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Been a goodly while since I wrote anything in here. Most of this probably comes from the fact that one needs conflict to tell a good story, and I try to make this at least mildly interesting for those who care to read it. And considering that I recently spent a week in Barrow with Juneau-Brian and no conflicting factors other than it being bleeding cold outside, I figure there's only so much "I'm so totally in love!" that people can take. =)
For the record, however, things were...fun. My mother was uber-cool and booked us a hotel room since she didn't want us sleeping on the living room floor. There was a fun adventure with the heat failing on that side of the hotel, but they rebooked us on the other side and it was all good. Most of our time was either spent over at my mother's house cooking or watching movies or whatever, or else in the hotel watching Star Trek reruns and generally enjoying each other's company. (And I'm not going into any more detail than that. ;) In any case, we apparently have my mother's full approval; she really likes Brian and wants us to get married ASAP. I think we're going to wait a year or two, though...
On a slightly more jarring note, however, one of my few female friends has become pregnant. She has a steady job and relatively steady relationship with her boyfriend, so she intends to keep it, and they're planning on getting their own place and whatnot. My feelings on this are mixed. On the one hand, I want to be happy for her; she wants to be a mother (though she hadn't intended on it being this early, she's about my age), and I know that she's loving and responsible and that she'll probably make a good one. Her boyfriend I'm not so sure about, but I don't know him that well, so I can't really say. On the other hand, my feelings about small children (not to mention world overpopulation) are well known, and I guess I just don't understand why she's so willing to tie her life down to such a huge responsibility. (I firmly believe she doesn't know what she's getting into; but then, I also firmly believe that nobody does or else people wouldn't have children.) It's not that I want her to have an abortion or anything; while that's probably what I would do, it's entirely her decision to keep it or not. I guess what it boils down to is...don't you *want* anything more in life than to work and have kids and hope that you make it into that magical place called "retirement"? Don't you want your independence? The freedom to go out and do things without having to worry about the baby?
I think one of the reasons this is bugging me so much is because she's the third person I know at all well who's my age and ended up a parent. And for some reason I just don't understand why. (Well, of course I understand why, but not why they weren't more careful...) Isn't there more to life than popping out kids and working to pay rent? What exactly is it that makes life worth living for you?
I dunno. I have a feeling this is just going to remain one of the mysteries of the universe, so far as I'm concerned. It also bugs me on a slightly lesser scale, because the world is already so freaking overcrowded and it just seems plain irresponsible to be having children. Especially when there are so many young children out there who need good homes...if you like kids, why not do some foster care? Or adopt?
*sigh*
In other news, Thelonius-Brian was supposed to come in today, but the weather has decided to dump a metric assload of snow on us, so the plane didn't make it. Considering that more is forecasted for tomorrow, I'm really not sure if he's going to make it in in time for the start of classes...but then, so it goes. It does worry me somewhat that I haven't heard from him, though - they flew him back to Seattle, according to his mother, and rebooked him for tomorrow, but I don't know exactly when. (The fact that my roommate's been on the phone pretty constantly this evening might have something to do with this...)
The snow is pretty, though, even though it's making driving rather hazardous. I haven't seen this much snow fall at once since was a kid back in Anchorage...
For the record, however, things were...fun. My mother was uber-cool and booked us a hotel room since she didn't want us sleeping on the living room floor. There was a fun adventure with the heat failing on that side of the hotel, but they rebooked us on the other side and it was all good. Most of our time was either spent over at my mother's house cooking or watching movies or whatever, or else in the hotel watching Star Trek reruns and generally enjoying each other's company. (And I'm not going into any more detail than that. ;) In any case, we apparently have my mother's full approval; she really likes Brian and wants us to get married ASAP. I think we're going to wait a year or two, though...
On a slightly more jarring note, however, one of my few female friends has become pregnant. She has a steady job and relatively steady relationship with her boyfriend, so she intends to keep it, and they're planning on getting their own place and whatnot. My feelings on this are mixed. On the one hand, I want to be happy for her; she wants to be a mother (though she hadn't intended on it being this early, she's about my age), and I know that she's loving and responsible and that she'll probably make a good one. Her boyfriend I'm not so sure about, but I don't know him that well, so I can't really say. On the other hand, my feelings about small children (not to mention world overpopulation) are well known, and I guess I just don't understand why she's so willing to tie her life down to such a huge responsibility. (I firmly believe she doesn't know what she's getting into; but then, I also firmly believe that nobody does or else people wouldn't have children.) It's not that I want her to have an abortion or anything; while that's probably what I would do, it's entirely her decision to keep it or not. I guess what it boils down to is...don't you *want* anything more in life than to work and have kids and hope that you make it into that magical place called "retirement"? Don't you want your independence? The freedom to go out and do things without having to worry about the baby?
I think one of the reasons this is bugging me so much is because she's the third person I know at all well who's my age and ended up a parent. And for some reason I just don't understand why. (Well, of course I understand why, but not why they weren't more careful...) Isn't there more to life than popping out kids and working to pay rent? What exactly is it that makes life worth living for you?
I dunno. I have a feeling this is just going to remain one of the mysteries of the universe, so far as I'm concerned. It also bugs me on a slightly lesser scale, because the world is already so freaking overcrowded and it just seems plain irresponsible to be having children. Especially when there are so many young children out there who need good homes...if you like kids, why not do some foster care? Or adopt?
*sigh*
In other news, Thelonius-Brian was supposed to come in today, but the weather has decided to dump a metric assload of snow on us, so the plane didn't make it. Considering that more is forecasted for tomorrow, I'm really not sure if he's going to make it in in time for the start of classes...but then, so it goes. It does worry me somewhat that I haven't heard from him, though - they flew him back to Seattle, according to his mother, and rebooked him for tomorrow, but I don't know exactly when. (The fact that my roommate's been on the phone pretty constantly this evening might have something to do with this...)
The snow is pretty, though, even though it's making driving rather hazardous. I haven't seen this much snow fall at once since was a kid back in Anchorage...
