I was hoping to get some running in since her neighborhood is hilly. It didn't happen. It's hard to run when you're a guest and don't want to hog the bathroom or take multiple showers or hold up plans for the day!
Instead we walked down (yeah, just down, we rode up!) Stone Mountain, saw the Bodies exhibit, played skip-bo and drank wine, and scoured thrift stores. I like to vary whose old clothes I'm wearing.
David got a chance to visit a childhood friend who relocated to Atlanta, and I got a chance to swap hilarious childhood stories with my sister. We both have sharp long term memories, but it's funny to tell the same stories and see our different perspectives - I may remember an incident because I was SO angry at one of my little brothers, but she remembers it as being SO funny or SO embarrassing.
We did a terrible job of taking pictures. Basically we only took a few on top of stone mountain.
And we didn't mean to dress matchy-poo, what can I say? We're obviously sisters!
And this awesome one of me finally finding a personalized mug. It's so hard finding things that say "Bradara" on them (Seriously, is this some kind of Engrish?!).
And now, since my bloggie is carefully hidden from other family members, allowing for maximum family gossip with minimum repercussions, a complaint. My brother in law, I have concluded, doesn't know how to share the sandbox. During our visit naturally my sister and I did a lot of the talking and, well, we monopolized each others' time. We couldn't help it. We're the only girls in a family of nine kids, and we hadn't seen each other in over a year. But this was obviously irking brother in law. He made no effort to hide the fact that he wanted to be the center of attention. I wanted to punch him. Luckily my dear hubby was there to constantly engage him in conversation so the girls could talk! Since my brother in law is a youngest child, I think he is used to being included and cuddled and coddled. Perhaps we ladies were a bit exclusionary in our conversation (example - Me: "Remember the Whittingtons?" Sister: "Ha! Hahahahaha! The Whi...hahaha!" Me: "And that time when...hahaha!" Sister: "And I tried to tell Johnny...haha!" Husbands: "HUH?"). But oh well, we only see each other in a blue moon. I was just kind of hoping that I wouldn't get so many interruptions about how certain people didn't care about our stories or didn't want to talk about the time when one of the brothers biked off a cliff because he was turned around to brag to his sisters about how we couldn't catch him because we were so slow. Hehe.
What do you and your siblings do when you visit? And do you share the talking time?
My mom, sister, and I can have three conversations at once, never using anything more than vague pronouns, and follow each other perfectly. The husbands just stare off into space, or at our boobs, and grunt occasionally.
ReplyDeleteNo one in my family is much of a talker, we actually don't mind silence from time to time but the women certainly talk more than the men. I would certainly think you and your sister had every right to monopolize your talking time with each other!
ReplyDeleteJess, ha, laughing right now!
ReplyDeleteYah, your BIL's attitude would have annoyed me too. Hello, you are not together very often! Of course you are going to spend 99.9% of the time chatting away... and of course 90% of that talking is going to be reminiscing!
ReplyDeleteThat is what is it like when I see my little sister. We are like 2 peas in a pod. We look alike. We talk alike. We have the same of humor. So we tell stories when we see each other, which involves laughing until we are practically crying!
Then when I see my other siblings, they all have kids, so my time is more about hanging with their kids.
There are 5 kids in my family, so when we are all together, with spouses and children, it's sort of a massive chaos (I am sure you can more than relate coming from a bigger family). Some people because more talkative, others get quieter and sort of sit back and listen. I can go either way, depending on my mood.
I'm less than impressed by your BIL. You said it had been how long since you have seen your sister? Sisters have a bond, he needs to back off. I'm glad your husband was there to run interference. I'm so glad that y'all had a wonderful time and the fact that you too don't have to complete sentences and still know the story is awesome!!!
ReplyDeleteEh, that sucks. If you never get to see someone, you deserve to be able to be a chatty kathy. Maybe you could just say something to him sometime to explain that you need some time to catch up?? Others should respect and understand your need to talk.
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