The Good, the Bad and the New Year

I just got off the phone with Jay O'Berski, to whom I haven't talked in an age.  I miss him.

Anyway -- it seems like there's never a lot going on with me but that my mind is always racing.  That my brain doesn't want to shut down unless I manage to exhaust myself.

So, where to begin to catch you up with my life?

I spent the holidays in Pittsburgh with my family -- that was surprisingly pain free.  any extended exposure to my family has - let's be frank - the potential to be an emotional train wreck.  My family, god love them, can be a vortex of negative energy - from my mom's "we're put on this earth to suffer and earn our reward in the next" philosophy to some of my siblings' professional victim status.

I stayed, while there, with my sister Sue and her family, which turned out to be the highlight of the trip.  My sister, her husband Tom, and my nieces Rachel & Maggie were - in addition to being incredibly gracious hosts - great company.  They're odd amongst my family (owing, I think, to Tom's influence) in that they hug each other and constantly remind each other of their love.  It's wonderful to see, and a little disconcerting to someone who comes from my background... I know that our parents loved us, but they were riding herd on a gaggle of unruly children, so expressions of love were as an effective a tool for control as were threatened punishments.  They weren't handed out that often.

So, that was a good part of my holiday.  The bad part was that I wasn't always able to escape the swirling vortex of negativity that comes with being around my family -- though out of that came one of the best parts of the vacation.  I got my first experience ever of going to a casino, and I want to do it again soon!  I enjoyed playing th slot machines a lot, which is best, since the casino we went toin West Virginia pretty much had nothing but slots of one kind or another.

I didn't win any money but, then again, I didn't lose any more than I'd planned on losing.  Quite a bit less, actually.  I'm told that's the key.  That and not sinking all your money into the same slot machine.

The trip was over-shadowed (and ultimately, I'm sure, shortened) by anxiety over the tiny fender-bender my sister had driving my brother's rental mini-van.  Without her license.  Actually, she drifted into a guy in the valey parking line and didn't do any damage at all, except to scrape some of the road dirt off his bumper.  Alas, however, the guy reacted badly to her initial hostility and ended up making a big deal over the fact that she wasn't a named driver on the rental agreement, and that she didn't have her license with her.  So he got hotel security involved, who of course had to involve the local police.  Big scene.  Funny thing was, the local police officer was all, "what's the big deal?  She forgot her license.  All I have to do is run her social security number."

Sadly, when we got home, everyone's dire predictions came true and my brother went off on her.  I'm not saying he didn't have a right to be angry, but I don't think that particular scene helped anyone.

So, alas, I don't think I'll be going to a casino in the company of my family any time soon.  The Lagemae, however, enjoy the occasional casino experience.  Maybe I can tag along with them, sometime.

That was pretty much the worst of it, though - that and discovering that my mom hasn't evolved quite as much as I'd have believed over the years.  she revealed her true feelings about gays in a conversation several of my older nephews & their girlfriends were having about the recent Massachussetts Supreme Court ruling concerning gay marriage.  She made it very clear that, despite what the MA court says, "that's not what God says.  It's wrong."

I chose not to get into that particularlar discussion, despite  the fact that I disagree with her rather strongly.  There are just some things that are best left alone during family holidays.

There was a guy here earlier - who's since left - who had the most amazing physical quirk I've ever seen.  He would sort of twist his fingers up around themselves and then mash them up against his mouth as though he was trying to use his pursed lips to complete some sort of operation, like forcing his fingers into some position into which they wouldn't go otherwise.  And he just couldn't sit still.  At all.  It was amazing 'cuz his ass and legs never moved on the seat.  It was just his upper body.  Really crazy stuff.  But the guy... was normal, otherwise.  He was working on his laptop computer, using a wireless phone as his modem.  It was all very weird.  He kept trying to pick up the phone and dropping it.

There's got to be a point in the future when I can use that guy on stage.