Talking.

Now I think I've made it quite clear that I'm particularly fond of fashion blogs. But the thing about that is, I tend to read the ones with more personal styles. I like ones that are a little less read, where the bloggers aren't constantly being sent clothes by important designers. Not to say that I don't read all kinds, but these are the ones I especially like. Now, having said that, there is the odd blog that I read and LOVE that has little to do with fashion, and is almost entirely about some one's life. One of my all-time favourites is Not Your Average Teen. She has such great perspective, in my opinion. She hosts something called Conversational Sunday, and now that I'm blogging, and now that there is a button for it, I figured I'd do it rather than just reading it!





This week has been...interesting. To say the least. I've had a lot of conversations about the future...where I'm going to live, where I'll work, what I'll do, and the future of my relationship, just to name a few. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a little bit overwhelmed by all of this (cue me not getting out of bed for 3 days). So I figured i'd rather talk about a series of conversations that have a more light-hearted appeal.

My boyfriend has a 2 year old sister. I know this seems really weird, but I don`t feel like getting into the semantics of it right now, so we`ll just leave it at that. anyway, when we were at his parents house on friday night, the two of them were playing on the trampoline. my boyfriend (C) somehow managed to get a pine needle in his eye, and in true C form, panicked. As I tried to get it out, his sister (R) looked on in serious concern (hilarious, coming from a 2 year old).

C: Get a fork, its stuck just go get a fork!

I used my nail. it was out in less than 30 seconds. drama queen. the two of them go back to playing. R puts her hand down, and a pine needle pricks her finger. She looks at her hand with concern, and turns to her mom.

R: mum, I gotta needle. Get a fork mum, get a fork.

hahahahahahaha I couldn`t believe she heard that and then aped it. Silly girl. Early this week, we had gone down there to bring her a Cowboy hat we had bought for her at the stampede. We put that hat on her, and she looks around in concern.

R: I need a rope!

Later on, she puts the hat on, and finds the dog`s leash to use as her rope. then she looks at me.

R: I need a Cow!

That kid brightens my day. no matter how horrible things are, she seems to be able to cheer me up every time.

Here is a look at a series of conversations that took place between me and my brother (and mom, about my brother) this week. Its pretty long, but it was really cathartic for me to write it.

So I have a little brother. He is nearly 5 years younger than me, so our relationship has not always been typical. I am bossy and controlling, so you can imagine what that poor child was subjected to growing up. But the thing about my brother (E) is that if you don't know him, he seems all cool and laid back and generally gives of the feeling that he doesn't care about anything at all. but SECRETLY he is almost as neurotic as I am. Scary, i know, there being two of us in one household and all. that kid is born to lead, and damn does he want to. But not in the typically overt way you might expect, he was more the kid whispering in the other kids' ears to get them to do his dirty work. His greatest talent is pushing my buttons, and as my mother will tell you, I have a lot of them. most people say that kids farther apart in age get along better, but this was definitely not the case for me and E.

The best thing that ever happened to E and I was me leaving home. Since then we are not as close as we were when we were younger, per se, but we get along SO much better. E hates to talk about...well pretty much anything (my boyfriend does not understand him AT ALL), but in the past couple years I've actually had some really decent conversations with him (on the phone of all places!), and he has started to kind of trust that I'm not going to tell my mom every single thing he tells me in confidence. And really, who can blame him. My mom and I have given him so little personal space that we now realize we know almost nothing about his personal life. Ok, so this leads me to this week.

I call home every day. And lately, my mom hasn't been home as much, and E has been home more, so I've had more conversations with him this week than I probably did all year. They were light-hearted, mostly, and a lot of small talk about work and friends, but still, it was nice. I asked him about his plans for the week, and he told me he intended to drive across the border to go shopping (seriously? I am still in shock). Now, this is where things get weird, or funny, to me. Each time I talked to E after that intial conversation, the group of people he was going to the states with changed, including at one point to a kid that we all knew was having ACL surgery that day. My mom and I convened on this topic midway through the week and although we both were slightly confused, this wasn't out of character for E, so we pretty much ignored it.

So saturday rolls around, and E asks my mom if he can take her car to go to the states. My mom then insists on knowing who he is taking with him, out of safety's sake (he is still 17, after all). His answer: a Girl. what?!?! I am still in shock. My mom was relieved because the girl he took is very responsible, but I was just surprised. This particular girl was E's worst enemy through elementary school, so this contributed to my reaction. What was even more surprising? that was the ONLY person he went with. OH MY GOD. My mom (and I, until I moved) have been very...present in E's life, and my mom has an insider view on his social life (I won't say how, for fear of revealing too much personal information), so to the best of our knowledge E has never had a girlfriend, or even female friendships, really. Ok, this is where it gets completely over the top. My mom tells me that, not only did E go shopping with a girl, but my brother (the same one who sat on a bench and played on his phone for 2 hours while the rest of us shopped in California) allowed said girl to drag him into COACH. really? I'm actually kind of insulted, he usually throws a mini hissy fit when we try to take him in there.

So last night, when he was back from his little trip, I happened to catch him on the way out the door, when calling to look for my mom (yes, that was the 3rd call that day). I must say, that it took EVERYTHING inside of me not to mention it, or harrass him about it. But I realize that if I have any hope of keeping in touch with him and having a personal relationship with him once he goes to school in september, I have to bite my tongue. I've spent a long time trying to mend the past and improve our relationship for the future, I have to quit my gossipy tendencies and allow him some privacy so that he will tell me things he might not have otherwise, and so that he can feel like he can confide in me without my mom finding out.

Its nice that E and I are getting to a place in our friendship, or siblingship, where we can be friends, and I'm really looking forward to the future of that, because its been such a long time coming.

THATS my conversation sunday, sorry for the circumlocutiousness of it!