Blind Prophecy

So it’s official, my sister Jacki is getting married in January. That makes 4 (of 6) sisters down. Jacki wants a very small and simple ceremony – immediate family only. She’s a really stubborn girl and might actually manage to keep the guest list under 50. She doesn’t want to invite any of our aunts, uncles or cousins. Truthfully, she doesn’t even want to invite us – she’d rather elope – but Patrick wants his family (especially his daughters) there and he won’t do that unless some of our family is there as well.

To be honest, a small wedding is kind of a relief. In my family, the large weddings can get really large. My mom is one of 8 kids, and all of them have at least 4 children of their own. Then you add in the long-time family friends, church friends, work friends, etc. and it can get out of hand really fast. When Jessi, Jayne and Joanna got married, it felt like a whole lot of work. We all pitch in to make things happen, but it gets really exhausting and feelings almost always get hurt.

So the rumor is that all three of my married sisters are trying to get pregnant over the summer. I could have 5 or more new nieces and nephews by this time next year (Jacki’s future step-children, plus the possible babies). I can’t tell you how disorienting that is. In my head, I’m still 22 years old or younger (the age I graduated college), and my sisters are still the annoying teenagers who made my life hell for so long. It’s like, every few days they do/say something that surprises me *again* into realizing we’re all growed up.

Then I feel old. Don’t hit me for this, but 28! I’m 28! That’s like, almost 30. And 30 is when you’re “officially” old. I know some of my more mature friends out there are rolling their eyes – some are even thinking “28 is still practically a baby” but I think you know what I mean all the same.

*sigh*

So Jordan is having a rough summer. They changed all his meds around, so he’s kind of out-of-control since school let out. Apparently, there’s something going wrong with the stimulator they put in his brain to help control the seizures (the shock is really hurting him, but it’s turned so low that shouldn’t be happening). Unfortunately, the insurance company won’t approve a new device, and the FDA has decided that getting an MRI with one of these stimulators is very dangerous (two people have died as a result of “burning” around the wires during an MRI) so there’s no easy way to see what’s really going on in there. It could be a short in the device itself, a problem with the wires that run from his chest to his brain, or something new happening with his brain. I’ve been staying home later into the morning for the last two days because he’s been nearly violent with Jeanne, Jasmine and Jared – none of whom are really big enough to stop him if he really gets going. My mom gets home around 4 most days, so that means he’s only “unsupervised” by one of us who can control him when he’s violent from about noon to 4. Unfortunately, that’s usually when most of the problems occur. I wish Jared and Jasmine (the two who are younger than him) could learn to just walk away when he’s in a mood. But that just compounds the problem that Jordan feels really “left out” of all the fun things they do with their friends. Jordan doesn’t really have any friends of his own outside of school.

We had our Utah Pride wrap-up meeting last night. We ate dinner at The Pie Pizzeria up near the University of Utah. I want to be a college student again. The Pie Pizzeria looked like every near-to-campus pizza-dive I hung out at during my own college years (loud music, crowded spaces, vinyl-covered tables, walls covered in graffiti). After eating some tasty pizza, we headed across the street onto the grassy lawns of the U.

Anyway, there were some good ideas offered and some not-so-good ones. My favorite was “We need a person whose job is to oversee all the permits and the location site.” Yeah, that was my job description. I just ended up doing a lot more than that as well. Or… “we need to really formalize our proccesses and policies before the event.” To which I added, “we did. What we need is for committee chairs and community partners to commit to attending meetings prior to the event so that they know what those processes are before showing up that weekend.”

Yeah, if they really do put me in charge next year, there certainly will be things handled very differently.

Filed under: livejournal by Jere Keys