Reflections on Communication

Various family and relationship matters this week. Let's see...

Gee-Gee Mags won't tell me anything about my great-grandfather, Jeremiah. I sent her an inquiry, and she refused to respond: "I will not speak on this," basically. So I sent her a second missive, asking what offense I had given, and what I could do as penance. She responded to that, but the response was not exactly helpful: "Wait." That may be a literal command, or it may be one of those irritatingly passive-aggressive responses which basically equate to "figure it out for yourself." I'm not sure, and it's going to take some work - not much, but I'm still annoyed by it - to figure out which is actually the case.

On a more cheerful note, we had dinner with my father and his wife last Friday. It went well - easy conversation, with a lot of references to popular culture. I've never been sure whether my father actually enjoys modern music and television, or whether he's constantly working on his camouflage, but either way it works for him. He has a real skill for putting people at their ease, and I could see him using it on Claire.

Sometimes that's just to set them up, though. About halfway through the conversation, my father gestured at me and asked: "What are you doing with someone like him?" Put on the spot, Claire replied that I was a surprisingly good, if underappreciated, guy. "What do you want?" she added. "He treats me well, and we have a lot in common. You wouldn't believe the number of times I've opened my mouth to joke about something, and found him already making the joke - and better."

That was particularly funny to me, since I was just opening my mouth to say the same thing about her.

My father's new wife is... well, I don't really like her. We get along well enough, but everything about her seems artificial: her politeness, her smile, her affections. The Watchers haven't taken her, so she's loyal where it matters, but I still don't trust her. On the other hand, she makes my father happy, so I'm willing to have her around. I had been worried that she and Claire might clash, but in the event they were superficial and polite at each other, and everybody went away happy.

Claire and I are thinking about getting an apartment together. It seems a little silly to keep paying rent for two place when we're always at either one or the other, and there are some decent-sized places in my complex (which happens to be closer to work than hers). So that'll be something to completely devour the rest of our time: packing and moving.

Blah. I'm tired just thinking about it. More news next week...