Cupid Is as Cupid Does

Thursday and yesterday were without a doubt the two worst days of 2023 for me so far!

Taylor and her girlfriend Ahlina of course moved in with my mom last June, and they have (as expected) continued most of the same shenanigans they pulled when they were still under my roof. Collecting more pets. Not contributing much of anything toward household bills. (They also moved in their friend CJ sometime around Thanksgiving.)

To make a very long story short, my entire family essentially decided to gang up on me and insist that I don my cape and swoop in to save the day as I have done so many times past. But this time I'm refusing.

Taylor has been a legal adult since she turned 18 in October. She moved out entirely of her own volition back in June and has barely talked to me ever since. My mom declined the seven page contract Kevin created at the time to protect her in the event that the girls pulled pretty much all the ridiculous crap we expected they might. But she readily took in Taylor and Ahlina (and then CJ) anyway.

So now I have a household of four grown adults whining to me that they need help. And my sister thinks she needs to put her two cents in (at the top of her lungs). And my mom's two brothers who still love to talk to me like I'm an errant 9 year old have to weigh in.

But my answer remains the same.

You all made your poor decisions by yourselves for the past year. And you're all "adults" (nominally at least). This isn't my problem. Not even a little bit.

All that is to say that I was NOT having a good day yesterday. When I got home from work, my uncle called and spent an hour reaming me out on the phone just as I was heading out to do the laundry. So I was all but fuming when I finally got back from the laundromat, but I walked in the front door to find this on the coffee table...

Kevin wanted to lighten the mood, and he insisted that now was as good a time as any to open Valentine's Day presents.

And Riley said I could go first.

Kevin gave me a vintage wooden sculpture of a flower and some lily pads (knowing that I really like frogs), and then he gave me four tiny animal figurines of a duck, a ladybug, a frog, and a hedgehog (representing Riley, Taylor, me, and Kevin).

And then it was Riley's turn to open her present:

Kevin asked if we liked our gifts. (Of course!)

Then he asked if we noticed anything.

We both looked around the living room. But we couldn't find anything new or out of place.

"I haven't even given either of you a card!" he insisted. "So, there must be something else coming. These were just the 'decoy' gifts!"

And with that he opened the door to the coat closet and presented Round 2 of presents!

This time Kevin had Riley go first:

Then with some effort, Kevin carefully retrieved my second present from the closet: A bee themed gift basket that I would have assumed was professionally done, if it had been wrapped in cellophane!

I proceeded through all the items one by one. A lovely card that opens into a beautiful bee on a flower. A bottle of honey whiskey. A large honeycomb shaped candle. A bag of honey straws in various flavors. A decorative honey dipper to go on our honeycomb shelves over the television. And a string of LED bee lights to put somewhere around the apartment.

Then as I was cleaning up the confetti and all the tissue paper, the "grown up" in me was curious as to whether the gift basket itself was sturdy enough to be repurposed elsewhere in the apartment as well...

Imagine my surprise when I felt its firmness and realized it wasn't a basket at all, but a stunning ceramic serving bowl Kevin had ordered from a potter on Etsy:

By this time it was approaching 11:00pm and we hadn't even had dinner yet (since the laundry and the phone call with my uncle had monopolized the entire night).

But Kevin offered a suggestion:

Not sure when they close, but we *could* finally go check out Raising Cane's... if we are Able.

Miraculously, Raising Cane's stays open until 1:00 in the morning, which is a real rarity in a post Covid world. (These days everybody likes to close up shop at sundown before the vampire bats and the viruses come out.)

We had the place to ourselves! And the staff was super friendly and the food was amazing :)

Riley even overcame her fear of pictures!

...Well, eventually.

Go get 'em, tiger!

We did have an unplanned but necessary serious talk with Riley when we got home, regarding the cessation of contact between me and the rest of our family for at least the next few months. I fear that Riley is very much like a child caught in a nasty divorce at the moment. She is sad and confused and doesn't understand why everyone can't just grow up and get along.

But she is also perceptive and quite mature for her age. So she picks up on a lot of things on her own, and she tends to readily understand the rest when someone explains it.

And while it still nevertheless breaks my heart to forbid her from going over to visit her sister for the time being, Kevin (and his wonderful family!) keeps reminding me that I was not the one responsible for the many, many poor decisions over the past year that have brought us all to this point.

But all in all, thank you to my amazing Kevin for all the wonderful Valentine's gifts. And thank you to Kevin and Riley both, for helping to bring a horrible day and a taxing week to an unexpectedly pleasant close :)