Remember these:

smittens21.jpg

How ironic that I would have put a tag that proclaimed, “LIFE” on them. In early December, just after receiving my box of Christmas goodies, my brother and his girlfriend broke up.

And yes, this is the same girlfriend I’ve voiced objections to in the past, for those of you who have been keeping up with my familial drama. There is nothing wrong with this girl, for the record. She seems really delightful from what I can gather from the snippets of information I strong-arm out of my brother on occasion. It’s just that she is significantly younger than my little brother and he’s been down this road before…with a girl too young and ended up BURNED. I’m an older sister, who has NOT forgotten that fiasco and am a bit over-protective. I’m also opinionated. My prerogative.

You’d think I’d be elated considering this is the same girlfriend I politely outed on my blog for lurking last summer. I didn’t have an issue that she read my blog, but that she was looking for dirt on the family via my blog. And let me tell you, there’s dirt. I just don’t blog about it. And my little rant, and it was a rant, oh boy did that cause trouble. My brother let me me have it up one side and then down another and then backwards. Fortunately for me, all his comments on my blog went to straight to moderation and I just hit the “delete” button. I’m a good sister like that… I might voice my objections about your girlfriend privately, but I’m not going to let you make an ass of yourself on my blog so that you can regret it later. I know you’re being an ass, my readership doesn’t need to know that unless I tell them. And just so you know, I love this little brother of mine, but he was being an ass. He’ll say I started it.

Anyhow, you would think with all the drama, I’d be happy to see her go. But… I’m not. I’m sad for them both. December is a retched time of year to end relationships. And for the time they were together, my brother seemed genuinely happy. I still have reservations about her age… but, I’d be saying that if they’d been married for 20 years because I’m the older sister and once I’ve made a decree, I’m never wrong. (FYI: I’m never wrong and my brother knows everything, and we get this from our dad!) In fact, I made the Smittens as an act of kindness… a peace offering if you will. A little way of saying, “I might not approve completely, but I do accept it.” And despite my position of older sister, my approval isn’t necessary. The basic fact is, whomever Mark decides to bring into our family I will learn to love because I love my little brother. This was my way of working into that love…because love is sometimes work. And how sad that they won’t be holding hands together into a shared Life.

So, I’m now calling these things, “Smittens of Death.” You think I could sell them on esty as a break-up tool?