Family

My younger sister got engaged tonight!

Now, this is a good thing. A really good thing. (Hence the exclamation point). And I am genuinely super happy for her. She's my sister, naturally, and her fiancé (!!) is a great guy.

We're all really happy he's [officially] going to be part of our family, and hey, I finally kinda get the big brother I always wanted!

But I do admit to feeling a little upset.

Not that she's getting married before me- they've been together for 3 years in December, so we all knew this was coming at some point, and unless a few miracles occurred, I knew it was going to happen this way. (Although I am dreading any relatives who will feel the need to point out that she's getting married before me, as though I'm unaware of this fact. And I know my relatives. Some will feel the need to point this out.)

But I'm a little upset about the way I found out. I just got home for the weekend, walked in to say hello to my mum and she was on the phone talking to them.

Mum herself found out because my sister put it on Facebook, she rang her and then my sister rang back.

But it would have been nice to get even just a text message.

And this is just the way my sister is, I know, and it's not personal. But she's my sister and she's getting married. Mum told me tonight not to be upset if I'm not involved in the wedding. Honestly, if I was asked to be in the wedding, I'd be surprised. My sister has a lot of really close friends.

The other thing that bugs me is my paternal grandparents' reaction. She's the first grandchild on this side of the family that will be married. And the only reaction the news got was "Oh, that's nice."

For reasons unknown, they don't like my sister's fiancé, who has been nothing but pleasant and polite to them since they met. And I'm sure after their less-than-enthusiastic response to the news, they're going to tell all their friends about it as though they're thrilled.

And that really bugs me on my sister's behalf.

 When mum confirmed the news (after I heard "send me a picture of the ring" I pretty much had it figured out, but confirmation is always good) I was actually a little surprised that I wasn't upset that she was getting married before me.

But honestly, I've had a long time to accept that fact, and when I move around for work so much, and the very thought of someone showing romantic interest in me literally sends me into an anxiety attack (I have friends who can attest to this. I'm not exaggerating. This is fact), like I said, it would take a few miracles for me to get married first.

Anyway, I don't want to go on about this. Just had to vent a little so I can focus on the positives- my sister is getting married to someone we genuinely all like and who loves her and treats her well. That's all I can ask for really.

Sisters

Sometimes I'm pretty sure my siblings hate me.

OK, maybe I'm being overdramatic. But it does feel that way sometimes. Not my brother, I hear from him the most and we have the most in common. I'm usually pretty up to date on his life.

But my sisters... they don't seem to want anything to do with me. One sister won't even be my Facebook friend. The last time I spoke to her was in October.

And it just... it sucks. Not just because I (shockingly) take an interest in their lives and well-being, but one day our parents are going to be dead, and it'll be just us.
I don't want to only hear from them on birthdays and holidays.

I'm not saying we have to be best friends, but some kind of relationship would be nice besides "everything you like is stupid", which seems to be the current official line.

People always go off at movies for creating unrealistic ideals for relationships. We're all agreed that we should just be allowed to marry fictional characters, because they're clearly the best guys.
But it's not just the romantic relationships they do this with. Family relationships, whether siblings or parents, usually fall into two categories.

Either they're BFFs, or the sibling/parent/whoever is like... the Devil incarnate.

There are some that are painted more realistically and bridge the gap, but often it's one extreme or the other.

My sisters are not the devil. One can certainly be a bitch at times, but they're not evil. But we're definitely not BFFs either.

I know that we're very different people. My two sisters are much more alike, than either of them are with me. But I take an interest in their lives, the things they like, even if I don't like them. But my sisters just dismiss me, and dismiss everything I like. And it hurts.

20 facts about my brother

This was a trending topic on twitter, so I thought I'd do a quick blog post on it.

1. My brother is my favourite sibling (don't tell my sisters).
2. When I was little, I don't even know if mum was already pregnant with him or not, but I wished on a star for a little brother. And then Mitch was born. I like that story. He does not.
3. One of my earliest memories is seeing him right after he was born.
4. I got my brother into Harry Potter by telling him there was a dragon in it (he was obsessed with dinosaurs and dragons at this stage). I then ended up reading the first 2 books to him. 
5. He read the Twilight books when he saw the trailer for the first movie, but he refuses to read The Hunger Games, which is weird, because those books are way better written.
6. Considering he has 3 older sisters, he knows quite a lot about chick flicks and all that type of stuff. It's funny to hear him talking about the plot of The Notebook or something, haha.
7. When he was like 3 we went camping in Oberon and my dad convinced him there was a serial killer who lived in the drains. It was hilarious. 
8. He hates when I call him my 'little brother', thinking that because he's now 17 and way taller than me, that the term no longer applies. (He's totally wrong. He's always going to be my little brother. Deal with it). 
9. He's really smart. Especially at maths and stuff.
10. He's also really good at PlayStation and all those games. Has been since he was little.
11. He's a dork. And I say that in the best possible way. Meaning he's just like my dad.
12. Mitch is the only sibling who gives me hugs occasionally. So he automatically gets sibling points.
13. He pretty much eats anything. It's an infamous story in our family of the time he drank milk and pepsi together. Even he admits it was gross.
14. He's kind of obsessed with vanilla coke and mountain dew (not together). 
15. He had the choice to go see Wicked or to go Canberra back in 2010. He chose Canberra. So he lost a few sibling points there (kidding. But I was just like 'what on earth are you thinking?!').
16. He loves Family Guy and How I met your mother (especially Barney and the whole suit thing). But he grew out of Big Bang Theory claiming it wasn't funny. At that point, I thought he'd hit his head somewhere).
17. Until lately, he claimed he had never seen any classic Disney movies or The Wizard of Oz, despite the fact we grew up in the same house. I rectified that situation. It's most likely he saw them but doesn't remember them. He's smart, but his memory is shocking. But he can quote all Family Guy scenes. 
18. When he was little, he'd watch all the Miss Universe and Miss USA type shows with us, haha. You can blame that on being the only boy with 3 sisters and a mum when my dad used to work weekends. So it was either watch them with us, or be alone. But I don't think the pretty girls hurt either, LOL
19. He practically worshipped Joey Johns when he was little. It's like the only reason he supported the Knights in the NRL. He's kind of indifferent now.
20. Every school holidays my sisters and I would break out the Barbies and spread over the house. Sometimes he'd play with us, because otherwise he'd be left out. But there were many instances we had dinosaurs co-residing with our Barbies. LOL

So my brother is kind of awesome and I love him. That's it.

Holiday plans

We have 2 weeks until school holidays!

I'm super excited, mostly because I get to go home. I haven't seen my family all term, and I really miss my parents and siblings.

This is the first holidays this year that I'm not travelling anywhere, but I'm still planning to do heaps.

The first weekend I'm having an entire musical weekend! We're seeing Legally Blonde the musical on Saturday night, and then on Sunday we're seeing a local performance of Beauty and the Beast the musical!

And the second weekend is my cousin's wedding. The guy she's marrying is lovely, and she's my oldest female cousin, so I'm really excited and happy for her. Plus, it means I get to see the rest of my family, which I don't get to do too often. This will be the first time I've seen my cousins and aunts and uncles since my grandfather's funeral in February, which hopefully won't be too sad.

Other than that, I'm just looking forward to relaxing and catching up with friends. I've already got plans for a day with Nerrida :)

I always say I'm going to do heaps of writing in the holidays... and I never get as much done as I hope to. But we'll see! It would be nice to make some headway on 40 weeks; I've kind of stalled lately due to lack of time and motivation. Plus, it's slow moving until I get to a certain point.