Tuesday, December 07, 2004

That day off that wasn't

Even a day off just isn’t a day off.

I was an hour into my morning after dropping EH at work, half a cart deep into a craft shop and projects I very likely could never finish in time for Christmas when the call came in. My little sister. I abandoned my cart and headed home to meet her right away. Duty calls.

My 19 year old sister (Brat) is a bit of a train wreck at the moment. Living with her 34 year old boyfriend of 3 years (don’t ask) and working at a ridiculous job that I don’t approve of (selling stupid coupons door to door and on the streets) and fooling around with her “manager” – a slick, fast talking little weasel of a punk. She bottomed out emotionally today with no money and getting no sympathy from either of her two men and called to sob to me.

I loaned her $30 to put gas in her car and fix her flat tire and took her along with me to see Bridget Jones Diary 2: The Edge of Reason. It was super cute, if you really like the characters, but not nearly as great as the first one was. Probably not the best flick to take a girl who is unhappy and torn between two lovers either, since little sis looked like she was on the verge of tears a few dozen times.

Before the movie, we stopped for lunch at Max’s Grille, an upscale restaurant. We sat on the patio alongside the New River to enjoy the beautiful day. As we ate, a tiny finch landed near Brat’s chair. It was so charming that I tore off a piece of bread from a roll and tossed it to him. When he didn’t react, I tossed a slightly larger piece.

Big mistake.

7,000 pigeons descended on us and the other 30 patrons on the patio. One actually slammed into the back of a man’s head sitting a few feet away with a loud *thwack*. I was not the most popular person on the patio, let me tell you. And those pigeons were fucking fearless. They were actually landing on tables. People were good sports, for the most part, but more than one dirty look was shot our way. Brat hid her face and I kept pretending I didn’t do anything. One more place I’m not welcome back at.

Having spent the entire day counseling the girl drained me and by the time she was out of my hair, it was time to pick up SG from after care and make my way out to pick up EH.

We decorated the tree tonight – at least half of it. I also attempted to construct a gingerbread house from a kit with pre-baked pieces to assemble. Not nearly as easy as it looks. My gingerbread house is going to be condemned at any moment. The ginger-people have already fled for safety. Kind of hard to blame them. The roof is bound to leak and the walls lean at funny angles.

EH is still pretty quiet. I think he’s still really tired. The new medication might be subduing him too. I’ve been just as tired – sympathy fatigue? We both keep asking the other “what’s wrong” and “you okay?”. Things are just a little off, you know what I mean?

Posted by Red :: 7:36 PM :: | ---------------------------------------