Sunday, July 1, 2012

Dinner with Dad and The Steps

Tonight I had dinner with my dad and my new family. He just got married a few weeks ago, and this is the first meal with what is now my step-family. I've never had step- anything before; my parents have only been divorced for two years. So now I have a stepmom, two stepbrothers, and a sort-of-almost-step-sister-in-law. Plus my brother just got married at Christmas, so I also have a full sister-in-law. That's a lot of new people in my life with titles. Anyway, it occurred to me tonight to call them all The Steps, merely for simplicity's sake. It isn't meant in a derogatory way, it's simply a way to group people. For now, I have The Family and The Steps. Probably eventually I will get close enough to The Steps to group them with The Family, but since I've only met some of The Steps a few times, that may take a while.

Mostly it was good, everybody is really nice. Unfortunately I was at the end of the long table and missed a lot of the conversation. Sometimes my hearing comprehension isn't very good, especially if I can't see the face of the person talking. So I feel like I missed out on a lot - but that isn't uncommon. So many conversations in life, even if I can hear clearly, I still don't understand. Movies and tv shows I don't watch. Music I don't listen to. Drinking, smoking, drugs. I spend so much of my life as The Smile and Nod. It gets frustrating sometimes. I don't want to follow all the current popular stuff, though, so I guess I'm out of luck. Unless I suddenly get a taste for vampires and weed (not necessarily at the same time, although that could make for an interesting movie), I will always be missing out on conversations. Maybe that is why I am so inspired to write more in my blog. Now, I am the conversation, and if I'm lucky, people will comment, meaning I have started the conversation. Now we're talking!

Anyway, back to dinner. Isn't it interesting how every family has different dynamics? For example, my family is one-armed huggers. Full-on hugs are reserved for spouses or crises. My stepmom's family, however, kiss each other on the lips. To me, that seems very strange and a little creepy, but for them, it's totally normal, and it's probably weird for them when we give half-assed hugs. I wonder if they think we don't love each other as much as they do?

We went to the Golden Corral, which is a little...uh...different. But it was actually perfect because we all have such different tastes. The room we were seated in felt a little like a girl scout camp cafeteria, though...

My brother and sister-in-law seem to have bonded well to The Step siblings already. I guess they have more in common. I'm really not a slush ball kind of girl. Anyway, it's great that my brother has warmed up to them relatively quickly, he isn't always that open with people.

Driving home, I almost went to the wrong place. I was driving down Hampden and nearly forgot to get on the highway. I was on autpilot, headed to the home I lived for the better part of seven years. I guess that over-rides a month and a half in my new place.

Speaking of which, I'd better come home to a nice, usable coat closet and not too much of a mess tomorrow. I am terribly irked at the manner in which the maintenance guy left my place yesterday. Utterly disrespectful. I'm a single female, I live alone, and I rarely have guests - I don't appreciate coming home to see the toilet seat up.

I hope I can think of enough interesting things to say to write here every day or nearly every day. This will be much more in-depth than Facebook and a little bit of a private journey through my mind. If you have any feedback at all, postive or negative, please leave comments! I welcome all feedback, and I am looking to grow as a writer.

That's all for now. Thanks for taking the time to read!

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