REMISSLY YOURS

There's not much new going on with me to explain my dearth of entries.  I blame Star Wars Galaxies (online game).  If you play (on Sunrunner server), drop me an email.  Lately I am there more than I am here.  But for now, I am here again.

Sun Su (3 years 4 months) and Ooseung (1 year 6 months) are growing fast and furious. 

DISPARATE HOUSE LIVES

We live in a suburban cul-de-sac where I've gotten to know the kids more than the neighbors. Still, sometimes you just can't get from the car to the house quick enough without being caught in the neighborly tractor beam greeting.

NEIGHBOR GUY : "Hi, how are you doing?" (Walking towards me.)

ME: "Hey!" (Grabbing stuff from car while quickstepping to the house.)

NEIGHBOR GUY:  "We're neighbors." (Oh! Snagged.)  "I'm Dick."

ME: (Did he just say Dick?) "Hi -- (I can't say that). Nice to meet you. I'm Scott."

He was probably in this forties with prematurely greying hair. He had a certain sensitivity in his eyes that expressed the kind of sincerity and insecurity you get from a beaten spirit.  Was it a domineering wife?  A soul-sucking job?  Or maybe from having a name like Dick in this generation.  I kind of felt bad for wriggling out of the conversation, but that's what Oblivious Aloof Guys (like me) do when accosted by Sprit-beaten Househusband Guys (like Dick).  I couldn't really see us having anything in common, other than procreation, anyways. 

Yeah, I'm a dick too sometimes.

Amy has gathered a bunch of new mommy-friends, since our kids all play together.  She might actually have a new best friend, in fact. 

One day they were talking about hiring nannies. 

MOMMY #1:  "Did you see their new nanny?  She's young and energetic  and ... pretty!"

ALL MOMMIES:  *gasp*

MOMMY #2:  "Oh my God.  What were they thinking?"

MOMMY #3:  "Is she trying to lose her husband?"

MOMMY #1:  "Nannies have to be fat, frumpy, and old."

ALL MOMMIES:  "Hear hear!"

We get all the good gossip from the MOMMIES CLUB:

The Chinese mommy down the street who resists the friendly and intrusive advances of Extrovert mommy. 

The lesbian couple across the street that doesn't even wave. 

The recluse couple who lost their twins two days after birth.

Or how the previous owners of our house were completely dysfunctional nut-jobs who became the Addams Family of the neighborhood.  (This might explain the hidden basement rooms and the fact that the back door of the kitchen leads to a ten foot drop outside.)

"I wonder what they say about us?" Amy said to me.

"What are you talking about?  They love you," I replied, "Besides, fuck 'em. I don't talk to them anyways."

Amy's friend complains that her workaholic husband (a gastroenterologist) is never home. But when he is, she complains that he's driving her crazy. 

Couples develop their own inner dynamics and their own roles.  I never quite understood what "roles" meant but now I think it means they each spend their time in separate ways.  Sometimes too separate. The differences that intrigued you about each other can alienate you after awhile too.

It's easy to say this or that couple is fucked up from the outside.  Maybe it is.  Or maybe they thrive on that.  The anal-retentive gastroenterologist (an oxymoron?) and the sassy wife.  The submissive house-husband and the dominant realtor wife.  The aloof husband and the loud but charming wife.

Or maybe divorce is just too expensive and problem-ridden.  Only you know when you get there.

The other gossip was that Dick the Househusband actually became a househusband after he quit his job at work when he was being underappreciated.  I wouldn't have expected him to have that kind of fire in him from my brief meeting with him.  I respect that.

He also spends almost all of his free time playing computer games, Amy relayed to me.  I am sure this and quitting your job were "negative traits" in the eyes of the Mommies Club. 

"He's probably playing the same game I am!  I should ask him about it," I laughed.

I like Dick better already.  You just never know.

(This is my five-days-off "beard."  I should probably shave it before going back to work tomorrow.  My complexion is a little spotty because I am not a metrosexual.)

DARTH SIPID GOT A LOUSY CONTRACT

Okay, back to Star Wars Galaxies now.  Even while I was writing this I was flipping back to kill a few dozen stormtroopers and mining for resources.  Call me Darth Corrigible (Sith Code requires you to put a silent "IN" after the Darth title for it to make sense, for example: Darth Vader was the INvader, Darth Sidious was INsidious.  Yeah, the dark Sith Lords were pretty stupid that way.)