Zel-kun’s Words

Fun fact:  My ‘Mexican Thanksgiving’ post from last year gets more spam than any other post.

This year, I spent Thanksgiving at my father’s house, out in Indiana.  I find myself having a lot more fun at my father’s these days, we talk and have a lot of laughs.  I’m sure if he were to open a blog about his life experiences, you’d never stop laughing.  So we get along very well these days, and he reads this blog, so: Bonus!

The spread was good and the company was great.  It was traditional fare: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and broccoli-rice casserole, but it’s all good stuff.

The day afterwards, I volunteered to work a half-shift.  Even though the corporate office was closed, the call-center was still open, so they needed a person there to watch the queue just in case something happened.  I worked the afternoon shift, so nothing did.  I spent the time fixing up a few desktops that had been sitting under my desk.

Zai came with me that day, saw my desk and said, “Wow, it’s just like in a movie!”  I guess she had never seen an office before.  But I suppose if I saw a factory up close I’d have the same reaction, sometimes an occupation can be a whole other world.

After showing her around, she left to go to the large mall nearby.  So, I got to take her to a mall without actually GOING to the mall: Bonus!

We stopped by my mother’s and raided her for leftovers.  She dropped [Banana Pudding] and [Cream Cheese Dip].  It was a successful raid.

Saturday Zai went out shopping again, and I stayed home and attempted to relax.  Then, like a man possessed, I cleaned the whole apartment.  Ehen the heck did I become Felix Ungar?

Sunday we went to Zai’s mother’s house for leftovers, and to do laundry.  The food was all right.  Mainly, I was there for the membrio, this crazy mexican fruit.  It’s delicous.

There aren’t too many times in my life where I shake with rage, but I must say, Sunday was one of those days…

As any reader of this site knows, Zai has a brother.  This brother, despite my best efforts, has either ignored me outright, or pointed potentially harmful objects at me in an effort to ward me off like some sort of beast.

Though, as I know he refers to me as a beast behind my back to his family… so I guess that makes sense.

When I arrived, he went to hide in the basement.  Fair enough, don’t have to look at him then.  Eventually though, he snuck past the kitchen where I was to watch TV in the living room.  And even though I tried to get a picture to PROVE to the world what I saw, by the time I got my camera phone out, it was too late.

Ladies and gentlemen, picture this.  A twenty-something year old boy, who has a MASTER’S DEGREE from a reputable university, sitting on the couch, holding a camcorder TRIPOD defensively, wearing a Wolverine mask.  That’s right.  Wolverine, as in the X-man.  I go into the kitchen and relay this to Zai and her parents, who kinda laugh nervously.  Zai’s father, though I don’t understand Spanish, can see exactly what he’s thinking in his eyes, “Oh goddammit, my son’s retarded…”

Well, I wasn’t about to let the superhero prevent me from going into the living room, as I had borrowed Zai’s laptop, and Zai borrowed her sister’s, and we were going to do a little Warcraft while we waited for the laundry.  Zai’s brother stood a foot in front of the television, tripod in hand and mask on his face, watching whatever movie he was watching, blocking my view entirely.  From the back, I could see that the mask was held on by paperclips, as the band wouldn’t stretch around his fat head.  I roll my eyes and open the laptop.  Then it happens…

He turns to Zai and says something.  It sounded a little like German (which is normally the only language I hear him speak, broken and bad German), but being as Zai understood what he said, I can only assume it was Spanish.  She translates for me:

“In his culture, people he doesn’t know aren’t invited into his house.”

Excuse me?  If you can imagine that scene from any of a hundred movies, where a guy is about to beat the piss out of someone, only to be held back by a couple of his friends, that was me, though you can replace the friends with the restraint of knowing that that WAS Zai’s brother that insulted me, and that beating her brother to a pulp in her parent’s living room was probably not the best course of action to take.

So, I say to him, as calmly as I could muster, though in retrospect I’m sure that a good amount of my anger shined through, “Well, I happen to know your sister, and your parents, and it is through your OWN doing that you don’t know me.  I have given you every opportunity to be friendly, but you have repeatedly ignored me.  Which, in MY culture, is extremely rude.”

I think it finally got through his thick skull, as he stood silent for several moments in his plastic mask, then moved away from the TV.  So maybe that’ll lead to him changing his ways a little… but then, probably not.

In any case, Happy belated Thanksgiving!  May your family be healthy and your bellies be full.

Zel-kun out.