6.6.00

Boys. Go Figure.

So, I was anticipating a fairly decent evening - one that involved a movie and a leisurely hike around the bookstore - but as ever, things fizzled due to a small family dispute involving conflicting work schedules and use of the car and van.

It must be noted that before I started living with Nathan and his family, I was pretty much an "only child" - I have a sister, but she's grown up with a family of her own, and I'd been the only kid in the house since she moved out ten years ago. I haven't really had anyone to bicker with except my parents, and there was no trouble whenever someone wanted to go out - until I was 19 I couldn't drive, and then when I did get my own car and a driver's license, I was free to come and go as I pleased. I didn't have to post work schedules for people to see to make sure I wouldn't be using the car when someone else needed it; if I wanted to go and visit Jo or someone, I could just go and do it. Now I'm in a house with two parents and four siblings, and it's taking a little getting used to.

(I'm going to be talking about family here, so if you weren't signed up for the mailing list you would have missed the last email entry, or if you didn't make it to the people page, I'll recap it now: from eldest to youngest, the line of siblings in Nathan's family goes Nathan, Billy, Bobby, and Andy. At 18, Billy is almost "grown-up", so he usually isn't a whiner, but he has his moments. 17 year old Bobby is a gun-loving, wannabe-NRA-member jerk, and I intended to cover that in an earlier entry, but I'm sure it'll be fodder for writings to come. And 15 year old Andy seems like he's 12 or 13, but he's generally a nice kid, and definitely a lot more amusing and less annoying than Bob. I hope that covers it, but if there's questions, you know my inbox is always lonely - er, open.)

Bobby recently (as in, two days ago) acquired a job at a fast food outlet called Bumpers, and it's over on the other side of town. Billy works on the opposite side of town to that at a Chick-Fil-A, and since they were both working evening shift tonight, they took the same car. Bobby was to pick up Billy after work, and in a not-so-smart move, Billy said: "If I'm not out there when you come to pick me up, don't come in looking for me. It might take a while." It's not in Bob's nature to listen to people, so why he chose that occasion to finally open his ears and retain something, I'll never know. In any case, he sat out in the parking lot for an hour before it occured to him to go through the drive-thru and ask if Billy was still working.

Billy, on the other hand, was already home, having got a lift home with a co-worker. He figured Bobby wouldn't wait around very long before coming in to check, so he didn't call Bobby at his work, or indeed call in at Bumpers to let him know. So they're both sort of in the wrong.

Bobby, of course, is hopping mad and insists that he is totally right. Pig-headed little jerk that he is.

Nathan and I intended to go out tonight to the movies - to see "Center Stage", yes, again, because "Battlefield Earth" looks kind of, well, crap. We've seen "Road Trip". And "Screwed" looks like it'd be best on video. And "Where The Heart Is" isn't appealing either. I guess I'm kind of picky. Unfortunately, just as we were ready to go out, Billy took the car out to go to Chick-Fil-A to tell Bob to come home, so there wasn't a vehicle available to us. (Nathan has a car, but there is a long story behind why it can't be driven.)

Oh, the yelling that went on when those two got home. Bobby was pissed as all get out, and kept shouting about Billy owing him money now (don't ask me, I'm clueless too), and Billy looked regretful at not having done the "right thing", and Nathan's parents - who are wonderful, tolerant people - were justified in being angry when Bobby started yelling at them because of Billy's mistake. Eventually their dad told Bob to get the idea out of his head that Billy was going to pay him for this incident, and their mom told him that if he was going to act like such a baby he wasn't going to have a summer job for much longer. And Nathan and I took the opportunity to leave whilst the waters were temporarily calm, too late to go see a movie, which was disappointing. (We ended up renting movies instead, and I have to say that "The Haunting" isn't really all that scary. I'll watch "The Fight Club" tomorrow. We told Bobby that we rented a Powerpuff Girl's video instead since he's been bugging the hell out of us to rent "Fight Club" - not to mention "Full Metal Jacket" and some other war movie - and didn't want to give him the satisfaction.)

When we got home, Bobby was still up - unfortunately. He had control of the remote, and then later had a hissyfit when Nathan and I were making annoying noises with our straws and take-out drink cups. He ended up pitching his drink cup - which was filled with ice - at Nathan, after giving very little by way of warning (he screeched something about wanting us to stop). Nathan threw it back and ice scattered everywhere. They both sat there in a sulk and I ended up cleaning it up, fuming at the both of them. I don't blame Nathan for his actions - I would have done the same - though his hissyfit didn't help matters.

Right now, Nathan is asleep, and I'm wide awake. I still don't feel like working on my journal any, though, so, this is it for the time being. Compulsive reading, eh? Petty family spats and no sign of brotherly love, live, on Chonk!