100 years

Or rather, half of 100 years. Tonight we are going out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. I think that's pretty amazing. Being married so long I mean.

To be true to my inner romantic, I must admit that my heart clings to the idea of everlasting love. I want to marry and have kids and be happy with the same person for a lifetime. Unfortunately, I've been growing up in a world where that's not really the norm anymore.

I have no problem with divorce. My parents divorced, and they are much happier for it. But that's not something I want. I'm not trying to say that anyone wants divorce, but that scares me. The idea of giving away my heart and then taking it back or, worse, getting it handed back to me broken, is a scary idea. So in this cynical bubble I create for myself, it's quite lovely to celebrate 50 years of love and life together.

My grandparents drive each other crazy sometimes, but they do love each other, and they match each other quite well.

Now I must go get cleaned up for dinner. I have to grab a shower before it's stolen by someone else. 10 people going out to dinner = lots of showers necessary.

Cheers,

-T.A.D.

Sleepin' is all I wanna do

Wow. I saw the clock and freaked out because I thought I had missed my deadline, forgetting about the time difference. Yay, I'm still posting on time.

Anyway. Don't have much to say today. I'm hoping I'll have time to write a proper post tomorrow, but honestly I've been very busy on my vacation, which seems like an oxymoron and I'm not sure how I feel about it, but whatever.

I suppose I should report that Thomas' plan actually worked. "Nick" is a nice guy and I think he'll make a good internet/long distance friend. Either way, we're getting ice cream together tomorrow. My family is annoying and nosy though; I got home from the Magic tournament (and from talking to Nick) and was bombarded with questions. Some relatives said that ice cream was definitely a date, others didn't say, and (my favorite) my cousin (I'm too tired to come up with a fake name, too tired to even think of the WORD for a fake name. pseudonym? Ah, finally, spell check has confirmed) so I'll just say she's Patrick's sister) said "Well, that was my mom and dad's first date, and look how that turned out." She was referring to the fact that they are now happily married with six children.

Family overload has commenced. Shut down cycle has been initiated to preserve what is left of my sanity. Admittedly, that's not much.

Sleep well, or if you're reading this at a different time, then "______" well to whatever you're planning on doing next.

Cheers,

-T.A.D.

Simple

Ah, if only life were as simple as it seems to be to an eleven year old.

As I mentioned yesterday, my cousin Thomas has a plan to get me a boyfriend, because, according to him, I need one. When I was here in New Jersey earlier this summer, I accompanied Thomas to his weekly Magic tournament at the Jersey Shore Hobby Store. It is with one of the nice young men that I am supposed to fall madly in love with. Over dinner yesterday night, Thomas shared his plan with me. I am going to recount the conversation for you.

Thomas: Nick (let's call him) is really nice and smart and handsome to girls I think, I don't know for sure because I'm not a girl. Do you remember him? He's the tall one with reddish hair, he has a little beard. He has a crush on you.

Me: Yes, I remember him. Wait, he has a crush on me? How would you know?

Thomas: Well his eyes practically popped out of his head when he saw you. And he asked about you the next time I showed up and you weren't there.

(Obviously this means that Nick is madly in love with me...)

Me: Well, isn't he way older than me anyway?

Thomas: He's in college, so maybe he's two years older than you. But that doesn't matter, he's not super old or I wouldn't be getting you together. So here's what you're gonna do. When you come with me to Magic, you'll ask him to play and say loser buys ice cream for me and my cousin. Then, when we all go out to ice cream, I'll sneak away. And that's that. Then you'll fall madly in love.

Me: Oh, because it's just that simple, right? What if he doesn't accept the bet?

Thomas: Then you ask him out to ice cream. I mean, how complicated could it be?

Oh Thomas, I hope you treasure these years and the simplicity that comes with them. I wish I lived in a world where getting ice cream with someone equals making a relationship work. If I did, my problems would be much more limited.

I think I'm going to do it just to humor him. No harm no foul, right? And it is just ice cream. I honestly don't have a huge recollection of Nick (it was six weeks ago that I met him). I think the best that could come out of all this is that I make a long-distance friend, which might be nice, seeing as I don't have a long list of friends that are guys (four years in an all-girls Catholic school). And the worst that could come of it would be for him to reject my offer for a frozen delicious treat. I think that would be his loss anyway. So I'm going to try the simple way. Who knows, maybe I'll look back on this post in ten years married to Nick. Weirder things have happened in the universe.

Not that I'm looking for a relationship right now, let alone marriage. Ack. Off to bed I go.

Cheers,

-T.A.D.