VIII: Heaven Helps

Having come through the other side of my moody teenage years, I've entered a period of my life when I just want people to get along and be happy, or at least okay.

I had a family gathering tonight. It was for my aunt K's 50th. Back at Christmas my aunt acquired a karaoke machine for the kids, and all they had was nursery rhymes, but one of the highlights of Christmas was all of us boogieing down to the Barenaked Ladies, B-52s, Beatles and Elvis, which all I fetched from my collection. So this was to be a permanent feature of big gatherings, we should acquire some real-ass karaoke music. I was asked nicely to pick some up in time for this event, saying it was going to be the theme. I did, but it was a misfire - I trusted that iTunes would have proper karaoke data files, not just instrumental tracks to sing along to. My bad. But it was all said and done, bought and paid for, no going back (the hazard of buying online.) At my own expense.

I'm not complaining. I wasn't asking for repayment. I did what I did freely, because I thought it would make my aunts, my family happy. My treat. I've gotten to the age where gift-giving is actually a satisfying act.

In the end it was more of a disorganized gathering than they were probably aiming for, and very little of this ended up happening, although it did go over big with the kids, whom I was supervising so as to step away from the family drama subtly unfolding in the living room.

I wish my gift had gone to better use, or at least had the opportunity to prove itself ridiculous, instead we all slunk away around 7, "Hey, great seeing you again, happy birthday, mwah" after an improbably difficult time corralling everyone for gifts and cake. I don't know how to describe it sensitively, it wasn't anybody's fault and my complaint isn't because I'm upset, just that hey, I wanted to do a nice thing. I did do a nice thing, it just didn't quite land. I dunno. I don't know what my problem is, but there was definitely something off about this event.

We also found out my cousin had been in an altercation last week, that left her a bit worse for wear. That certainly didn't help the festive atmosphere, but it's hard to blame anyone for that.

A quick rambling post, loaded with vague terminology. Good to know I'm back in top form. Things have been happening lately and maybe one day I'll unpack it all for you but it's not done yet. I don't think so anyway. I just needed a venue for this particular string of un-elaborated thoughts.

Keep on rockin
-Scotto