The Mother of All Entries

Since you people managed to leave 30+ comments on my last entry (with some assistance from ME), I have decided to create a new entry for all of you to pore over with the great scrutiny it deserves.

Week with the in-laws has gone fairly smoothly. (Two adverbs one after another: is that against the laws of grammar?) They even visited the apartment yesterday, which we've been overhauling for the past two weeks expressly for their visit. The upside to that is that now the apartment's fixed up, we can finally start to "entertain" people proper like. It only took us about a year to complete...

[6mx, you'll have to fill out a parental permission slip to visit -- we've built a separate wing to house the Misanthropic Youth Brigade, and we're establishing sarcasm and apathy workshops.]

On the darker side, my grandmother passed away this week. My mother's mother. I didn't know her. It's strange because my family is really disconnected. I've got a lot of extended family here in the states, but I barely know most of them. I couldn't tell you how many siblings my mother and father have. I barely see my immediate family as it is. I met my grandmother once, when I was a little misanthropic muppet, but she didn't speak any English and it was more like me just standing there as she looked me over and rubbed my mop of hair. I spoke with my mom and even she says she's a little disconnected, though she concedes that she'll probably get emotional when she gets there. (She's flying back to the Philippines on Wednesday.)

My mother-in-law (I haven't actually called her or my father-in-law anything since I married their daughter, but I guess I should start calling them "mom" and "dad", even though that still sounds weird to me) called my mom to offer her condolences. It's weird because as disconnected as my family is, their family is fairly tightly knit. My family's like a dog that's gone feral and doesn't remember how to act in a house, and nervously pees on the rug and bites the baby in the stroller.

C. and I have a day off from the parentals today. Just one more dinner with them tomorrow night and we're on our own again. I should call my father today. He left a message last week but I've been busy and I'm just an awful, awful son. My mother used to joke that she found me in a garbage can in Japan.

I think it was Michael Jackson who said, "Before you judge me, try hard to *love* me -- Have you seen my childhood?"