In the dumps

Ok, not sure how everything ties together but right now feel like doing one info dump instead of 2 or 3 blog posts as this might deserve.
I’m going to start with the fact that I seem to have a HUGE foot in mouth problem. In two different conversations with my brother on two different days- I referred to his Girlfriend (whom is mother to his kid) as “your wife”. Now I could care a flying f if they are married- but I do care that I keep messing up like this. I think both times it was because for some reason I was blanking on her name. I find it esp. annoying as I have a friend who’s been living with his gf for over a decade and I still call HER his girlfriend or by name. I’m at a loss as to why I’m doing it- I’m just afraid the more I worry about the more likely I am to repeat this problem.

The next thing I want to mention goes to a post that Evan did a while ago (his great 8) where he pointed out that ALL parents of multiple kids have favorites. His admission irked me a tad… because as I pointed out in MY great 8, I wasn’t the favored of either of my parents. I’m not posting this to pick on Evan; as I’d prefer him to be honest to editing himself… I just want him to know that his post had me have a talk with my brother in law. See I went to Conn. to visit my brother, sister and their kids (her two boys and my bro’s daughter). While in a bar, I decided that I had ‘separated from the heard’ my brother in law and decided to ask him how HE felt about the idea of having a favorite. I made sure to present it not as a value judgment (how DARE you like x over y) but just as curiosity- both to re-test Evan’s theory and to see how ‘honest’ bro in law was…. He admitted that the elder boy was his favorite… and ended up explaining it as the reason why I consider his eldest to be my favorite of the nephews and niece… His eldest son is 4 and as such has a personality and you’re able to DO STUFF with him. Of the three, I looked forward to seeing the eldest son; because I’d be able to play with him… while with my niece- all I could do was bask in the beauty that was the baby girl (though she was darn cute).
And I will admit that I was VERY happy that when I gave my 4 year old nephew the Flash super friend and he said he KNEW who the Flash was… I was very proud and happy. His father then told me that the kid might be confusing the Flash for someone else but that was ok… because I gave my nephew a comic book toy and he liked it. Of course the Flash was out shown by a pen that made squiggles and the Flying Monkey I got him… But Me, my brother and my nephew’s dad all had fun trying to get my nephew to be able to use the Flying Monkey so it was all good.
I also want to be honest and tell you that even before Evan posted his great 8, I ended up asking my mom if she would love my step sister’s sons as much as she’d love my brother’s daughter. I felt ashamed to ask, but I felt that I wanted to as my brother was Her favorite and I noticed that my step sister’s 4 year old calls my mom by her name and not a nick name of affection… I was less ashamed when without missing a beat she confirmed that OF COURSE my brother’s kid would be her favorite.
And again to be honest- right now the 4 year old is in the lead for MY affection. Not sure what I’m going to do with a girl child… esp. as I’ve pointed out to Evan, there are FAR too few Batgirl and Supergirl figures. Heck, I wasn’t sure if I was being sexist because I got a BatGIRL trade for my brother’s gf’s 10 and 9 year old girls. I’ve been wanting to get them female friendly comics… so thus far they’ve gotten Bone, the Huntress trade( one of my fave super gals) and the aforementioned Batgirl.
I really did enjoy my time in Conn. with my family and while I think I have squandered my brother’s goodwill by calling his GF his WIFE (twice now)… I did earn a bit of goodwill by my sad habit now of being up too darn early. I got in on Thursday and spent that night in the shed (with an air mattress) so I wouldn’t be kept up by screaming baby… though we have been told that she sleeps through the night already. So I get out of bed around 7am, sure that niece and her parents are up… And lo and behold my brother and his GF are still asleep and the kid looks like she’s waking up. I then find the bottle and start feeding her and generally try to keep her amused and on the quiet side. I was very happy- though a bit worried as I was a tad concerned that I’d do something she didn’t like and bro and GF would wake up to Uncle Drew manhandling their daughter. However when they woke up, she was happily playing on her play mat… well more like lying on the mat and kicking a rattle device, as at about 2 months old she can’t do more then flail about… happily. Bro and GF, and my mom, were impressed and pointed out that I had properly fulfilled my Uncly duties by feeding and amusing my niece for a ½ hour or so, so that the ‘rents could get more sleep.

One of the other things we discussed- or they TRIED to discuss with me is Harry Potter. They noticed that I was reading Harry and wanted to know how it ended. I didn’t finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – which is book #22, until Saturday… at work with people bugging me on my break. It was sort of aggravating for them to SEE that I was reading the book but still ask me how it ended.
Though once I got to the end- I liked it. I was a bit worried because when I first read 1-4 (in the space of a week before 5 came out), I was a bit peeved that she was SOO formulaic in all of her books. However that said, 5 which did go against her formula was my LEAST favorite book so I was worried as I knew that 7 would HAVE to go against the usual formula( heck there wasn’t even a quiditch match in the book); but again I rather liked 7.
Don’t really plan to say more about Harry as I know Evan has just started- though I was amused that a friend’s mom, whom apparently is reading Night Watch on MY recommendation has decided that she hated the 6th book so much that she doesn’t plan on finishing the series… I thought that was strange as after a certain point I figure you’ve invested sooo much time in the series- you might as well see it to the end.

Right now I’m pretty depressed and tired and just out of sorts. Spent way too much time NOT cleaning my apartment. Basically on my way to work yesterday I found a couch in GREAT condition- though wet as it rained buckets Monday early AM. I brought the couch to the game store and am TRYING to clean up my apartment to make it fit. Not sure if I’ll be able to do it before the weekend. On the one hand I want to, but on the other hand I’m stressing because I’m a pig and I should be using this time for other stuff- like looking for a REAL job. Oh and not happy I just found out my rent is going to go up ANOTHER $50.
I feel if I kept my place clean this would be easy but I don’t and I don’t do ANYTHING easy…

And crap. I’m outa here. Going to clean some more and then go to the gym.