caraig | Weekend Update

First off, a warm thank-you to all of you who in one form or another passed on expressions of support. It's not been a terribly good time lately and I have to admit I'm not handling it terribly gracefully. All the same, thank you, and I won't be hiding in some cave for the near future.

So, the weekend. Saturday I made the trip to Maryland for my cousin's wedding. It was something I wanted to do, one happy thing to do with the clan considering what's been going on this year. I was glad I did, despite the traffic gods sending loads of traffic in my way on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I was on that thing for at least an hour. I hit the west side of the Bay at about 1:30, a half hour after the wedding was supposed to start, so I thought I would go to the reception directly instead. On a related note, man, was it hot and humid this weekend, or what? Yeah.

So the hotel was gorgeous and the reception was fun and a lot of people were having fun and it was overall a good time. Dessert included a chocolate fondue fountain that was simply incredible... and yummy, of course. The fondue (of which I have a particular sentimental fondness for as you might have guessed from "Eidolon Kalends") got me thinking about how I react to parties in general. I've actually been to a few non-family gatherings like this. The thing with non-family parties is that I'm usually not familiar with just about anyone there, and so feel really really self-conscious and shy. (The last party I went to was like this, with the added 'bonus' that I didn't share interests with the vast majority of the people there and wasn't too keen on doing any drinking even if I wasn't a designated driver.) So from a romantic standpoint, I'm not only in a shell but tend to find it safer to remain in the shell. The thing with family-related parties, though, is that, while I'm usually a lot more at east at one (relatively,) but, again from a romantic POV, anyone who is there who I would find attractive* is either (A) related to me (ICK! Don't even go there!) or (B) the SO of someone I am related to (awkward, to say the least.) And then I remind myself that this is entirely the wrong time to be looking anyway, and I am however moderately assuaged.

The job situation is still grim, but I talked with some kinfolk and... well, we'll see what happens.

The drive back wasn't bad at all, really. I don't mind driving in pounding, sheeting rain, since I consider myself a good, cautious, safe driver. I don't need to demonstrate my high-octane testosterone by driving fast in stupid-inclimate weather. And yesterday's weather was, indeed, the very definition of 'stupid-inclimate.' I got home just fine at about 3AM.

Today went to my brother's house for a little gathering with his family, and my aunt and uncle and cousin from my mother's side of the immediate family, and even though there was serious rain, it was good.

Tomorrow the lawyer is going to have paperwork for me to sign. Sometimes I feel kind of ghoulish, but I tell myself -- and I know -- that this is fulfilling our parents' wishes, and that if we don't do this then all that they owned and cherished would eventually be taken from us. While we're looking to sell the house, we need it to be on our terms and we don't want to loose everything in the process. Anything else would be stupid, and our parents didn't raise us to be stupid. ^^

So not much else going on, except that this one is going to get some vitamin Z shortly.

* - "Attractive" for me includes the following primary factors: healthy, neither bulemic nor anorexic, good hygiene, bright personality, non-smoker. Secondary factors include: ... things you can probably guess at but which you haven't paid to read. ^^ Besides, the primary ones are, in terms of anything significant, the most important as far as first impressions go. I realized that first impressions DO count, and after careful consideration I don't believe that it's shallow of me to view these primary factors as very important. I also realize that at least one of these factors I myself -- "bright personality" -- is something I badly need to work on. Hence why I say above that this is entirely the wrong time for me to be seeking romance as it is. There's just too damn much that needs to be taken care of before I'd really feel comfortable, anyway. Here endeth the footnote!