What's Going On?

The visiting parents debacle was Not. Fun. It literally took about a month of my life to get through what amounted to about 60 hours of having them in town. Pathetic. But I truly could not handle getting together with friends for two weeks before my parents arrived. Then once they left I needed to process everything that had happened, and rush around getting done everything I'd let fall by the wayside while mentally preparing for their arrival. That took another two weeks.

As if that wasn't enough. My brother and his girlfriend came to town a couple of weeks ago. I kept asking my brother how his girlfriend was feeling towards me so I'd know how to act towards her. He kept saying he wasn't sure, and didn't want to get in the middle as that always seems to cause problems. So he was no help.

The day they got into town, she went out with friends and my brother and I met up. We wound up going to their hotel so I could play with the dog for a little while. While my brother took a phone call, I scribbled a little note to the girlfriend. Light and breezy, it said something like "[Dog] is sleeping on my lap as I write this. Hope you're having fun with [Local SF Friend], looking forward to seeing you at brunch tomorrow!"

I don't know if that set the tone, or she'd already decided. But the next morning when we met up on the street, she gave me a big smile and hug. Phony? Maybe. Kind of. But okay. I just wanted to know where I stood, and how we were going to deal with each other.

We stood in the street, waiting for the bus, and she talked about work. I was still nervous. Once we were seated at the restaurant, things got better. They're moving back to SF next year, and I'm going to be their official dog-sitter.

Later that day, I ran into them outside of a supermarket. My brother was inside buying water, and she was outside waiting, with the dog. I waited with her, and we chatted. We never brought up blogs.

The night before they were leaving town we went out to dinner. Then back to their hotel room so I could say goodbye to the dog. We hung out in their room for over an hour, we were talking about their wedding (no, they're not engaged yet).

My brother walked me to the elevator, and we talked. The way she treats me is different now. More respect. I'm very much an introvert; she's very much an extrovert. I think she understands that just because I sit quietly, it doesn't mean I'm grumpy and angry. Even though she hated a lot of what I wrote, I have been told that she thinks I'm a great writer. It's the only compliment she's ever given me. I think she was surprised that I can write. I think she understands the level of honesty I strive for. I don't think she respected anything about me, my life, before. And that seems to have changed.

We're going to be just fine. She's very excited to move back to the city, and go on weekend trips while I dogsit. So am I. We're going to get along just swimmingly. If we met on the street, we'd never in a million years become friends. But we can be sisters-in-law smoothly.