Different Strokes

It's funny how different people can be sometimes. Even in your own family, people can be so different and it can leave you wondering which side of the family you favor. As I've gotten older, I have no doubt my personality favors my paternal side of the family -- very Irish, very short-tempered, opinionated, passionate, impulsive, fiercely protective, demonstrative. I don't apologize for that. It is what it is. I lived with my paternal grandparents until my sweet Granddaddy died and then I stayed with my mom and my grandmother until I left to get married, so I was more influenced by them, I guess.

My maternal side of the family is the total opposite. Most of the women (I say women because literally the only remaining male in the family -- blood male, that is -- is my brother and I can include him in that women group because he is quite the diva) are very close-mouthed, passive, genteel types. They are protective, too, but more protective of privacy than anything, I guess. Not the in-your-face protective I tend to be when threatened.

Not meaning anything negative at all by the comparisons. I love my family. It just strikes me sometimes how different I am from them. You know how sometimes when you're a kid and you just feel like you don't fit in anywhere? That's sorta me in my family, the *different* one. Like maybe the big family secret is that I was adopted and that will explain it all! Nobody really agrees with most things I do and I feel certain my actions have been the subject of several dinnertime discussions over the years.

Most days it doesn't bother me because I like being different, blazing my own trails and not apologizing for going my own way. But then there are days or weeks like this week where I do. Sometimes I wish I was more passive, less offended, more private. But even when I try to be, then people ask me what's wrong. So I just figure I'm just me and I go back to my usual, sorta like putting on my comfortable PJs -- it fits.

When I was a teenager, I always thought my dad was like me that way, where he many times felt like he didn't fit in. He just always seemed to *get* me -- like peas and carrots, Forrest. He used to take me everywhere with him, basketball practices, baseball games, even when my mom and brother didn't go. Sometimes when you're an oddball it's nice having another oddball around, I guess.

I don't really know where this is going, but maybe I'm just feeling kinda disjointed because my current oddball buddy is out of town. Maybe it's because it's ball season and everybody is freaking out on the coaches (as usual). And maybe it's just because it's a week away from vacation and I could use one right about now. You know, like in the movie, What About Bob? when Dr. Leo Marvin writes Bob a prescription for a vacation from his problems? That's the kind of vacay I could use, but maybe with a side of margarita!

On a different note, I want to say that Kelsey B. laid down the most beautiful bunt you have ever seen in her last league game of the season last night. She's doing so well this year in softball and she loves her summer buddies. They are so funny in the dugout chanting their cheers with each other (though by the end of a game, the sound of the cheers can make a person want to curl into the fetal position for about 48 hours!). Kelsey sometimes struggles during the school year to find her fit with her homeschool friends, but in the summertime it's like the puzzle is complete when her softball friends are around. It makes my heart happy.

Well, that's it, folks. Sorry to be a little gloomy today. Sometimes writing it all down helps me make sense of it all. Cya soon!

~Peace