The New and Improved Cynical Idealist

The Family...

In the beginning, someone cursed me with a younger brother.

Not really, he's a good kid. Dumb, but good. Who isn't dumb in their early twenties? I recall being awakened on a railroad track by four police officers and two paramedics at 23 with a vicious hangover, and twigs sticking out of my hair. Yeah I was real dumb around that time.

At any rate, I've been spending the last four hours agonizing about the introduction to a contest entry when I received some news from my mom. She told me that I'm going to be an uncle!!! I'M GOING TO BE AN UNCLE!!! The youngest of us kids is finally having a kid of their own! I've been waiting for my sister to get this done, but she's a procrastinator like me. I mean, there's no shame in waiting until you're 30 to have kids. I didn't quite reach that number when I was blessed with my daughter, but I was close. I was 27 when we got the news, and 28 when she was born. We have another one on the way now, and now I'M GOING TO BE AN UNCLE!

Granted, I'm a little afraid. My brother has my striking good looks, a testament to the fine Irish blood that we share, but he also has a certain childish stupidity. As I said, its not a bad stupidity, its just one of those trifling frustration sort of things. He's been rough on my mom in the past, not physical, just my mother's worry stone.

I recall he vanished for about 30 days once. We couldn't find him, none of his friends knew where he was. Turns out, he ran off with a girlfriend who was almost twice his age to Arizona. Now, if you want to pursue romance regardless of one's age, I won't stop you... personally I think its lovely that people can find each other across all ages and state lines... but for the love of god tell us when you're going!

Unfortunately, I probably won't get to meet this bundle of joy any time soon, as my Brother, Mother, Step-Dad, and step-siblings live in Kansas, and I'm here in Pennsylvania with the other half of my family. It's a little depressing when you think about it, but I just wanted to reflect on the great things that happen during the holidays, despite how much of a scrooge I am.

If you've been following my rants, you'll know that we are expecting, but we've also had an additional 2 announcements of "we're pregnant!" Yes, my fiancé's Sister-in-law is now carrying their 2nd child, and now her step-sister is carrying her first. Are family is like a new baby boomers generation I guess. On top of this, I got the news of my brother's news, so I realize, Christmas is going to get awfully expensive... yeah I'm kind of the family member that goes a little overboard on the Holidays for the kids. I prefer big, noisy, and flashy toys. I'm considering getting my kid a remote control helicopter just because I know how much its going to get on my nerves.

We're sort of like that in our neck of the woods. We try to outdo one another with annoying toys. Last year my daughter was gifted a drum-set by her uncle... you have no idea... But he was getting me back since I bought his youngest this toy that I can only describe as the most horribly and obnoxiously annoying toy to ever hit the stores. I bought his youngest daughter about 4,000 beads simply because I wanted to watch her spill them on the floor. That's what we do... I'm afraid for this year... really I am. It's hard to outdo a drum-set.

At any rate, my family gets larger and my wallet gets a little smaller. No big deal to me, the money has to go somewhere, there's no sense hanging on to it for the sake of hanging on to it. And that's that. Wasn't much a rant but hey, I'm not an angry person all the time, but there's still 9 hours left in the day, and with a 2 year old, that is plenty of time.