Do It Yourself

I'm a laid back kind of girl...someone who's feather's aren't easily ruffled. Go with the flow....roll with the punches...cool as a cucumber....all of those statements were written about me. Some people may thing that it's a lack of excitement but it's not that I don't care, but more of an awareness that whatever it is, it's not the end of the world and a solution to whatever it is can be found if you look hard enough.

Ok...my beef today...my sister! Which sister? Let's play a game of SNAPS! Ready? Ok: SNAP SNAP, My how this is a strange game, SNAP SNAP SNAP, Looks like I'm almost done playing, SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP. Got it? Yes, I know she's one of 2 people that actually reads this damn blog...but SOME THINGS JUST NEED TO BE SAID!! Remember how I said I'm as cool as a cucumber? My sister is just about the only person who can turn the cool veggie of my persona into a sour brined pickle! (By the way, I don't know if brined is a verb...but for the purposes of this blog...just go with me!) Dear sister, you have the distict honor of being the only person who can truly get under my skin and who's neck I'd love to ring...in a lovingly sisterly way of course.

So tonight...I come home from work and I'm relaxing...not doing much after a long day at work. I'm playing online when I get a phone call from my sister. Great! I love my sister! So I answer...and it starts out fine. She's looking at houses for us to stay in while we're in Seaside for a wedding...since Dad has a new job now and we're all going to be down there for Courtney's wedding, it made sense! We talked a little about this over the weekend among both of my sisters and I and my mom. I had said that I would be able to put down at least $1000 to go towards the cost of the house for us to stay in. Everyone seemed interested and happy at the possibility to go to our favorite beach for a little this summer and I was more than willing to put down a hefty chunk of money to make it happen. Well, there's not a lot to pick from of the houses that will fit all of the family for the time frame we're looking at.

Anyhow...the conversation progresses...and starts to get worse. She tells me about a house she likes that sleeps 8 people. I tell Emily to hold her horses - let's count how many people are in the family that would be on this trip: Mom, Dad, Abuela, me, Emily, Andria, Paul, Avery, Ryan, and Lauren. 10 people...9.5 if you count Lauren as half a person. So the 8 person house would not work out...to which she says "we can sleep on an air mattress" to which I reply, if I'm putting at least $1000 on this vacation, I don't want to sleep on an air mattress...I want a real bed! Emily says well, we can fit in this house if Lauren sleeps in the bed with Andria and Paul...to which I replied that she better talk to Andria first before making that assumption 'cause Lauren's getting bigger and they'd need a king sized bed for that...and the last time we tried that, the king bed ended up being a queen sized bed. Not usually a big deal, but Paul's a tall guy...and Lauren's a growing girl...and it's a vacation, you want to be able to rest well.

Well, at this point Emily starts getting bent out of shape about things because I told her she needs to talk to other people and not just me about booking the trip! I suggest she talk to mom and dad and definitely talk to Andria about it and the sleeping arrangements. Why talk to them? Because their input is needed too. Then she starts telling me that I don't need to tell her to talk to mom and dad...that I should just go talk to mom and dad myself! Well, that's great but I don't have anything I need to say about the trip! And why should she talk to them and not me? Because she intiated the conversation with me - not the other way around - about getting a house booked for us. So no, I'm not going to go bother my parents about this when you're the one who's calling me about going to begin with. At this point, she's just being ugly to me on the phone and it's obvious that I'm getting frustrated that she won't listen to a word I'm saying. Mom hears my conversation and tells me to tell Emily that Andria's already looked and says there's not a lot to pick from and what is left is too expensive and that's where the situation stands and that's it. So I pass that info along through the phone - more yelling in my ears. I finally tell her that I'm done...I'm dont' want to hear her being this rude and I'm hanging up the phone...so I do. Low and behold, she calls back after I've made it clear that I don't want to talk to her. So I ignore the call. And she calls again...and I ignore it again...upon the 3rd time the phone rings, I hand the phone to my mom and tell her that I don't want to talk to Emily so tell her to stop calling me.

Well...sorry Mom...you got sucked into the yelling too...and I know 'cause I could hear my sister going at it through the phone...and I was more than 5 feet away. So eventually, the conversation ends....and I come back to my computer...and I check facebook...and see my sister's status...

"Emily Merced is wondering why my freaking sister can't do anything for herself. You're in the same house as mom and dad. YOU talk to them. Don't ask me to."

And that pissed me off...mainly because she doesn't get it! Emily, it's not that I'm lazy and don't want to talk to mom and dad about it. It's not that I think you can talk to them better...on the contrary...I'm sure I can present a more logical (and respectful) case to our parents about the whole thing. I wanted YOU to talk to them because YOU are the one who calle ME up wanting to look at houses...wanting to figure it out. So go figure it out with the people you need to figure it out with. And don't be rude and disrespectful - you'll get a lot further with people if you keep that in check. I say these things 'cause I love you...you'll never get anywhere with people if you're like that with them. It's a good thing that I'm as cool as a cucumber because if I wasn't, someone else would be rolling with the punches...and they'd be on the receiving end of my fist!

I love you, Em. :-)