Main St, Penn Yan
New York
“You’re not going to like this…” my mom said on the phone. “What?” I asked. “Your brother will be staying in your room because he and his wife need the double bed.”
My immediate reaction was that we must move the beds. I’m going home for a month to spend some time with my family for various reasons and no matter that I have my own house over here in Japan and am in theory a “grown up” my room at home is fossilized from a vague point in time between ending college and moving to Japan.
Millions of thoughts run through my head, all ridiculous.
A brother’s room is a place to be broken into and rifled through for secrets or stealing science fiction novels.
His room is on the wrong side of the house.
He still has alphabet wallpaper in there.
IT’S NOT MY ROOM.
And this concludes my regression in to a state of teenage thinking, which is unavoidable when spending any length of time with one’s own family. It seems like relationships are locked in stone and can never evolve. I am a bratty teenage sister all over again.
Like the time I came home before moving to Japan & found that my brother had dragged my rolltop desk into his room. Or the time he ate the ribs in the fridge that had a sign on them. Or the time…well, you know how it goes.
Why does this regression happen? We’ve all experienced it during the holiday seasons, why can’t we all just be grown ups together?? Please, I’d love to hear some advice! Anyway, I have printed out Cheney’s post and will review it on the plane. I hope that I can maintain some decorum over the next month…wish me luck.
