Chapter 85: Goodbye Kelly Kapur

I have been at work for about 2 and half hours now and have been unable to get a hold of my boss who is only about 12 feet away from me. Every time I go to her office she is gone, I hear her talking to someone, wait for that person to move on and then head over to see her and she has disappeared yet again! She’s like Houdini! I’m just tired today and if I’m intended to sit around doing nothing I’d much rather go home and take a nap. Instead I’m online taking IQ tests. Unfortunately I have come to find out that I am smarter than a fifth grader but not a sixth grader and it really insults me, but on another IQ test I was considered “bright”. I just don’t get it.
Well, 2008 is here and I survived bringing in the New Year. It was really depressing for me, and I’m still recovering from it. I decided this year that I wasn’t really going to celebrate New Year’s, I’ve never enjoyed this “holiday” anyway, and what are we celebrating exactly? Another wasted year? Another chance to make resolutions that we know we won’t keep? Oh, wait, we’re celebrating a new beginning, just like I’ve done for the past 20 or so years. New beginning, okay then, I can do this. I suppose my first resolution would be to have a more positive outlook on life. Then there’s this list in no particular order:
Pay off debt and save $3,000
Lose weight in ‘08
Decide what I want to do with my life
Make and Keep a budget
New Year’s Eve my plans were to stay at home, watch a movie, and scrapbook 2007 since I haven’t touched any of that year. The Sunday right before New Year’s Eve a girl at church kept trying to convince me that I needed to get out of the house for New Year’s Eve, that maybe I should go to Carytown to ring it in. I told her that being at home this year by myself was not something I was stuck doing; it was something I wanted to do. I wasn’t in the mood to show New Year’s Eve that it was anything special. The day of New Year’s Eve I received a call from Navy Seal Ken informing me that my sister and my nephews were sick and he was wondering if I could come and hang out with them for the night. I didn’t mind this; these are my favorite nephews and the sister I get along with the most, so I agreed to go over there. My parents came over there for a while too, because the way that Navy Seal Ken put how sick she was my parents believed that she was dying, I got a little half worried too. I was late getting over there and for a second thought how horrible I would feel if she slipped away while I was dilly dallying around. My brother-in-law had said that she wanted to see her parents and that she knew that they couldn’t both come at the same time because of the kids, but she really wanted to see at least one of them. Add that statement behind a, “she’s feeling pretty bad from yesterday, the peanuts are still working a number on her.” My sister’s stomach has a low tolerance for peanuts, but her mouth just can’t say ‘no’ to them and she got a lot for Christmas. Therefore the evening before she had spent a lot of time curled up like a ball on the living room floor on the verge of tears. So when I relayed the phone conversation to my mom she said, “I don’t like how that’s worded, it makes it seem like she knows something I don’t.” So of course my mom got on her cell phone, called my dad, and they went over to see her right away.
As it turns out my sister didn’t even know that Navy Seal Ken had called me, moreover aside from a lack of appetite she was fine. My nephews were sick, but you couldn’t convince them of that, running around and playing. We ordered a pizza which my sister wasn’t sure if her stomach could handle, but as always she muscled her way through it. She’s such a trooper. This reminds me of another resolution, “Eat less pizza”. After the second time that my dad fell asleep on the floor we finally sent my parent’s home, my dad would much rather fall asleep on his own couch than his daughter’s in-law’s carpet. When Navy Seal Ken got home from his brother’s house he and I went head to head in old school Mario Carts. I have to say I like the Game Cube version better than the Super Nintendo version. Not just for the graphics but I think there have been some serious improvements made to the game.
Around 10:30 G.I. Joe came home, that’s right, he’s in his 30’s, lives with his parent’s and after that evening, no longer employed. He was working seasonally at a wine and beer shop. At this point my nephew and I were playing a game on the computer and he came in and gave my nephew a kiss on the forehead. Then he asked me if I wanted a kiss on the head…how do you respond to that without being rude? “Uh, no.” Nope, that won’t cut it. “Don’t touch me.” Well that was worse than the first. So I just laughed and said ‘sure’, if anything I was getting a New Year’s Eve kiss. So he leaned in, kissed me on the top of the head and I told him I would sleep better tonight because of it. Then he said he would see me tomorrow at my parent’s house, which made me wonder if my parent’s were doing something they forgot to tell me about.
I didn’t stay until midnight, my eyes wouldn’t let me, so I said goodbye to my sister, Navy Seal Ken, and my nephews and then I was home by 11. I changed my clothes, put in a movie, and fell asleep before 11:30. That’s my New Year’s Eve. I hope it helps you realize that maybe your lives aren’t so bad.
New Year’s Day I went over to my parent’s house to see what was going on, as it turns out, nothing was. Navy Seal Ken and my sister arrived around lunch time and left their children in the care of my parent’s and invited me to go “hang out” with them. Apparently one of their resolutions though is to not spend any money. So “hanging out” consisted of walking around the mall like penniless teenagers and “window shopping”, which, by the way, I’m a firm believer that the only kind of shopping you ought to do should actually involve spending money. In the course of this little trip I became annoyed with Navy Seal Ken, mostly because I was getting the vibe that he was annoyed with me. I have a faulty defense mechanism; I mirror the attitude that I think someone else is having towards me. But lately he keeps trying to tell me what to do with my life, and no offense, but I already have a father. When he first started doing it I didn’t mind and I didn’t care, mostly because part of me thought he was right, however, when advice is given the giver should realize that people have the right to take it or not to take it, just because you said it doesn’t mean that person is bound by some law to take it. I am choosing for the time being not to take his advice. I know he is well intentioned, but I still have the right to make the final decision.
We finally get back to the house and I come to find out that the family is having BBQ for dinner, which I hate. For those who don’t like BBQ my mom has made pork chops, which I despise, so I tell her I’m not hungry and skip dinner altogether. Luckily I really wasn’t that hungry. After dinner G.I. Joe shows up. So he, my sister, Navy Seal Ken, and I sit around the kitchen table talking. When he finally went to leave he gave me a hug, I hugged back but I made sure to do the friendship pat, I think you know what I’m talking about.
Why is it that my outlook for 2008 doesn’t look so good to me? I suppose by expecting the worse I am doing one of two things, I am beginning a self fulfilling prophesy, or I am allowing myself much room for surprise in the New Year. I wish I wasn’t in such a foul mood today.