Family Time

Today, my younger brother and I both had PD days which is a bit unusual because we go to different school, considering he is in junior high and I am in high school. My dad took the afternoon off and Fridays are my mom's day off anyway. My older brother decided to skip school for the day and since he is 21 no one can object. So, with everyone having some time on his hands, my parents, especially my mother, decided that it would be a good idea to have a "family day". Now, family time in my house usually involves us doing whatever my mother wants to, and if we are sitting at home, we sit in the living room and argue. If we go out, we sit at a restaurant and argue, and today's outing wasn't any different.

I lied. My mother did have to work today, but only from 8:00 - 11:00, roughly. She arrived home at around 11:30 and last night she specifically told us to be ready by this time. Before she left from work, she called and said that we should be ready and that she would be home soon. Considering her work is about 5 minutes away I knew that it wouldn't be too long before she was home. Lucky for me, I had already showered and gotten ready. I was ready for a day out on the town, or sitting in a restaurant. I ran to go make sure that my lazy ass brothers were ready. I went to the basement and what did I find? Two boys playing the Xbox 360 still in their pajamas. When I asked why they weren't ready, my older brother said that all he needed to do was change because he had already showered, which I knew because he had this annoying habit of blasting music while showering, which woke me up. My younger brother's response was less reassuring. He still needed to shower, brush his teeth, etc, etc. Essentially, he was not ready at all. It was only when my mother got home that I knew that today would be a rough day indeed.

My mother, already stressed from an exhausting half-day at work, came home to find my older brother and I sitting at the kitchen table, ready to leave. When she inquired where her youngest son was, we said he was upstairs. We did not feel the need to disclose that he was still showering. As soon as she heard the shower, the yelling began. We heard her screaming at my brother about how stupid he was, how unorganized he was. All we could do was sit and wait until it was over because we both knew that if we interfered we'd be the ones being yelled at and trust me, you don't want to be in that position.

By the time, we were out the door and in the car, we were running ten minutes late. I hope you have noticed by now that my father has not been mentioned at all. The reason for that is quite obvious, we were meeting him at the restaurant. There is one thing you should know about my father: he hates inefficiency. So, my mother was scared that she would be yelled at for not being at the restaurant on time. The four of us were supposed to arrive at the restaurant before my father, order the food and hope that it would be on the table by the time he got there. Now, I know that I make my father seem like a scary, stubborn man, and sometimes he is, but often he is quite the opposite. My mother was surprised to find that when my older brother used his cell phone to communicate with my father, he did not yell, did not even sound angry. I knew that he wasn't so we left it at that.

When we got to the restaurant, something happened that upset my mom even more; there was no parking. She dropped my brother off at the entrance of the restaurant so that he could get a table while she found parking. Unluckily for us, there was absolutely no parking at least not close by. My mother hates getting parking father that five spaces away from the entrance of any place, so you can understand how frustrated she was when we couldn't find any space five row away. She started yelling about how this was unbelievable and when I tried to calm her down, she snapped at me. One thing you should NEVER do: console my mother.

To make matters worse, my brother called saying that we couldn't get a table for half an hour. This restaurant was small and there was no waiting area and there was no way we would be standing for that amount of time. My mother started blaming my younger brother for this because he was late getting ready. The problem was that she was wrong. The owner of the restaurant said that the people all dining there got there at the same time and that it was about half an hour before we even planning to leave the house. Meaning they got to the restaurant while my mom was still at work. So, we called my father up and switched our eating place.

When we arrived at the new restaurant, we were glad to see that there was plenty of parking, which meant that the restaurant wouldn't be busy. And we were right. We got a table right away and my mother's mood did a complete flip. We had a lovely Chinese lunch and even convinced our mother to let us get Booster Juice, but before that our parents had to visit their lawyer.

There is one thing you should know; we - well my dad - own two houses. The one we are currently living in, and the other where we used to live but now where my mom's brother and his family now reside. They pay rent to my father, though not as much as he would take from other people. Recently, my cousin decided that he would like to buy the house from my father, which he was perfectly happy about because it would help pay off our house's mortgage and what not. Anyway, that was the reason they were going to their lawyer's office for paperwork. It so that if and when my cousin decided to buy the house, they would be ready.

Everything was fine up until the moment my mother realized she had no idea what this office looked like or where it was. All she had was the address and often that is not enough. This lawyer was new so they had no idea where they were going to end up. My parents' previous lawyer ran off to Vancouver after having a meltdown due to a divorce. The old lawyer was a week-smoking, disgusting person who I hope I don't have to see again, or smell again. So, by the time we got to the lawyer's office my mother was already pissed off because she had gotten lost.

During the time that my parents were talking to their lawyer, my older brother dropped my younger brother's phone between the car seats. So the entire time they were in there, we spent trying to get it out. It was a very entertaining experience, but also a cold one. Here in Edmonton winter often get very cold, and although today was one of those days it was also one of the warmer ones.

My mother emerged from the lawyer's office a lot more pleasant than before and my siblings and I were grateful for that. We were due to meet my cousin at Wal-Mart, so off we went. Wal-mart was a normal experience: my brothers ran to the electronics, and I stayed with my mother and cousin. Somehow, during the whole shopping trip, we managed to keep my mom's temper at bay.

We went to our second house, to drop my cousin home, and went in to see their dogs. Zohreen, the cousin we went to Wal-Mart with, has a dog. Keesha is a Maltese crossed with a poodle and is incredibly cute and is only 4 and a half pounds. Shermin, one of Zohreen's older twin sisters, has a dog too. Tyson, yes he is named after Mike, is a poodle/chihuahua and he is also incredibly cute and is about 10 pounds. Tyson is what you would call an overly-hyper dog. No one seems to be able to calm him and the only time he is calm is when he is asleep. Tyson is also very territorial and protective of a few people, his owner, Shermin, and for some reason me. So, we got to the house and I found that Tyson had gotten groomed. I felt so bad for him because the groomer somehow seemed to get his head to be shaped like an egg. Not only that, but Shermin thought it looked cute and refused to allow anyone to fix it. What I am getting at though, is the fact that he tried to bite my older brother today, or at least try to scare him. This was a first; Tyson has never tried to bite him before. He was sitting with me on the couch, when my brother came over to pet him. Tyson snapped at him. We concluded that Tyson thought that my brother was going to attack me in some way and decided to protect me. Tyson has also done this to my mother and the nurse that comes to take care of my grandmother, my mother's mother, who is in a wheelchair.

Our ride home was uneventful and boring so lets just skip to the part where we actually got home. After bringing in all out Wal-Mart stuff, we learned that the house to be cleaned because we were throwing a party for my cousin here tomorrow. Although cleanliness is something my mother is obsessed with, the way that we have to get there, as in cleaning, is something she despises. After dying her hair, she comes back down to find that my younger brother and I have decided to bake brownies. You can only imagine how much our ears were pounding after we were yelled at.

By the end of the day, the house was clean and we were able to enjoy a calm mother and a nice small batch of brownies. Man, do I wish we made more of them. *sigh* maybe another day...