For the past few weeks Wes, Gina, and I have proposed "Family Time", a night for the three of us to hang out, everyone sleeps at home that night. When I first started spending most of my time at the house, most nights were similar to our current "Family Night", Gina and I have gotten along with each other very well from the start so there was not a lot of "Jessie's coming over = Gina should not be here" happening, also Wes and Gina were not really dating anyone else at the time to cause big discussions about who would be spending time with who. If it was okay for me to sleep over, then sleeping over was what I'd be doing. Wes and Gina eventually started seeing people, people that Wes wanted to stay over (which interestingly enough led to Gina sleeping at my house sometimes) or Gina would want to go to her date's place. This system was relatively uncomplicated and easy to maintain with minimal communication among the three of us.
Somewhere around July there was a Big Bang of sorts! Wes was getting closer to Girlfriend G, who you will now know as Ginny; and Gina was starting to date Boyfriend S, who is Shaun. I suppose the communication became more necessary because I was not dating anyone at the time and wanted to know "who's sleeping in my bed?"
Eventually it got to a point when Gina had not seen Wes and I for a few days and we all realized we missed each other! Imagine, three people who see each other almost every day actually missing each other! I know we are soo weird! It's like we actually like each other or something! It's true, this phenomenon is , to some extent, actually what led Gina to decide she wanted me to move into what I refer to as the Bard's Playhouse, as opposed to my mom's house which is the Globe. One day Gina had to stop at home during her lunch, she was very happy to find me sitting contently (probably with the dog) on the couch with my computer. She liked that moment, that feeling so much she decided to talk to Wes about deciding to "add a wonderful person to an already fabulous household" making their "little suburban house... a little bit bigger." Yes, those are direct quotes from Gina. In fact you can find the exact statement here on Gina's blog The Martinelli Variety Hour- My Big House . Many of our poly friends have really enjoyed that post, in addition to Wes' & Gina's family reading it and have been using it to better understand that we are all really happy together and that no one is being taken advantage of.
So on July 25 Gina and Wes took me to the Pop Shop and we indulged in a ridiculous meal (I got an ice cream soda with sprite, strawberry ice cream, and a forgotten flavor of syrup). As I recall, I had only recently had an anxiety attack brought on by jealousy (a personal problem in very irrational moments) and thought Wes & Gina were giving me a little TLC by treating me to dinner. They admitted their ulterior motives and asked me to move in, a few days later I said "Yes!" And there was much rejoicing! Huzzah! But I was talking about Family Night...
So yes, we all liked having each other around! But with relationships growing we were not seeing each other as often, thus leading to Family Night. On October 3, we had our first family night, we ate steak and watched Muppets Take Manhattan! We all have the entertainment requirements of children, you wish you were so lucky! Family Night part II was October 12, we watched Repo! The Genetic Opera which Wes and Gina had never seen before and they enjoyed it. Friday, October 21 was our third Family Night. We made masks for Halloween while watching Nightmare Before Christmas and The Addams Family, I can't tell you what the masks were for until after Boyfriend Z's (Zac) & Girlfriend A's (Angela) Halloween party because it's a surprise! Being silly natured, I skipped around the house singing "Kidnap the Santy Claws" and copying a lot of lines from the movies every time I got up from the table.
Family time is not about a mandatory night to spend quality time together, Wes and Gina actually have an agreement between them to take each other for granted, what it is about is taking time to appreciate the people we love. We are all really entertained by each other and laugh our asses off when we're together. And we all agree that we are always having a much better time with all three of us present than if one was not in attendance, even on Wes & Gina's honeymoon! I don't have a conventional sense of family, my nuclear family relationships are stressful depending on the relative, but the family in Our Big Playhouse is the family we chose for ourselves. This family likes sitting down for dinner together, watching movies, and making sure none of us sleeps alone, and sometimes we do our own things but Family Night is when we remember that we are three of a kind, birds of a feather, now and (maybe) forever! La la la lalala...
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