While trying to be the prodigal son

Long story short: my parents’ separation isn’t going that smoothly.  Big surprise there.  My sister and I have been doing everything we can from afar, but there will always be limitations to what we can do for them, without actually being them, or at least, being physically present with them while we try and do things for them.

Naturally, the whole ordeal is often exasperating, and leaves the both of us on the phone with ourselves, venting to one another about just how they could possibly drive us even more up the wall than they already are.  Ultimately, the conversations steer back to the fact that they’re our parents, and we’ll do whatever it is we can to make sure that they’re okay, because that’s what supposed good children do once they’re adults, they help their parents.

To those paying attention, know that recently my bank account took a fairly substantial hit, on account of some decisions that my parents made, without necessarily doing enough (read: any) checks and balances to what repercussions may come about with spontaneously changing bank accounts.  Although the incident from a few days ago wasn’t the first time that this had occurred, it was undoubtedly the worst, seeing as how it completely zeroed out that particular bank account and rendered my daily purchases and ability to pay bills compromised until repaired.

Continue reading “While trying to be the prodigal son”

Envy

This, is what I get for trying to be a good, dutiful son, and try and protect dad and mom from the evil bill collectors that they’re not entirely sure of whom exactly they all are.

I expected another round of potential overdraft dings, but certainly not to the magnitude of completely wiping out this particular bank account.  Color me surprised when at dinner, I’m embarrassingly told that my card has been declined, and the mixed simultaneous feelings of dread and humility, before they were both drowned out by unadulterated anger.

Thanks dad and mom!

Continue reading “Envy”

Thanksgiving musings

The following is a spatter of random thoughts that have gone through my head throughout the course of the holiday. I may or may not attempt to chronologically sort them when I’m done, as I’m pecking this out on my busted iPad.

The above picture is my wailing niece. I wanted to have some sort of visual to accompany this post.

This trip is the first time that I’ve brought my own car into the Commonwealth of Virginia in quite some time. The last time I drove my own car on my old stomping grounds was when I still had my old Nissan and I still felt it had the legs to make the trips from Atlanta to NOVA. Part of it is refreshing and fun to drive my own car on old familiar roads, but another part is apathetic and piteous of the residents of Virginia, whom have apparently been beaten into submission of driving like sissies in fear of the overzealous ticketing and fine system in place here. Safety is one thing, but the legions of people camping the left, passing lanes, going the approximate speed limit are bigger hazards to other motorists than the occasional tryhard going 88 mph, I would hypothesize.

Continue reading “Thanksgiving musings”

Derailing tradition, much to my dismay

Well, if I felt that my recent lack of angst and anxiety were reason for having difficulty finding things to write about, consider it my brog’s lucky day as both angst and anxiety have returned with but just a few mere phone calls with my family, to put me back in a state of mind where I want to vent to people around me, but don’t really want to burden anyone, so it turns into ultimately a great big vomiting of words onto whomever wishes to read them.

I won’t get into extensive detail, but I’ve made no secret about my parents getting divorced, and as much as I’d have hoped it would have been an amicable and clean separation, naturally it was and is not, and suddenly my plans over the Thanksgiving break that I had leisurely looked forward to have turned into a period of time in which I am basically dreading.

Why?  Because I’m going home for Thanksgiving.

Continue reading “Derailing tradition, much to my dismay”

Thoughts on Disney World

During the brog’s layoff, one of the things that I did was what’s apparently been somewhat of an annual tradition in recent years, which was a trip down to Florida to visit Disney World as well as Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights.

It’s something I enjoy greatly, because I enjoy Halloween-themed events, roller coasters, and ultimately most of the evenings result being spent in Epcot’s annual Food and Wine Festival, which is pretty much one of the greatest events in the world to me, since by the time I’m done with it, I can typically claim that I’ve eaten the entire world, and lots of the countries’ kiosks brings out some excellent quality grub and booze to begin with.

Except for South Korea, which is pretty much the biggest disappointment since like the 2007 New England Patriots. Seriously, just about every booth in the park has people indigenous, or at least of the ethnicity of the country’s booth they’re working for, except for South Korea’s. Furthermore, the food is about as good as one might expect from a place that says “Korea” but has a bunch of white people working it. When your options are the disappointing “Asian” pork taco from last year, and a “Kimchi Dog,” it’s like offering a Mexican person visiting from Mexico, Taco Bell or Del Taco.

Continue reading “Thoughts on Disney World”

D*C 2014: In conclusion

Before I pull the plug on all of the Dragon*Con-related subject matter for the next eleven months or so, I just wanted to write a little something as a finishing touch to all of the content I’ve tried to squeeze out of the annual occurrence.  How about my ability to take the topic of D*C, and turning it into nearly two full weeks worth of content?

As I said in my first post about the convention, this year’s D*C wasn’t the best ever, but it was far from the worst.  I can’t say that I go into any D*C with any grandiose expectations, because that’s really just not my nature; building up too large of expectations, or any at all, seems kind of like a recipe for disappointment, and I’d rather not have any of those, if it could be helped.

That being said, this year wasn’t much different than any of the past few years in the sense of it’s primarily me walking around in circles, looking for people to take pictures of, and taking pictures when I see things I want to take pictures of.  Along the way, there are occasional friendly faces, and we stop and chat, hang out, or spend some time together, before the cycle repeats itself until the sun goes down, and then I drink a lot of beer, and sometimes drink too much.

Continue reading “D*C 2014: In conclusion”