Christmas Eve Morning *Burp* in These Foolish Things

Greetings from my brother’s lair.

It’s actually the “guest bedroom” at my bro and SIL’s house (formerly my parents house), but since my bro and SIL don’t like sleeping in the same bedroom, my brother normally sleeps in here. They have a super weird thing going on right now.

Anyway, the room is fine - he cleaned it somewhat for me. But there are still weird things in here: the mushroom greenroom grower thingie is in the corner where a nightstand should be, there are playing cards and magic tricks everywhere (weird hobby - [Complicated Disaster] has experienced it when I brought him to visit my family a few years ago), and then the bottles of booze and cannabis drinks just sitting on a bottom shelf next to the bed add a special touch to this whole thing.

I wasn’t going to come to town yesterday - last night, really - but the forecast is calling for severe thunderstorms and I didn’t want to drive through that on Christmas Eve, so I got here just a little after dark last night, ahead of all the storms.

I’ve actually booked an Airbnb for this trip because I know there is a ton of tension happening under this roof. So my initial plans were to drive up today and stay in an Airbnb tonight and tomorrow night and then drive home on Thursday.

But again, the weather is being weird, so I stayed here last night, with Airbnb as the original plan, but I’ll likely stay another night here in this room on Thursday night and then drive home on Friday when the weather is supposed to let up. I may ask the Airbnb peeps if Thursday night is open because I honestly don’t sleep well here.

So yeah, my SIL is very depressed and my brother doesn’t make anything easy. He is grumpy ALL THE TIME and doesn’t do shit unless he can do it alone with no one bothering him. Example: I showed up last evening around dinnertime. Dinner is always a combination of my SIL cooking something and my dad making something. Nothing big. Last night my dad grilled some small steaks (which I don’t eat), and my SIL made some potatoes and a salad, and I’d brought my homemade peppermint bark for a little sweet dessert.

My brother came through the house, belching really loud and proud every five seconds. I’m not even kidding. He has had gallbladder and belly issues for 20ish years and won’t do anything about it. So he suffers through gallbladder attacks and we get to hear about it (along with massive belching). He finally came to the dinner table and burped many, many times - LOUDLY and declared that he didn’t feel good and that he couldn’t join us at the table because he felt like shit.

It’s like hanging out at Cousin Eddie’s house, if you can imagine it.

So he walked away, and mom, dad, my SIL, my niece and I had a fine dinner together while my brother did who knows what.

But after dinner, we were all sitting around chatting and then my niece brought out her nail polishes and other makeup gifts she’d received the day before from the local fire department (they drive around neighborhoods in the firetruck and hand out gifts to kids) - and we were having so much fun letting her put makeup on us and paint our nails. And she was actually GOOD at it! I let her paint my nails a sparkly dark green color because I’m wearing a dark green dress for the Christmas Eve church service tonight.

Anyway, AFTER dinner, my bro came out of wherever he was and started doing the dishes without being social and talking with us. I could see him walking around in the background, shuffling dishes and moving things around. Never saying a word. And then he left again…I guess he went back to my SIL’s bedroom and never came back out.

So I went to mom and dad’s little part of the house and hung out with them until it was time to go to bed.

It’s SO UNCOMFORTABLE to be here! He is WEIRD! He is not the head of this household and I can tell that he still expects mom and dad to take care of him.

What is going to happen when one of them goes?!

Anyway, I’ve been up for an hour or two and nobody is up, so I guess I’ll go make myself some coffee and try to enjoy this morning before the thunderstorms.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!
GS