A funny funeral story, on this, the anniversary of my father's death

so I'm going to tell you a funny/horrific story about it, while I'm stuck here in memory lane:

My father hooked up with this creature (you'll see why I call her that, I hope), about three years before he died.  She was only the second of his girlfriends that I had ever met - he made a big deal about taking my brother and I out to dinner with them, once.  They both drank all during dinner, and I didn't drive, so I spent a good 30 minutes trying to get Big/Only Brother to take their keys away and drive us home, but instead wound up getting yelled at for being a baby, and driven home by an angry drunk, his semi-sloppy girlfriend, and my silent brother: such fun!

Their relationship was more like an episode of Cops than anything else: They both drank excessively, they both lost work because of it, they both had severe anger management issues, (and children under 10 -) It was obviously a match made in heaven!  They were on-again off-again to the extreme, having lived together at least twice over the course of their relationship.  To the best of my knowledge (mostly secondhand through my sister, who was 6-10 years old at the time, but also through Daddy himself, then and later on), there were physical fights, a lot of screaming matches and thrown telephones, holes punched in walls, and eventually, my daddy, during one of their mutual tantrums threatened her dad that if he didn't put her back on the phone he would kill him, and so there ultimately were restraining orders and jail time involved.  Which didn't stop them from getting together again when he got out of jail, or breaking up again after losing a baby the spring before he passed away.  (To this day, I don't really know if "losing the baby" was code for "she didn't want the baby, so she got rid of it" as my father professed, or not.  I actually didn't want to know anything about any of it, but my father was not the type to cry into his beer: he was the type to drink his beer, and everybody else's beer, and then try to cry on the closest available shoulder.)

So, when he died, they'd been broken up, after yet another mega fight, in which he screamed that she was a "murdering whore," and she collapsed in tears, drove away and called Child Protective Services on him.

Obviously, star-crossed lovers. 

So a month or two later, when he died, nobody thought to contact her, but his death was in the papers, of course, and they knew some of the same people, and her kid went to SisterK's school, so she found out.  And when we showed up at the funeral home for the viewing that night, early, like family does, my grandmother was over inspecting the flower arrangements (because, please, God, don't let her have to see her son in that box any more), and she noticed that the Ex-Girlfriend had sent a flower arrangement.  Which she promptly told the undertaker to dispose of.

They were removed from the room with very little fanfare - I figure most people didn't even know it had happened - and we continued with our torturous vigil (I Hate Wakes!  They Are Hideous! Please Don't Have A Viewing For Me ~ Just have the Post-Party Food Section, and then everybody can go home). 

About three hours in, I am sitting in the chair nearest the casket - nobody else could sit there, so it's where I sat - and one of my uncles (Daddy was one of 9 children) and my brother coming zipping across the room towards me, and my uncle asks me if I'm ok to walk.  (The funeral home was not accessible, but I was more walkable back then.) I just sat there trying to understand what the hell was happening, and he repeated himself: "Can you walk?" 

It was said so urgently that I thought something horrible had happened and we were leaving - somebody passed out (common both in my family and at our wakes); there was a fire; I didn't even know.  But as I stood up, I noticed that we were walking (as quickly as I could) with a crowd of people, but we were all headed toward the smoking room, the back of the building, instead of the exit.  I went along, still having no idea what the hell was happening, and then my uncle starts telling me that the Ex had shown up, and that Grandmother had said that she refused to be in the room with her (when she called CPS, she had made entirely false claims against my grandmother, as well), so that's why the mass evacuation.

There must have been 75 of us who scrambled from the two larger outer rooms and squished into that one tiny room for a good five minutes, before one of my uncles asked my grandmother if she wanted the Ex to leave.  When she said that she did, an embassy of uncles, brothers, and cousins stepped out into the main room, and told her that she was not welcome here, and that she would have to go.  I remember so clearly that the undertaker didn't seem ruffled by this at all - I assume family feuds are part of his routine - but later I had a cousin from my step-dad's family tell me that it was the 'craziest, most intimidating thing he had ever seen at a funeral', so it must have been shocking to some of the other people too.

She left when she was asked to leave, and stood outside crying for a while.  Which is where the funny comes in.  SisterJ (then 16) and a few of the younger cousins had been outside the whole time, and so they didn't know anything about the drama that had occurred inside.  When SisterJ saw the Ex, who she didn't know or recognize, crying, she went over and hugged her, offering comfort.  Two of our male cousins came outside as this was happening, and, after the Ex had left, told SisterJ about how she'd been comforting the enemy - the same person who'd upset Grandmother and had been asked to leave.  She was mortified, but it seemed to cheer everybody else up when they heard it, even Grandmother, who just put it down to SisterJ's sweet nature.  

And that's a little glimpse into the 'normal' of my family.  We evacuated a wake, forced someone else to leave, somebody hugged that person as they were ordered out, and then we all had a good chuckle about it.  If you don't know what to do with that information, I can't really blame you.  It's been ten years since my dad's funeral, and neither do I      

"We are sisters. We will always be sisters. Our differences may never go away, but neither, for me, will our song." Elizabeth Fishel

My sister got an apartment. For the past few years, she, her husband and her young son have been living in the basement of her mother-in-law's house. She calls it the cave. They were doing it because housing is so fucking expensive around here, and she was working nights while her husband worked days, and it kind of didn't matter that they lived in a dungeon for a while. They made do.

But at the end of the month, they'll be moving into an apartment, close to where her husband works, and in a good school system for their soon-to-be-kindergarten-age son. She got laid off from her night job at the end of November, with a pretty nice severance package, and decided to start a home business selling bath salts and essentially-oiled-soaps, and she seems happy. Excited. I'm happy for her.

But I haven't asked if the apartment is on the first floor yet, because I know it's basically just another opportunity to have my heart broken.

Because this is the sister who gives me a lift whenever I need it and doesn't complain or make me feel like a huge burden for needing the lift in the first place, but she's also the sister who was getting married and told me she wasn't having a bridal party because she and "my real sister" were fighting and there wasn't any point in having the rest of us.

(By real sister, she meant the only sister who is 100% blood related to her, and with our mishmash of halves and steps and somes, our sisterhood is a wee bit complicated that way, I suppose. But I'd never considered it so until that moment, until the second she told me that she considered me to be some second tier sister, with the carelessness of someone who's just mentioning the truth as they know it, as simply as saying "fish swim in water": As if it was given, a thing that everyone already knew and acknowledged.)

Sisterhood is a complicated, messed up, confusing mix of shit, sometimes.

I have five sisters.

One of them - the one who joined us last, by marrying our only brother - is dead. I watched her die, with both startling suddenness and screeching slowness. I let her down, and let her kids down, because I allowed her to live those last months in a denial that seemed impenetrable at the time, although I recognize now that that was mostly my own cowardice: I knew the end was coming long before anybody else here could recognize it, and I so wanted to be wrong that I allowed myself to be convinced it wasn't true. I knew what was true, though, and not confronting her with it, not presenting it to her in a way she could accept robbed her of her goodbyes, I think. Robbed her kids of all the letters she should have written them to open on graduations and birthdays and weddings. When I think of the hole she has left in our family, in the threads of us, I couldn't be sadder. I feel guilty that I am raising her children, or talking with her sister, or having Easter dinner with her parents, knowing that it should be her there instead. I miss her laugh, and her "let's do it" spirit, and I'm still mad about the time she told me to suck it up, and guilty that I felt vindicated when she was sick enough herself to apologize for having said it. The feeling of missing her is a feeling of weight in my chest, of tears that want to flow for her, and her children, and her husband, and her family. I hope that she knows that I loved her, and that my love for them is not just because of my brother, but because of her, too. I know I'm just a placeholder here, but I hope she knows how much I miss her.

My older sister, the one that came with the dad my mom chose for us, is distant in a different way. She's independent of the rest of us in a way that I both envy and pity. She has her own happiness and her own path, and I wish her well on them both, but I'd rather not be lectured on them any more, if it's all the same to you.

You know that pop psychology saying where the things you don't like about other people are the things you don't like about yourself? This sister is the one who makes me most feel like a hypocrite. Because I talk about what I need and making it work with what other people need, but when she does it, it seems so selfish to me that I almost cannot process it. Our needs are different of course, but I'm not sure hers are any less mandatory (in her mind) than mine are to me. That's a hard thing to face - to feel like you are being self-less when you are in fact being selfish.

This sister has a laugh that I miss: A cackling snort that was a staple of my childhood, and that I doubt I've heard in years. She's aloof in a way that makes me feel aloof. I know she's a mama bear, but she protects her cubs in such a different way than I would, that it's hard for me to hold out my hand to help. She says she has healing ... abilities. She has never once offered them to me. (And I cannot think that I would be anything but pissed off if she did. Hello, hypocrisy. Hello, mirror.)

She shuts doors with an enviable ease, but I think they're the wrong doors, so we find ourselves on opposite sides. I have never felt like she was my big sister: I feel like in everyone's eyes, I have always been the oldest, and I'm jealous that she somehow avoided all of that responsibility. Her favorite board game when we were children was Aggravation, and I'm not sure there could be a more apt description anywhere of how our relationship has evolved.

The rest of my sisters are younger, and they are all babies to me in some way, even though the youngest will be thirty this year, and the other two are mothers.

The other two are amazing mothers: Such different mothers, but both so caring, so capable, so determined to avoid the mistakes of our parents. And yet, their mothering reminds me so much of our mother, that sometimes it's indistinguishable. They have their own relationships with our mom, fraught with the opposite complications of my own (I was her chronically ill child; they were the children who wished for the attention I had stolen. I cannot find it in me to blame any of the players in that play for resenting the roles they were cast in, even as I regret and resent our casting.), and so to say to them "You have the best parts of our mother, mixed into your mothering" is a bridge I haven't crossed with either of them, unsure of the reception I'd get on the other side, but it doesn't make it any less true.

One sister mothers with an ease and grace and adult-ness that was shocking and unexpected from one of our family's 'babies'. And yet, somehow, mothering is as natural to her as breathing, and her bond with her son is mesmerizing and sweet, complete and thoughtful. I know she is hurt, as I am, by the children who haven't come, the siblings she wishes for her son. Maybe they'll come in time for her; maybe they won't, like me. I'll be sad with and for her, if she doesn't get the family she wants, but I also know the family she has is enough. I hope she feels it too, if she needs to. Her boy is her heart, her guide, her star, and only good things will come from/for either of them.

The other mother is anxious, and eager to avoid the generational mistakes that plague us. It's hard, when she's living in our parents' house, having to balance a pregnancy and a tantruming toddler, and a chronic illness or two that are untreated/able. But here's the thing I can't make her see, although I have tried, and will continue to try, every day if she requires me to. Every day, she battles, and she believes, and she begs and barters and bends her way through the day. Every. Day. And there's nothing that could make me more proud of her. Nothing that could make me say "You are the mother your kids deserve," than that. The need, the drive, the willingness to keep going, in the face of all that she has to handle, makes her a mother, full stop. Makes her THEIR MOTHER, and that's all they will require from her, if only she could step back and see it.

She's the most closely connected to our mom, right now, and I am both envious (because I miss that for myself) and grateful (because I don't miss it ALL). She was the sister closest to me by age, who came along and stole whatever attention I must have been getting at the time (I was a pretty cute four year old, guys), and that made some of our relationship pretty rocky. She's the teenager who planned her sweet sixteen up a huge flight of stairs, then got mad at me for "making a scene" when I needed to be almost carried up them. Who my college roommate called a bitch (but only to me), the 300th time I was crying about some illness-related issue that she refused to accommodate. (She was big on perfume, as a teenager. And tantrums, including name calling her 'lazy ass, fake ass' pretending poser of a big sister.) But she's also the only sister who's apologized for all of that, who has acknowledged that teenage-her's behavior was shameful and horrifying. She's the sister I've sat, huddled under the table with, as she battled her own demons, and who would text me hysterically laughing during The Office. ("He's wearing Kleenex boxes for shoes: This shit is TOO MUCH!") She has a fierceness that made me sort her into Slytherin before the Sorting Hat could choose, but with such a Hufflepuff heart, it's hard not to build a giant shield around her so nothing bad in the world can hurt her. She's the one who calls me her person, and who tries to make me recognize that I am probably not a hideously dreadful human being, when I most feel like one.

She's jealous of the connection the next-in-line sister and I have; I'm jealous of the one they have. There's so many twists and turns between us all, we could outdo most soap operas, pretty easily.

That next-in-line sister and I have a physical proximity now that has helped us be closer, and a nephew we both love that we work hard to show our love for, together. She's become a friend I wish I could have, to her chronically ill best friend - the kind that listens and does your grocery shopping if you need milk, and calls your husband an ass if he calls you lazy, and remembers what you're allergic to - and I wonder where the girl who made me feel like the biggest imposition for daring to STILL be sick on Christmas, or her birthday, disappeared to. Her evolution as a human being has been so impressive and inspiring, and I wish I didn't have to tip toe so much around her that I don't get to enjoy all the benefits of that. But she never treats me like I should stop asking for favors, and she genuinely seems to appreciate my helping hand and occasional words of wisdom when it comes to her kid.

She's the baby I carried around on my hip the most, the one I learned how to fill bottles for and change diapers on, and I remember her tiny, chubby little hand holding mine as she hid behind my leg, from whatever people my parents had over. She has a level of warrior and witchcraft I wasn't expecting, and I feel lucky to be able to watch them bloom.

The youngest of us, the true baby chronologically, lives the furthest physical distance away. She came to us late - a voice on a phone, a high, happy giggle - and everyone who should have loved her most abandoned her (either through death or by choice, or both) her whole young life. Some of us have stood up for her, and I think she knows that she is an integral part of us, a vital finger on the hand of us, but I also think that she's the furthest away because she's afraid of the abandonments to come: Her adoptive father, my uncle, is elderly. I am unwell. My brother checked out a long time ago. There are only so many times you can say goodbye.

She's our scholar, our high achiever, and I may have spent some time in my younger days resenting her nabbing the title away from me, and still managing to be the bohemian adventurer at the same time. I may spend some of my older days doing the same thing: who knows? She's careless with money, and has the same lax communication skills we all have, but she knows what matters, and how to say it out loud. She's a word wizard, a poetess (by both trade and temperament), and whatever she decides is what she does. Another independent spirit, somehow scattered in our flock. Maybe she feels like the black sheep, but I see her as yet another fuzzy cuddler. She non-ironically owns a typewriter, although she was not around when I was using one way back in grade school. She thinks up last minute crafts for Christmas gifts, and makes sure every piece of tinsel on the tree is strategically placed. Her artists eye may arrive a tad bit late, but you can depend on it, no matter what. She does not give up on the people she loves, even when they turn their backs, even when she maybe should.

These are my sisters: Spread out amongst the world, and another world, and always in my heart. It's hard for me to not be physically near them all, and yet, when I am physically near them, that is often hard too. Sistership is a more tangled thread than friendship: It comes with it's own weight and weariness, it's own rememberances and remorse. And yet I would not trade it for anything.

I wonder often about my mother, who lost her own sister so young - How did she go on from that? Did she ever feel that missed connection feeling of sending out signal into the universe only to have it bounce back unanswered? Does she feel it still? (It has been 30+yrs since my aunt died.) I do not remember my aunt well enough, as an individual adult, to recall what their relationship was like - there was more than 12 years separating them, after all: My mom was the baby, my aunt the eldest. I wonder too, how my remaining aunts and uncles go on, having lost so many of their number - They started (in my memory, anyways) as a clan of nine; their ranks now hold only 4. Less than half of them, and hardly ever in the same space. My heart hurts for them, and I can see how they hurt when we're together. How they reach for the stories, or the storytellers, and that pang when the only other one who'd remember isn't there to tell it with you.

One of my goals lately has been to strengthen the connections I know mean the most to me. Sometimes this has been easy - making more dreaded phone calls (only the doing is dreaded: once we are talking there's nothing but warmth), poking and checking in on people who'd rather live in their shells. Often, though, it has been difficult. Sucking up my pride and apologizing for a thing I didn't mean to do wrong, but did wrong. Listening to opinions I do not agree with and not responding with sarcasm or spite. Leaving space for the needs of others, knowing that I may not (will not) be able to fill them all. And sisterhood has proven to be one of the trickiest.

Because we're all these diverse, different people, and in some ways we're exactly the same. Some of us hate texting; others hate talking on the phone. Some have heartfelt meaningful discussions, told only in meme form. Others have no idea what memes are, or why we think they're so funny. All of us are hurting, in our own ways. All of us love each other, even if love means deeply different things to each of us. But I'm working on it. I'm working with it, and as much as I can, with them. Trying not to hold on too hard, but never giving up the fight.

They're worth it. Each and every one of them.

“In my closest circle of friends — you know the ones, the ones who are the family you choose instead of the one you are assigned — when someone is having a difficult time, we will remind each other that there are as many paths as there are people, and that while none of us can walk another’s path for them, we can all raise our lanterns a little higher, and let some light spill over to make the going less difficult and scary and lonely. ”Commenter, Teaspoon, via Kate Harding's Blog

Hey guys!  I know it's been forever (only five months, but who's counting?), but can we just agree to put aside the awkward part where I say how sorry I am, and you all read it and forgive me anyways?  Agreed? Good.

I can't make any promises about writing going forward, as things here are even less settled than they were the last time we spoke, but I miss this.  I miss you, and our weird conversations, and having a place that nobody I know in real life ever comes.  I miss the words - so much - and I think, just maybe, that my brain may be turning that light bulb back on a bit, which is a relief, let me tell you. (I don't think you ever get over the fear that the words just... won't come back this time.  At least, I don't think it's a fear I'll ever get over.) 

So anyways ~ how's about a quick update?  Next week, my brother, my mother, his kids, his sister-in-law and I are off for a quick jaunt to the Happiest Place on Earth, and it feels so incongruous to where everybody's actual feelings are that it may just be the most ironic trip ever.  -- Excepting the nine-year-old, who has a countdown on, and can't hold any non-Disney related conversations, and it's adorable and annoying in (nearly) equal measures.  -- We're nearing the anniversary of their mother's death, and it's definitely being felt: there's so many other anniversaries on the way to that one - her brain surgery date, her last hospital admittance, the day I came to stay 'for a bit' - and each one is a little dig in someone's heart, a little pinch they can't seem to ignore. 

My brother's grief continues to be overwhelming.  He's made some positive steps since last year, but as the anniversary approaches, I can feel a lot of them sliding away.  His mood vaciliates between pissed off, checked out, and maudlin, and the kids and I seem to often be at the mercy of them - it's hard to help a kid through their tough day, when their dad is upstairs slamming doors and ignoring people.  I'm cutting him as much slack as I can, because I DO get that some days are harder than others, but... tantrums in front of your children are a line I am dragging him back across, some days to both of our peril.  The thing is, I can see how hard he tries - on the days he's trying - and I guess I know him better than anyone else does, because I can SEE how much he's hurting, all the time, and I can feel what an accomplishment it is that he even gets out of bed most days.  And I wish he had the space for his grief and the time for his grieving... that's what I'm attempting to do here, anyways, is make it a little bit easier on everybody else, but... when you have kids? You just don't have the luxury of grieving the way you want to.

He can't afford to bury himself in a hole, or hide himself in his room.  And neither can these two kids. 

Both of whom are doing exceptionally well - with various issues here and there: The little one knows a lot more about anxiety now then I wish she'd ever have to know, and the older one walks around some days as if it's his responsibility to... do everything.  Which, at 15, I do not want him to feel, but I'm unsure how to prevent it.  Everybody's got stuff they're working on/out, and November 10th is fast approaching. 

So why the Disney, you might be wondering?  Well, a cousin is getting married in Florida, which normally, would just require us to send a card.  But between my brother's regrets that he and Nancy didn't just spring for the Disney vacation they might have taken a few years ago, and the 9-yr-old's puppy dog eyes, my brother decided that they had to go.  So: from Tues - Saturday, we'll be hitting up the parks, and attempting to draw out as much of the happy when can for some kids who could desperately use it.  (Although the 15 yr-old is not onboard our happy train - AT ALL - he's upset about missing school, and thinks he's too old for Disney (ha!) and all sorts of other cliches about sullen teenagers that get dragged off on their family's vacations.  I may as well be living in an 80's movie, honestly. )

This is going to be very difficult, spoon-wise, and health-wise for me, but they need me, so off we go.  Wish us luck.

In other sad news, SisterS's mom passed away - suddenly, of a heart attack - last week.  She's understandably shaken, as is my Oldest Nephew, and my heart breaks that I can't be more there for THEM right now.  Not that there's anything you can say when your mom dies (as I have learned quite extensively over the past year), but not even being able to just sit at her table and let her cry or rant or whatever she wants to do is making me feel extremely guilty.  I am doing what I can by text message, and I have to hope that it will be enough.  That I can help, in any small way.

Two of my other sisters have relocated over the summer - SisterCh to her mother-in-law's basement, which is not optimal, as you may have guessed, and SisterK to a far superior apartment out in Berkley, California, while her beau does some graduate work & she works for a literacy non-profit. 

And our best news of all is that SisterJ and her husband are expecting a new little bundle of joy to add to our hoard!  (Let's be honest: we all know if I was a dragon my horde would consist exclusively of books and babies.  Like: for real.)  The baby will hopefully making his arrival in February, which means a baby shower is in the works for the next little while as well. 

So, I'm apparently full up and bursting with news guys - a real mix of who knows what. 

But the light bulb - while still slightly dimmer than one of those energy efficient ones - has clicked back on.  So hopefully, we'll all be around when it hits full strength. 


 Thanks for hanging in, you guys. 

Things that shouldn't be hard, but are.

I'm in the handicapped stall in the Bertucci's bathroom, staring at the same four little tiles underneath my feet, trying to breathe, afraid to do anything more, anything other, than that. Outside are 4/5 sisters, a handful of my niblings and not my brother. Inside the bathroom, an older lady who'd held the door open for me when we were both coming in, is coughing in her stall. Peeing.

I'm just sitting and breathing.

In the movies, or books, when a character goes into the restroom to have a breakdown, it is conveniently huge, echoing and empty, or otherwise a single stall with someone rudely banging away on the door. Here, it's me and these four tiles and the old lady in the stall next to me.

And I couldn't have a breakdown even if I wanted to, because everyone is counting on my to be an adult, there has already been enough drama. My brother and older sister already had a disagreement that ended with him leaving the restaurant before we'd even been seated. There was no actual yelling, and it was probably better that he left, because restraint is SO not his thing, but the kids are on edge, the remaining adults are feeling a little awkward, a little off. (Or at least, I am.)

I have not slept - and I mean in any way for more than three minutes at a time - for over eighty hours. No real reason; just a shitty painsomnia cycle combined with brain overload and pills that stopped working all of the sudden. Not completely unexpected or unheard of, just another joy of life with chronic illness. I know I've made it over 100 hours with no sleep before, but it's been a while, and it's definitely disorienting. Everything seems either too close or too far away - as if I'm looking down the end of a spyglass, or as if they are all looking down the end of one towards me. Sometimes both, at the same time.

I've left the table rather abruptly, but when I get back, only one of my sisters notices. She claims I have a weak poker face "The worst poker face", she says. She has no idea how wrong she really is. If she can see through it even that much though, imagine if I had just started bawling in the ladies' room? Imagine if the one who puts everybody else's pieces back together - who can see that my brother's leaving is worrying my nephew and attempt to joke him out of it, who can see that the sister who tried to plan today's visit is poaching in self-recrimination (our first restaurant had been too small, too hot & unable to seat us quickly enough for my brother's patience; this next choice seemed to have no food options for our nephew with multiple food allergies) & try to give her a bit of a bolster (as the one whose plans USUALLY blow up in her face, I know that particular stew too well); who can see which little one is jealous of the baby and which big one is itching for his phone; who notices the fake smiles plastered on and rushes to fill the cracks in between - Imagine if she were to suddenly lose some of her own? 

It is not a thing that any of us wants to find out.

I know I don't always have to be the strong one, or the bossy one, or the one who notices, or the one who tries to help.  It feels like I do, but I don't. Usually, almost always, I WANT to be that one. I don't ever want to be the indifferent one or the one who doesn't care, or the one who walks away. Still,  I try to step back and give people space, and let others step up and fill different roles.

 But sometimes, like today, sitting in the Bertucci's bathroom, staring at those four tiles, trying to pull myself together enough to go back to the table instead of collapsing into a large puddle, I wonder "Why doesn't anybody ever put my pieces back together?"

I hope, some day, that there'll be someone I can depend on to do that for me. With me.

It's a lonely feeling, and I know it's not even 100% valid - I DO have people who care, who help, who fight with me to put my pieces back together: Even today, my sister noticed, asked, tried to help. But sometimes, just sometimes, it feels like I don't have that help, that I can't accept it. And that's a hard way to feel.

And if it took me a little bit longer to put my poker face back on, then I'm just going to have to be ok with that. Because I managed. I pulled through, and ate food, and coaxed smiles out of infants and adolescents and adults alike. I put a smile on my face that was semi-natural and I made it through. And we all made it home.

And that's today's triumph. And I'm going to take it.

Oh, so much, so manyies.

So what's going on in your brain these days, NTE?
Oh, so much, so manyies.

For example - I had a doctor's appointment yesterday (after taking a little doctor free time over the holidays, except for emergencies), and my new-ish primary care doctor - who I don't particularly like but originally signed up with because of his being in the same hospital as Zach, but is now pointless, because Zach moved to a new hospital - started things off on a lot of wrong feet. 

First, he and his nurse totally ignored my POTS diagnoses and commented positively on my low BP reading, even though my pulse was still sky-rocketing from the effort of getting to his office. Newsflash, doc: low blood pressure is not great for everybody, and it's particularly not great when your pulse is up near 145. 
Next, he started talking about somebody else's blood work, because he was looking at the wrong file on the computer. And his nurse tried to stick me with a needle AFTER she told me that she's been having a 'day when I drop everything'.  I'm sorry: no? No needles now, thank you, drops-things-a-lot.

 Then he started to extol the virtues of exercise - even 'any little bit I could manage' - while I was explaining how I didn't think my POTS issues were improving. Right, because all I need is yet another person telling me how I'm not trying hard enough. Particularly a person with a medical degree who should be able to read the report there on his computer (if he's even looking at the right one) from the cardiologist last month that warned that my heart issue were 'potentially life threatening if left unchecked,' and recommended 'one step above complete bed rest.' So, maybe starting a conversation about bench pressing (even if you are only talking about cans of soup or vegetables) is a tiny bit premature. Just saying.

Needless to say, it was quite frustrating to leave there with very little actual help, BUT - silver lining time - I have an appt with Zach next week that is sure to go better. (And by 'sure', I mean, please Dieties let it go better, because it will be my 1st appt at Zach's new hospital, and we all know that new people aren't always great.)

Continuing in the silver lining vein, however: My mom got a job! (Aside from her PCA-ing for me job, I mean) She completed a CNA course during the fall, and rocked the state licensing exam, and now she's got her first non-me job in I want to say 20 (?) years.  She'll be doing CNA/PCA stuff at a group home & in individual houses in a neighboring city ~ her orientation is Thursday, so she's not sure what her days/hours and stuff will be, and while that will be an interesting complication to have to work around re: doctor's appointments,  I am SUPER proud of her and I know she's going to be great.

Hopefully this will be more than just a money making opportunity for her (although, that's definitely not going to hurt) - I'm hoping it will help her feel more confident about herself and her skills, and really give her something that she feels proud about as well. These last couple of years/months have been difficult, and the next few months don't look to be conflict-lite either, so I'm glad she's got something to give her a much needed boost, right about now.

She also started telling people what's going on here - mostly the basics, that they're splitting up and we'll all be moving to separate places, at some point in the near future. There's a lot still that people don't know (mostly because even people who should care to ask have not thought to ask, and I know that that has hurt her as well), but I think just getting it out there to a few crucial people has been a relief for her. Some of the responses were unexpected - one sister started to ask if that meant that she would be dating, immediately squicked herself out and told her not to answer; UJ has offered for both of us to stay with him for as long as necessary, while my mom's sister told her that she was unable to loan her the money for a lawyer - even as she started talking about how they were going to remodel their house, so that stung more than a little bit. My brother, on the other hand, seems as clueless as usual: "I do not know what to do with that information" was his response. SMH - never change, Big/Only Brother.  But, aside from the kids, who don't need to know until it's actually starting to happen, I think most everybody knows, so some of the uncomfortable 'who knows/who doesn't' tension is at least drained from our (already preternaturally tense) conversations.

So those are two of my mind's trending topics. Others include: Sister who reads my blog, I love you, please call me;  What the hell do you mean it's already February this week;Oh My God, Gmail: Don't eat my e-mails and Seriously: I'm probably going to have to get rid of a lot of things if we're moving.

 Super fun!

What's on your mind, this gloomy Tuesday?

On being an auntie (again)

Dear DD ~

 Tomorrow you will be two weeks old. I hope these first two weeks of getting to know your mom and dad, your two big brothers, and as much of our crazy family as possible have been wonderful for you.  I'm sure you're pretty overwhelmed with this whole "being alive" thing: let me give you a clue - the rest of us are too: It never gets old.  Just enjoy the ride as much as you can.

You were the first baby I've ever seen being born, and ~ let me tell you ~ it is not something I'm ever going to forget.  I know you won't remember it, but for the rest of us there (and all of the aunties and uncles and cousins and brothers and grandmas and friends who weren't lucky enough to be in the room at that moment, but who were thinking of you and your mama with all of their might) it was a miracle, a treat, an honor.

If I were going to tell you your story, I could start waaaaay back at the beginning and tell you how hard your Mama and Daddy tried to make you into a reality: how they took all different sort of tests and medicines and shots and procedures to make sure that someday, there would be a little you.  But that's not the fun stuff, not really.  The fun stuff started two weeks after all of that when Mama found out you were coming.  Soon, you had all sorts of nicknames: Baby Cold, Little Nugget, Lil Man, but the one Mama & Dad used the most was Baby Dash.

We had to keep it a secret for a while, because being a baby is a dangerous proposition, but thankfully, you were up for the challenge, and soon everybody knew that there was a little guy - a little you! - in your mom's tummy. Well, almost everybody.  There was that little mix-up at your cousin's birthday party in May, when Auntie N's sister said "So I hear it's a boy!" in front of your brothers, who didn't know yet.  Poor Mom was so upset she hid in the bathroom for a while, only coming out after mean Auntie J refused to bring her food in for her. ;)

But you kept on growing big and strong in Mom's tummy, and soon there wouldn't be any hiding you; not that she wanted to.  Mama always looked lovely pregnant, even when her poor piggys got all swollen and she felt like she had "a face full of chins" - I think she was gorgeous the entire time, and she was lucky enough that (up until the last month or so) you didn't really cause too many problems.  But then there was heartburn and not sleeping and all sorts of discomfort, and by the time September rolled around, Mama seemed pretty ready for you to be born.  Of course, like a true NTE's Larger family baby, you had your own ideas about that, and kept everybody waiting until the very last week!

Even when your labor started, you took your sweet time in coming out, playing peek-a-boo with the midwives for the course of an entire day, till your poor mom was so sore and so tired and so... DONE that I'm surprised she didn't leave Daddy for the anesthesiologist when he came to give her her epidural.

Of course, that was almost 20 hours after her water broke, and 10 hours since she'd been in active labor, and 5 hours since she was at 9 centimeters only to go back to 8 when you decided you weren't quite sure that you wanted to make your entrance that day. 

Your mama is a warrior, kid: and don't you ever forget it.  I know she'll doubt it more than once in the next couple of months (years, eternities), but she wasn't the one watching the battle, she was too busy fighting it. As an observer, let me tell you that she fought FIERCE.  I wanted to sing her every song about heroes I'd ever heard:  to have Beyonce echoing "Who Run The World" down the empty corridors, "Eye of the Tiger" blasting out over and over again to help her stay pumped up.  Not that she needed it, but because she deserved it.  

In a surprising turn of events, your mama, who swears more on any given day then just about anybody I know (except for Auntie J, of course) ~ said only one word, over and over that day: Ow.  A multiverse of curse words at her disposal (and I thought up some really good ones later on, but that's skipping ahead), and all your Mama said was OW.  But it wasn't a nothing word, that ow.  It wasn't a throwaway or a waste - she meant it: Every. Single. OW. 

Each was a powerful OW, for sure.

 And behind them, I could hear how scared she was - for you, for her, for how long it was taking and how hard it was turning out to be, and the needles and the epidural (which she did not want at all, originally) - and, eventually, I could hear how exhausted she was, and how low her reserves were getting, but through it all, her OW was a freaking powerhouse of a word: A magic spell that she was weaving around the both of you, calling you, trying to get you to come out, to be here, to be safe at last. To be hers. 

I get chills just thinking of it.  How all day she moaned and whispered and prayed for you to just come out and be hers. 

Of course, there was also no small amount of whining that you weren't out already or ordering people around (Daddy especially got in trouble for things like moving his hands, going to the bathroom, or attempting to stretch), but who could blame her? She was doing all the heavy lifting, and the rest of us were just the back up.

And the back up team worked some magic in that room as well, I'll have you know: Grammy soothed with her tales of experience, her "no press here"s and  her trademarked 'brushing the hair of your forehead' move, which your mom usually doesn't allow, but couldn't get enough of that day;
Auntie J became some sort of squatting sumo-dancer, holding Mama's weight while they swayed together, trying to outlast the latest contractions, and told funny stories about how Papa used to bring them presents from the gift shop (which was really the lost and found) at work;
Daddy was a back-rubber extraordinaire, climbing into the bed behind Mama at one point and finding the exact right position (from which he could not deviate, not even for a second) to help the back labor pains feel just a little less devestating;
I did important things like guilt-eating donuts, trying to help Mama understand that taking the epidural was not a sign of failure, but a sign of progress that would help get you here safe and sound, and counting to ten really loudly and slowly.  (Also, like a dope, picking up Mama's leg at one point because she couldn't do it herself and the intern who was doing it left the room.  And that is why Auntie NTE's arm is still not working correctly today.  But it was worth it. :) )
Even Uncle Kand Papa managed to stop by after work (and, handily, after the epidural) to pass out cigars and tell you to hurry on up, respectively. And all across the Clan, phones beeped and Facebook lit up with all sorts of "C'mon kid!" and "You can do it Ch & DD!" messages.  We even had some 'haunting' visits, as the bathroom light kept shutting itself off, and we all decided that Nana, a constant "When you leave the room, shut of the light!" fanatic, wanted to let us know she was rooting for you guys too. 

We loved you already, you lucky devil, you.

But your Mama worked hardest of all, and longest of all, and eventually, after a day and some hours worth of labor, you were finally ready to make your final approach.  Hours of "Ow" and magic spells came down to a few more hours of pushing and counting and breathing and more magic spells and holding our breath and a couple more rounds of peek-a-boo with the midwife.

But eventually, there was your tiny head!- not feeling so tiny to your Mom at the moment - and all that hair! (You're our first really hairy baby, you know... most of your cousins were capital B Bald, but you're covered all over with dark downy hair.) You sort of had that cone-head thing going for you, at first, but then there was your squishy little face, your shoulders, and all the rest, and there you were!

Baby DD, all born and pink, and adorable. 3:34 am, Sept 27th.

By the time the midwife passed you to your nurse, your cone head had somehow rearranged itself into a perfectly small, round noggin, and you started crying before they even started rubbing you down. 

All fingers and toes, and fuzzy arms and legs, and heart shaped ears, and long-tree-frog toes, and button nose accounted for!
Your dad picked you up and you met your mom for the first time, and there were tears and smiles and congratulations all around!  (Grammy and I may have sniffled a little in the background, but you'll never be able to prove it. )

-------
And this is the part I will never tell you, DD ~ about how badly your Mama scared us after you were born.  How there was so much blood, that I knew, even though I'd never been in a delivery room before, that something bad was happening.  How it just kept coming, and with it came a swarm of new doctors and nurses and medicines, and machines, and how they all had that air of 'not panic' I know so well from hospitals and hospice workers.  'Not panic' must be a thing they practice, with the intended goal being that they keep their cool in emergency situations, but it has the adverse effect on any layman who's ever dealt with it before.  When they started buzzing, my heart  - so close to the surface now, thanks to your safe arrival - literally froze.  I watched the monitors as Mama's blood pressure zoomed down to meet one of mine, and searched the stone faces of the newly arrived doctors as the blood just kept pouring out.

And that's the only way I can describe it: literally pouring out. And when the meds they gave her didn't work, within five minutes, she was bundled up and was on her way down to the operating room, accompanied by the flurry of doctors and nurses and midwives, while Daddy, Grammy, your nurse and I were left in a now silent room.  It's the eeriest worst non-sound ever, honey bunch, and I am praying to a God I don't believe in that you will never have to hear it in your lifetime, even though I know it's a wasted prayer.  I was holding you as they took your mom away, and she was looking for you and I said "He's right here; he's fine. He's ok." Holding back tears, because now her face, instead of the warrior face I'd been seeing all day, was the scared face of my baby sister who used to curl up in my lap when strangers came into the room - and I told her "You're going to be just fine." in my most "I'm the boss here, I know what I'm talking about" voice as they rolled her out of the room. 

The times I use that voice the most? Are the times I feel it the least.

And then the nurse said this wasn't uncommon, and she was sure everything would be fine and that she had to take you to the nursery, and I passed you on to Daddy and took a couple of pictures and tried to stay calm and not think about how the pictures I had could be the only pictures I ever got of you with your Mom.  And I tried to use my fake "I know what I'm talking about" voice with Grammy, who never really buys it, but at least it stopped her from bursting into tears at that second, which is what we both felt like doing.  And then she went for a cigarette (which is her "I know what I'm doing" coping mechanism) and Daddy and the nurse took you to the nursery and I was left alone to pace a room with my baby sister's blood on the floor. (And her/your placenta sitting on a tray table looking gross ~ which, let me tell you, if things had gone differently, your mom wanted to EAT that.  Well, take it in pills, anyways.  And I literally thought about how it looked like liver and how I might possibly throw up on that same exact floor.)

And then I called Auntie J and tried to tell her that you were here! and the scary stuff about your mom! without freaking out too much! Which I guess I didn't pull off, because she later told Grammy I sounded like I was freaking out.  But whatever. And then I eavesdropped on the nurses at the nurses station, listening for any news from the OR and Grammy came back, and the intern came back to tell us that your mom had stopped bleeding almost as soon as she'd gotten into the OR and all was well, no tears or anything, just contractions that forgot to stop after you were born, pushing out the only thing that was left in there, Mama's blood.  And although she needed a transfusion later that day, she is fit as a fiddle now, and that's the happiest ending in happy ending land, for sure.
-----

But I won't tell you that part.  I'll stop the story a few hours later, when your mom and dad are both sleeping in their beds and you are sleeping in your little rolling see-through bassinet and I'm watching the sun come up over Cambridge & Somerville, an area where our people (at least your Mama's people), have lived on/off for at least 100 years, thinking about how now we have a new people.

 I'll finish it with me seeing my baby sister and her husband, and her brand new baby, all dreaming the dreams of the innocent, or the warriors, or the rewarded.

 Whatever you guys were dreaming about that day, it couldn't have been anything better than what was actually happening, what was brand new, and vividly real & miraculous in that hospital room that September morning.  A new family, starting their first day together.

Welcome to the world, Baby D.  Thanks for getting here safely, for helping your Mama realize she's a warrior, and for looking at me with those big dark eyes.  I'd say "I couldn't love you any more than I do right now", but all of your cousins have dis-proven that theory already, as I love them more and more every day, year, eternity.  So you better get used to your Auntie NTE, pal, because I'm sticking around.  Now, convince Mama & Daddy that 40 minutes is too far away, ok?


 

Miracle of miracles.

July rolls out; August rolls in, NTE finally manages a new post.

We're gearing up for SisterCh's baby shower on Sunday - it's Baby Mickey themed, and although I haven't done a ton of the planning/crafting, I've dabbled a little and made some cute things. I'm excited, except for how I also hate showers, which seems to be the general consensus about showers: that they're boring and annoying, but we do it anyways, because we love people.  I, personally, hate the idea of having to open presents in front of a bunch of other people (although my brother did make a good point about, how, at Christmas time this is exactly what I want us to do, each person opening gifts slowly and one at a time, which NEVER HAPPENS, but that's different, because it's just us), and I find it awkward to be watching somebody else opening presents, so that's just a weird type of party to be having, I suppose.  Showers are awesome because you get stuff you really need (not that I would know: Being single and childless, you really get screwed on this whole gift-giving side of the deal, especially, since I'm living at home, I've never even got so much as a housewarming present), but pretty much every lady I know has showers on their eye-roll, 'is it mandatory' list.  Hopefully, Sunday will still be fun, regardless of said awkwardness, because SisterJ has put a lot into planning it, and has done some tremendous work.  I'll try to remember to post some pictures next week: when you see SisterCh's belly, you're just going to want to rub it, she's totally adorable.

What else? I've met with a new primary care doc, and he seems - ok.  No giant red flags; pretty good listener, did give me a speech about weight, but it didn't seem to be his primary concern (which is good, because it sure as hell ain't mine). I'm thinking of starting the search for a therapist, as my feelings seem to be at a constant simmer lately - as if just one little bump up on the heat and I'll boil over.  Not necessarily in anger (although there's that, mostly in relation to my dad), but also sadness, or jealousy, or boredom, or just feeling completely bereft. There's not a whole lot of happiness boiling over, unfortunately. 

    ALTHOUGH - and this is a big one - I am 95% finished with a project that has taken me nearly 3 years to complete: the organization of my aunt's photographs.  When I started, I never realized it would be this difficult, but there were so many stages -

•  Because she was a smoker, I had to air out all the books for months before I could even touch them; 
• Then I had to find a way to get the books that were in albums (all those sticky paged albums, complete with yellow edges and disgusting brown corners) out of the albums without ruining them, 
• Then I had to flatten them enough to be scanned (so, more months of waiting),
•  Then I had to scan them all; 
• After that came the arduous task of identifying the particulars of each photograph and labeling them all - both physically and on the computer file - which was not easy, because a) nearly 3/4 of them were not identified previously, so I had to do a lot of asking, and comparing her photos with our photos  - I am a total Veronica Mars/Nancy Drew/Girl Sleuth, btw: I know who had what haircut in which year, who moved to which house when; what year the back porch was screened in, which dog lived in which backyard, and who drove the green car in which years before they passed it down to the next person - to get to all the answers, and 
• Then I had to put them all in some sort of reasonable order  -3/4 chronological, with exceptions made for trips (which nobody remembers what year they took them in plus, they took pictures of every animal in the zoo and that is stupid boring) and things like car shows (again, that nobody really cares about in the timeline of their lives).  
• Now I am finally putting them into actual albums (non-sticky, thank the lord).
• After that all I gotta do is put all the computer files together and dropbox them to her kids/my sibs, whoever wants them.

    Plus, in the course of those three years, I was
 - living at Grandmother's house for the summer - once for my own good, and then for hers (but neither time with access to the photos);
- helping raise some childrens; -
 having major sinus surgery & then recuperating;
- dealing with at least 22 major flares;
- grieving;
- dealing with all my family's bs;
- and a whole lot of other things I can barely remember. 

So, it's not like it was three constant years of work, but it was in my brain as a "to do" for three years (and definitely in my aunt's brain: she did not let me forget that I had her pictures, not even a little bit), and so finishing it will be a huge relief and I cannot overestimate how happy it will make me. Just putting all the pictures in the books right now (final stages! hooray!) is making me want to do a happy dance, even if it is tedious to stuff albums for four hours.  But to be able to clear something off my plate at this point and go: That was freaking hard, and I did an awesome job?  Ah-maz-ing.  Probably nobody is going to appreciate just how much work I put in (nobody even noticed when I did ours, or Nana's, really): I mean I counted candles on birthday cakes and pulled out the family bible for names long forgotten, and dug out my grandmother's pictures so that my aunt could have more pictures from her own childhood in her albums, but all my aunt will see is that one picture she knew she took on a trip to Lake George in the late 1980s that I haven't been able to find.  But I'm going to be ok with that, because I know I rocked it, and I'm going to give myself some major kudos.  Maybe even buy myself a present. Suggestions welcome!

Anyways, that's the latest from near the beach in Massachusetts (not that I've set one toe on sand this whole year, but it's still the truth).  How's all you fine folks out there in blogland?

Blueberry Pie & Twizzlers aren't much of a housewarming present, but it's all I"ve got

My sister and brother-in-law are moving out today, and I am not ok with that.  We've lived apart before and would have to again eventually, at some point anyways, so it's not that so much as how and when it's happening that is so heartbreaking.  It is, in all actuality, going to turn out to be a positive thing for her, for them: it's a thousand percent in their favor that they would move out of some place that is unhealthy & stressful for them, especially at time where they need things to be as stress free as possible.  I'm three thousand percent behind them, and will continue to try to find ways to make things as stress-free as I can, even if it means hounding my B-I-L for updates bc I know my sister doesn't like to be pestered (He doesn't mind). 

The problem is that I just can't seem to get past the fact that it's so stressful and unhealthy for them (and me) for No. Damn. Reason. Except that people feel like being assholes.  Well, one person in particular, really.  Who is so busy playing the victim in his own mind that he can't seem to grasp the fact that hurting other people is the reason no one wants to talk to him.  Because he's "being nice now."  Like any of us trust that.

----------- 

I have avoided talking to the two sisters who grew up with our parents but don't live here, mostly because, since they don't live here, I usually have to hear about a thousand excuses from them about how his behavior isn't really that bad and I should have some compassion for him.  And it's not even that I don't have compassion for him: it's that he's trampled it all, as well as pretty much every other feeling I have for him, consistently over a long period of time. 

The sisters who don't live here seem to forget a) how much they both hated living here when they did - so much so that one left for 'vacation' full well knowing she wasn't coming back but kept it a secret till she was there so she wouldn't have to tell him in person, and the other moved out as soon as she could manage it.  Three times;  and b) exactly how he behaves when you are in his life on a regular basis.  I suppose if you only have to see him at birthdays, barbecues and/or holidays, or listen to him complain that you never call him anymore once every 5 months or so, then he'd be a lot easier to take.  I don't doubt that that is true; I hope it proves true - for his sake as much as mine and SisterJ's.

 It's my opinion that he just can't give up feeling like he's supposed to be the boss, even though we're grown adults (not to mention that he wasn't really the boss in our family, he just thought he was because he was stricter).  And since he can't be the boss in the way that he thinks he should be - i.e. being able to dictate your 'attitude' or demand the respect he thinks he is 'owed' - he tries to bully people instead. 

And, for a long time, we've let him. 

That isn't to say one or the other of us - or a group of us - haven't stood up for ourselves at different points, or demanded changes in our relationships... it's just that when you stop being vigilant about your boundaries, certain people (maybe all people? I don't really know) will notice that you're no longer guarding things that 'do not cross' lines as closely as you once were and will begin to inch their way back over again. 

And I can't keep letting that happen.

So we've got to figure out a different way to interact with each other, and two things will need to happen (from my perspective) before I could even attempt that.  First, he'd have to take real responsibility for his actions - meaning he has to stop thinking it's ok, just because he's stressed out at work, or with other people, to take that out on somebody and start to make changes in his own behavior.  And second, I'd have to figure out how to let go of some of my own anger and figure out how change my behavior so that he can't cross those boundaries anymore: to just accept the fact that he doesn't have to be happy about it, I'm going to do what I need to do regardless. (This is more difficult than you'd imagine when you live in his house.  And are financially dependent upon him.)  

And since I can't make him do the things I think he needs to do, I'm focusing on that second part there.  I'm definitely not on-board with forgiving, just yet.  Don't know when I could possibly get on-board with that.  But trying to figure out how I can live away from here, how I can turn myself into one of the sisters who just sees him every couple of months and deals with that in a more healthy manner?  That's what I'm trying to work on right now.

And I know, eventually, it'll be what SisterJ works herself around to, too.  She's too big-hearted (even though she'd like to say she's heartless) to not want to figure it out: that's why she's so hurt right now, because she didn't do anything to screw it up in the first place, but it still blew up in her face.  So, yeah, I know her leaving is a good thing. 

A necessary thing. 

And, like I said, in the long run, I have no doubt they'll be much happier there... it's just I don't want to be so far away from her when I know she needs me, and it's not as easy for me as it is for other people to just 'pop' in on her at her new place.  (Obstacles, oh how I hate your ever living guts.  Chronic Illness-related Obstacles: goes double for you.) 

But it sucks donkey balls, and I can't help being pissed off at him for it.  He's just going to have to get over that.