I have experienced a fair bit of drama in my life. Drama with friends. Drama with family. Drama with relationships. Drama with religion...

This weekend was one of the more significant rollercoasters of recent emotionally exhausting drama. Ended on a fairly good note, but boy was there a lot of weighty stress and wracked emotions to get to that point.

Here's the summarry:

Older sister Carrie is in town, cause her son is performing at Disneyland next weekend.

Older sister Renee was also going to be in town to visit while Carrie was out here. Renee has not spoken to older brother Danny for about 15 years, but mentioned to Carrie that it would be nice to try to see him.

Carrie played go-between to set up a visit. Danny sets up a dinner with them and other family, including me, my twin, and my little bro Eric.

* So now, at this point, I'm pretty excited to see Renee, who I have not seen since my Dad's funeral. She has a kid who's like 4 or 5 who I have never seen. I'm happy that Danny and Renee seem to be getting some sort of resolution to their 15 years of non contact.

Fast forward about a week or two, the night before the dinner...

I get a call from Danny, who tells me that he just got off the phone with Renee, who only just then decided to tell him that she will be unable to attend because she cannot bring herself to associate with me... or Misty... Because neither of us are "living the life that we dedicated outselves to" back when we were 12, and were baptized Jehovah's Witnesses.

*Shock... Hurt... Slight matter-of-fact acceptance, knowing that she's always kind of been that way, anger that she would wait until the last minute to pull this on my brother...

My response was "Well I don't have to come if you want to see her." Thinking to myself that he's probably already told her not to come, but fully ready to give up a dinner if it would make things more comfortable for him my (now bitch of a) sister to reunite. Because I'm nice and loving and undertanding like that... right?

And then the kicker...

So Danny, a bit shaken up (he just got off the phone with my sister) tells me that he was surprised to find out that I had been baptized... *blink blink* And that now he's having some crisis of concience, and that as I am "along the same lines as my older sister" who my family essentially disowned for the majority of my life due to religious issues, and that he's "really going to have to think of how to deal with this."

* Shock. Very hurt. Surprised. Confused. In one fell swoop, I basically got "dumped" by two of of my siblings...

And I took this call while at a LARP of about 30+ people.

So I spent the next two hours hiding out in the car crying. I spent the rest of the evening coming to terms with what happened. It is amazing how saying "I understand" cordially while on the phone turns into hurt and sadness and seething anger.

I like to think of myself as an understanding person. I don't want to make anyone do what they don't want to do. I don' want people to be uncomfortable, and I don't want to make someone go against their own beliefs, even if it involves dealing with me...

But I've had a good relationship with my brother for years, and it really threw me that he could all of a sudden be swayed to take this stand on things...

I spoke to my twin sister Misty, and my little brother, both of who were very supportive. At the same time, I discovered that Danny had not spoken to her at all. This actually upset me more, because I know that Misty is closer to him and his family, often goes over there to hang out, watch the kids, etc, etc.

So then, even after the support, I still felt that somehow I was the easier one to get dumped. I'm at a bit more of a distance. I was thinking that he may have not gotten around to calling her, but in the back of my head I was tossing around how much harder it would be for him to do that to her, or what he would consider with her at all.

My cell phone died. I calmed down and did LARP for a coupla hours, though was a bit detached from all the hullaballoo.

I went home and chilled, watched Erik play Kingdom Hearts for a little while. Went to bed very late and was still shaken up by the whole abrupt mess. I was totally drained.

The next day started in a very confusing manner, had it's own drama, but it ended up on a much better note. Things are a bit better now. But I'll put all that into a new entry.

This one took a bit more outta me to put down than expected.