i once read that the first rule of blogging is to not apologize for not blogging when away for an extended period of time. well, i don’t like rules. i live to break em’! yee fucking haw. i’ve been more or less uninspired to write out anything. i could tell you that i’m about a quarter of the way through the final harry potter book and when i sit down to read it i immediately get tired and want a nap. or i could tell you that lira has decided that our coffee table is an excellent source of nutrition. or maybe i could regale you in stories about how i desperately want to landscape my lawn but the heat here in the South is the equivalent of ten hells and two dammits. but, i shall not. instead i’ll bore you with the fact that in the first time in a long time i am happy. not giddy, jump out of bed in the mornings happy, just plain old content with life happy. my job, my marriage, my life is something that it hasn’t been in quite a while. i attribute a lot of this happiness to the recent reconnection with my aunt. she has become someone that i have been able to confide in. not because she is family but because she knows where i am coming from. she’s been down my road. hell, she constructed the traffic lights. you see, my family is nuts. full of alcoholics and piss and vinegar. we’re good people to have around in the event of a oktoberfest and or turf war. my aunt is no exception. she’s opinionated, funny, and very set in her ways. she is the kind of person that will tell you her opinion and you will pretty much agree with her. not because she is right, but because her conviction is so strong. when i was nine or ten she informed me that Johnson & Johnson tested their products on animals (or something to that effect. look, it was ten years ago. i can’t remember every little thing you memory nazis!) and i told my mom that i would no longer be party to using their products. i said to her “you can buy all the shampoo and soap from Johnson & Johnson that you want, but i’d rather bathe in boric acid”.

today, i’m a bit more mature and don’t take everything that someone tells me as the gospel, but when my aunt speaks i do tend to listen. no more than any of my other family, mind you, but she gets me. and that is more than i can say for a lot of people. she won’t sugar-coat. she’ll tell you straight up that you are being a complacent, douchebag and need to buck up because this is your life and it’s the only one you’re going to get. my aunt is aught-seven’s answer to julia sugarbaker.

so there it is. i’m a well adjusted person, living a fantastic life. i’m trying to stay positive and live in the here and now. tony robbins can eat my shit.