like myself, she's bitchy, and sarcastic, and she looks at all this hippie stuff that the rest of that part of my family subscribe to with what I consider to be a very healthy combination of amused detachment, humor, tolerance, and intolerance. This tends to make her, at least initially, the easiest of them to get along with for the majority of my friends. The fact that she's very verbose about her relative disdain for the hippie ways of the rest of them also tends to make people more comfortable with the rest of them, because they can at least realize that everybody has a sense of humor about the whole thing.
I'm sad that she's leaving, but happy for her.
I have a sunburn right now, and I mentioned this to her last night. She got the sweet bitchy look on her face that I know so well, and replied in her most conceited tone: "I don't have to worry about sunburns," which is quite true, and annoys me to no end. I'm horribly jealous of her dark skin, and burnproofness, which she knows, and has always loved taunting me about, and so, without giving a thought to the comfort levels of the rest of the folks at the table (Kalinda's Fiance, Brendan was there as well) I retorted with "Well, I don't have to worry about racial discrimination." To their credit, the boys didn't actually gasp aloud, but the silence coming from that side of the table, as they waited, I assume, to see if she would claw my eyes out, was palatable. It honestly didn't even occur to me that it could be construed as offensive until I noticed the way the boys were behaving, and Kalinda was wholly unfazed, but she's used to taking this sort of abuse from me.
See? See how cool she is? Who else on the planet could I say that to, and emerge unscathed? There's certainly nobody else I'd feel comfortable enough with that not only might a comment such as this just slip out, but also that I wouldn't feel the need to instantly start apologizing for it having slipped out.
I have faith that Kalinda can give as good as she gets, and I know that there isn't a thing I could say to her that she wouldn't forgive me for, and she knows the same is true for me. We haven't always gotten along well, in fact, once upon a time our relationship was a little.... Not quite antagonistic, but we've certainly been known to fight a lot. When we were younger, we both took this verbal abuse more seriously, and it even escalated to physical confrontations once or twice. Kalinda is the only person I've ever fought with physically. And damned if that girl didn't beat me up. It's not that she was so tough, it's just that I'm a wimp. She had these horrific fingernails, and she liked to dig them into my arms. I still have scars. (I'm probably lying about the scars. I have a couple of little scars on my arms, in roughly the areas where she's been known to stab me, but I honestly don't know if they're really from her)
I don't really know where I'm going with all this, I guess it's just my way of saying goodbye.