See Ya Melissa

Holiday Wrap-Up

Ah, the Holidays.  Ok, so they were actually pretty fun, but I'm almost obligated to complain because my family was in town.  And by Family, I mean everybody in my family: my parents, both my sibs, and their spouses.  All in our house, for the first time.  In honor of Christmas, and since we'd always had fake trees in my family, K and I got a real tree to decorate.  It smelled so good that it was actually worth all the mess it made! 

Anyway, the family visit actually turned out to be pretty fun.  I didn't make my brother's wife cry (amazing!) and there weren't any fights or lectures!  Zonds!  Unfortunately, though, K and I both got a nasty chest virus on Christmas day, and then 2 days later, my sister's husband got the same virus, only it settled in his gastrointestinal tract, making it far more miserable for him.  Maybe it wasn't worse for him after all.  See, I'm still sick, but he's back to normal.  Hmmmm....

Best part about Christmas?  I FINALLY got a new car!  Oh yes I did!  Dad helped me negotiate my way to a good deal on the car I wanted, and now it's happily sitting in our garage, looking all cute.  I LOVE it!  Love love love love LOVE it!  Pictures possibly coming at some point.  Possibly.

Rain on Your Wedding Day is Supposed to be Lucky, Right?

No, not my wedding day, crazies.  My brother's.  That's right.  He tied the knot last Sunday with the Evil Bitch.  My sister and I had to keep reminding each other (and ourselves) that we are happy because our brother is happy.  Easier said than done.  Especially since The Evil Bitch had us and our men setting up everything for her - from the tent and the tulle swags to reconfiguring the deck from ceremony to dinner.  And did I mention that it was raining like ass?  K and my brother-in-law got soaking wet trying to put the sides of the tent down because she insisted that it stay open even though it rained earlier and looked like it was set to continue.  When the wedding photos are developed, they'll see the ridiculous contrast between the slave labor (that's us) and her family.  My sister's husband and K were soaking wet, and she and I were sweaty and red-faced from running up and down the stairs hundreds of times taking care of the details for her (oh, did I forget to mention that their wedding was on the roof?).  Meanwhile, her family was relaxed and fresh-faced, having lounged around in the air conditioning enjoying beverages and each other's company.  My sister and I were so pissed off about it. 

But what really annoyed me was that The Evil Bitch did the bouquet toss even though I was the only unmarried female over the age of 6 present.  And she did it in a sneaky way.  There I was, telling K and my brother-in-law that the table cloths were in a box that was being rained on, when she calls out, "Hey Missy, catch!"  I had no clue what she was doing, so I turned and held out my arms, catching the bouquet.  K was looking for the box, but when he got back, you could tell from the look on his face that he was not pleased.  Neither of us is keen on being pushed into marriage, and my family is definitely the pushy sort. 

Aside from all that, the wedding was nice.  The ceremony was short, the food fantastic (if a little snobby).  They had these super yummy cupcakes with mango-caramel icing and passion fruit cream centers that were phenomenal!  I should have brought one home...

I am a Bad Daughter

I love my mother.  Really, I do.  She's always been there for me, and given me all I've asked for and more.  The sacrifices she's made on my behalf, the fights she's gotten into with my father over stupid little things I've wanted, the crap she puts up with from me... innumerable instances of her unfailing love for me.  It's amazing what she's done for me.  And yet there are moments when all I can think about is how irritated I am with her.  She doesn't listen, she makes me repeat myself, she asks the same damn question over and over again.  I hate repeating myself.  Hate it.  And when she makes me do it, it irritates me even more because I feel like if she really cared about me she'd pay attention to what I said.  Then I get all snippy with her, and tell her to listen to me and that I'm not going to tell her the next time she asks because she should try to remember it this time instead of not paying attention.  But I think she does it so we'll have something to talk about.  I think she's lonely with only my dad and the dog to talk to.  So when I hang up the phone, I feel all guilty for yelling at her and cutting our conversation short.  Do I call back and apologize?  No, because I'm a bad, emotionally stunted daughter.

My Family Tree is Nut

Since my last status report, it's been decided that I will be returning to the US in mid-August in order to be back in time to start the fall semester at school.  There were a number of volleys back and forth, some proposed projects for me to work with, but ultimately, when considering what would be most productive for me, I chose to go back to school.  There was no way I could have done anything meaningful in 2.5 months.  So I will be leaving Armenia on 21st August, a little over a week after I return from Italy and Croatia.  It's sad - I've enjoyed my time here, and I love the people I've met and the lifestyle I've come to appreciate.  Things are simpler here - there's time to breathe, people don't expect you to be doing something 24 hours a day, always in a rush like in the US.  I don't know how I'm going to function when I get back.

Anyway, before I left, I sent my sister my 4-month-old laptop to use in my absence.  I was always under the impression that I would get it back when I returned.  Now that I'm coming home, the family email has been, "Ok, who gets the new computer?"  Huh?  New computer what?  As it turns out, my sister wants a computer, since her old one isn't quite up to par (which is why she got mine in the first place) to handle all the online tutorials she has to do (she's a doctor, they do cool surgical tutorials via video.  cool, eh?), but neither of us really cares who gets the new computer.  We've all gone back and forth, with my brother listing pros and cons of each of us having a new vs. older (but still only barely a year old) computer, and my mom and dad saying, have the girls figure it out, the two of us saying we don't care, we just need computers, and my sister's husband saying, for god's sake someone choose!  So yesterday, I wrote back that I didn't care, but would certainly not say no to a new computer, as I am something of a technophile, and the new Acer (our family's preferred brand of computer) laptops have built in webcams.  My brother then jumps in with, 'great, paying for grad school by publishing porn.'  To which my sister replies, 'I do not endorse the creation of pornography by a member of our family, but she can have the new computer b/c I don't care.'  Then her husband jumps in with, 'If she has a porn site, Melissa can make enough money to buy us all new computers! First one goes to whoever can come up with the best name for her new website!'  While this is all funny, and typical of my siblings, my parents are still on the email thread! 

Oh, and here's a lovely poem my sister wrote for me in a moment of sleep-deprived haziness:

i miss my mosie loo!
i can't wait till she come home and uses a u.s. loo
she likes the u.s. loo cause it offers a better poo
when she was little she liked kangaroos
come home soon little mosie loo!
yea!  hooray!

Like I said, my family is crazy.